Accessibility statement

Listen to This! - MUS00125C

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  • Department: Music
  • Module co-ordinator: Dr. Mark Hutchinson
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: C
  • Academic year of delivery: 2024-25

Module summary

This module considers a range of music from the multiplicity available to us today and introduces its histories, contexts and meanings. By placing the music within that framework, and considering the role of social context in canon formation, you will be empowered to engage critically with a wider range of music in your own listening and study.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Semester 1 2024-25

Module aims

Listening to and engaging with music is central to its study. This process of listening can take many forms; in this module we will use the University Concert Series (YorkConcerts) as the starting point for a wider appreciation of that process. Over the semester, you will be exposed to a wide variety of live music, across musical genres and from different historical periods, and will develop critical listening skills that move from the ‘enjoyment’ factor to an evaluation of that process and the historical factors that inform it. Alongside that experience, there will be weekly lectures given by a wide range of academic staff. These will present a number of works which individual staff consider central to their understanding of music and their own academic practice – these will range across musical history and genres and also serve as introduction to different musicological approaches. In each case the work will be placed into its historical and cultural context, and a range of relevant musicological issues will also be introduced; these examples will also serve to inform the listening ‘live’ that takes place within the concert hall. Lectures will incorporate blocks of interactive discussion supported by the tutor and GTAs; the final assessment will explore the concepts of the module in relation to freely selected repertoire from the concert series.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module you will have:

  • widened your knowledge of music through history across a wide range of styles and approaches;

  • learned about performing issues by listening to and watching experienced performers;

  • engaged critically with a number of fundamental issues in musical studies;

  • become aware of the many different ways in which music can be studied;

  • developed your written responses to a variety of musical experience.

Assessment

Task Length % of module mark
Oral presentation/seminar/exam
Recorded presentation		 N/A 100

Special assessment rules

None

Additional assessment information

Recorded Presentation (100%)

A 15-minute video or audio presentation which takes your choice of repertoire from the YorkConcerts series and sets it in the context of the issues and approaches considered in this module.

Further details and advice on approaches to this task can be found in the module VLE site.

Reassessment

Task Length % of module mark
Oral presentation/seminar/exam
Recorded presentation		 N/A 100

Module feedback

You will receive written feedback in line with standard University turnaround times.

Indicative reading

Relevant reading for each topic will be indicated via the VLE.

A useful background starting polemic could be:

Ward, Joanna. ‘Decentring and dismantling: a critical and radical approach to diversity in tertiary music education’. Tempo 74, no. 294 (October 2020): 65–76. https://doi.org/10.1017/S004029822000039X.


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University is constantly exploring ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary by the University. Where appropriate, the University will notify and consult with affected students in advance about any changes that are required in line with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.