Music second year modules

Module details

For those students taking 80 credits of Music:

  • Critical Musicology 
  • Analysis of Music

Two modules from the list of optional modules (for module descriptions see second and final year optional modules page).

For those students taking 60 credits of Music (This is the only option available for BA Maths and Music students):

One module from:

  • Critical Musicology
  • Analysis of Music

Two modules from the list of optional modules (for module descriptions see second and final year optional modules page).

For those students taking 40 credits of Music:

One module from: 

  • Critical Musicology
  • Analysis of Music

One module from the list of optional modules (for module descriptions see second and final year optional modules page).

Compulsory modules

Please note that students who take 80 credits in Music in the second year will take both compulsory modules in addition to two optional modules.

Analysis of Music

This module introduces basic analytical concepts and skills for the understanding of Western art music from the Renaissance to the twenty-first century. Topics may include mode, word-painting, fugue, the schemata of the galant style, syntax in the Classical style, sonata form, Romantic harmony and tonality, the Romantic fragment, Wagner’s form and harmony, pitch-class collections and sets, twelve-note technique, and harmony and form in popular music.

Critical Musicology

This module introduces basic critical methodologies, concepts and vocabularies employed in current academic work in the fields of historical musicology and ethnomusicology. Students concurrently develop effective research and writing skills applicable to their future careers as musicians and scholars.