Module MUSI1301: What is the History of Western Music?

Department: Music

MUSI1301: What is the History of Western Music?

Prerequisites

• A-Level Music or equivalent.

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• This course introduces students to formative practices, discourses, and repertoires of Western music in the period 1700–1850. Through representative case studies, students will gain an understanding of the socio-political, economic, cultural and institutional contexts of music in this period and the possibilities of the cultural history of music, in particular, the mutability of values systems and ideas about music. Consequently, students will learn to be reflexive about scholarship and public discourse in music history, and begin to explore the reasons for the inclusion and exclusion of works and figures in a musical or musicological canon. This will encourage them to be curious about accepted opinions and narratives, and will allow them to expand on and revise their existing views and understanding, embrace diversity and listen to differing viewpoints.
• Students will gain experience in the critical study both of music and of academic writing about music; the course will develop an understanding of conventions of academic writing and those research skills generic to musicological research, in particular, compiling a bibliography, reviewing literature, referencing, summarizing, and synthesizing, and begin working towards developing their own arguments. This will develop their resourcefulness in working independently on their own projects. They will learn what it means to be intellectual rigorous: to evaluate arguments and counter-arguments, through examination of both their evidential and logical basis.

Content

• This module surveys important issues in the cultural history of music in the period c. 1700-1850, organized around core thematic areas.
• Lectures introduce musical discourses, institutions, genres, styles, figures, historical narratives, and historiographical issues, building on independent reading: seminars provide the opportunity to discuss both the music and associated writings critically. Important themes addressed will include discourses of cultural value and inclusion and exclusion; practices of listening to and interpreting music; categories of sacred and secular, public and private contexts; notation and performance practice; print culture and publishing; the music industry and patronage; gender and race.
• Students will be taught skills foundational to the practice of historical musicology, namely critical reading and thinking, bibliography, summarizing, synthesizing, arguing and writing.

Learning Outcomes

• Students will acquire knowledge of mainstream genres, styles, practices, institutions, values and discourses and be aware of key narratives of Western music history in this period.
• Students will acquire knowledge of disciplinary debates in music history.

• Students will learn to engage with historical and musical issues from a variety of intellectual standpoints, including the philosophical, political, cultural and analytical.
• Students will learn how to situate writing about music, musical practices, institutions and style in their historical context, and to understand and critique narratives about the development of Western musical culture across time.
• Students will learn how to approach musical works as a historical source, understanding the relationship between style and genre and conditions of production and consumption.

• Students will develop the ability to identify and conceptualize issues; the ability to situate ideas and practices in their historical context and to engage in critically informed argument.
• Students will develop critical text-reading skills from engagement with primary and secondary literature, learning to evaluate the intellectual rigour of the ideas they encounter, and to produce rigorous work themselves.
• Students will develop writing skills, including summary, synthesis, critique and argument.
• Students will develop their capacity to articulate their ideas and arguments verbally through participation in lectures and seminars: they will learn to listen and respond to different viewpoints, and to collaborate with others.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Lectures introduce students to a broad range of topics and scholarly approaches to the subject matter; these include class discussion of readings to promote the active participation of students and to develop critical reading skills.
• Seminars are based on group discussion of readings and scores. Here the smaller group size ensures the active participation of students and develops further their critical reading skills and analytical approaches to scores. Seminar topics are tightly focussed, modelling for students the kind of depth and detail required in their own work.
• Directed reading of set texts and scores for discussion in lectures and seminars builds their subject knowledge and bibliographic coverage, and develops their critical reading skills and score familiarity.
• Independent study of set texts and scores develops research independence.
• Assessments both test knowledge and require creative and critical modes of engagement, leading students to develop original research questions, and honing their capacity for critique, logical argument and intellectual rigour, and written eloquence.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Formative exercises will embed key competencies and develop students' skills in communicating their ideas in oral and written presentations. Students will prepare short oral presentations on set works and/or relevant historical topics for delivery in seminars; students will submit short formative written exercises, and receive either peer feedback or written feedback.

■ Students who do not attend monitored activities shown under Teaching Methods and Learning Hours, or who fail to complete the summative or formative assessment(s) specified above, may be subject to the Academic Progress procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University.