Module MUSI2791: Music and Place

Department: Music

MUSI2791: Music and Place

Prerequisites

• None

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• To encourage students to think critically – as well as generously – about the idea of place in relation to music: How does our sense of place shape the way we engage with music, and vice versa? Does music help us understand place? How do we – or perhaps, can we – define a place through listening and/or music-making?
• To provide students with opportunities to develop media skills beyond the written formats
• To give students opportunities to collaborate with their peers outside of the music performance settings

Content

• Students will be introduced to philosophies of place in order to explore questions of sense making and place making through music.
• Lectures will be structured thematically to allow a wide range of case studies (subject to staff expertise and availability). Topics may include: place and displacement, trans-/regionalism, urbanity vs rurality, and physicality and virtuality.
• Training on storytelling and making a podcast will be embedded within the module to prepare students for the summative assignment of an audio essay.

Learning Outcomes

• To explore current research on ideas of place in music studies
• To consider possibilities of combining historical (e.g. archival, historiographical, bibliographical) and ethnographical (e.g. documentary, participant-based, ethnographical) methods
• Through the summative audio essay, to engage with music and sounds critically and analytically but without necessarily needing to employ traditional written notations

• To further develop the writing and/or audio ethnographical skills acquired in other/complementary modules of their degree programme(s)
• To connect critical and thematic concepts explored in the module with their own listening and/or music-making practices elsewhere

• The ability to listen to and think critically about music and music’s place in the world
• The ability to construct a cohesive narrative and/or argument informed by an engagement with music
• The ability to collaborate with their peers

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

• Weekly lectures introduce students to philosophies of place and thematic case studies, while seminars provide a collaborative space to test and refine analytical thinking in dialogue with peers.
• Assessment: The summative audio essay, completed either individually (script of 2,000 words) or in pairs (script of 3,000 words), comprises a written accompaniment (Assignment) and a recorded audio component (Digital Output) which enables students to demonstrate academic argumentation alongside the storytelling and critical listening skills cultivated throughout the module.
• A short statement of division of work is required for co-produced submissions.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

1 x audio essay proposal (500 words)

■ 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.