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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2018/2019

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : Edinburgh College of Art : Music

Undergraduate Course: Thinking about Music (MUSI08075)

Course Outline
SchoolEdinburgh College of Art CollegeCollege of Humanities and Social Science
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 8 (Year 1 Undergraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThis course introduces students to critical and scholarly thinking on music, broadly defined, and equips them with the basic scholastic skills needed for subsequent elements of the curriculum. A key component of the course is challenging the idea that there is any one way to think about or "do" music, by introducing students to a broad spectrum of musical practices and repertoires, and by teaching them to recognise the presence and impact of various value systems in musical discourse. The course also introduces students to a range of music research topics, approaches and debates, and in this way underlines what is specific about the academic study of music. Key issues in contemporary and historical thought on music will be covered, including historiography, gender and sexuality, race and post-colonialism, migration and mobility. The course provides a critical grounding for BMus students upon which second year history and analysis courses build, as well as functioning as a stand-alone elective that will encourage and support cross-disciplinary thinking and exchange with students from other subject areas.
Course description The course will be taught by twice-weekly lectures and supported by weekly tutorials. During lectures students will be exposed to various ways of thinking about and evaluating music, both within and outwith musicology. Issues raised will include the following:

- Why is the academic study of music so important? What can it achieve?
- What ideas, concepts and prejudices influence the way we think about music in modern western societies, and where did they come from?
- What other ways of thinking about music exist?
- Is music only about sound, and listening?
- How can understanding the music that was created, used and enjoyed in a particular culture at a particular time help us understand other aspects of that culture?
- What different tools and methods can we use to find out things about particular musical cultures?
- What are the minimum standards that any academic study of music has to uphold?

In the first part of the course, a major concern will be recognising the value systems that drive musical cultures and responses to those cultures (e.g. the formation of the western canon; different approaches to the evaluation of musical performance.) In this way, students will learn to interrogate the place of music in history, society and culture. The lecture element of the course will also introduce students to a wide range of approaches to and topics in music research. In particular, a series of tandem conversations between members of academic staff on their own current research will showcase the diversity and vitality of current music research, and demonstrate the importance of dialogue and debate within it. Tutorials will offer students opportunities to discuss and debate issues sensitively; involve student-led presentations relating to essay topics which will receive formative feedback; place emphasis on supporting students in developing research and referencing skills; and involve the exploration of a variety of local sources and materials, which may include field trips to university libraries, museums/collections and laboratories.

The course will be assessed by a combination of examination and coursework, with opportunities for formative feedback during the course.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesNone
High Demand Course? Yes
Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Understand what distinguishes the academic study of music from non-academic modes of thinking about and explaining music.
  2. Demonstrate knowledge of the range of different approaches to music research, and debates surrounding these.
  3. Demonstrate the ability to analyse and interpret a range of different source types for musicological research
  4. Recognise and critically interrogate value systems that operate in relation to music
  5. Communicate ideas clearly and in standard academic written and oral formats.
Reading List
David Beard and Ken Gloag *Musicology: The Key Concepts*. London: Routledge, 2016 (2nd edition).
Michael Clayton, Trevor Herbert, and Richard Middleton (eds). *The cultural study of music: a critical introduction*. London: Routledge, 2012.
Mathew Gelbart *The invention of art music and folk music: Emerging categories from Ossian to Wagner*. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2007.
J. P. Harper-Scott and Jim Samson (eds) *An Introduction to Music Studies*. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2009.
Ellen Koskoff *A feminist ethomusicology: writings on music and gender*. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2014
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Generic cognitive skills (e.g. evaluation, critical analysis);
Communication, numeracy and IT skills; and
Autonomy, accountability and working with others.
SCQF attributes 3, 4 and 5
Keywordscritical,music,listening,value,historiography,gender,race,migration,mobility
Contacts
Course organiserDr Annette Davison
Tel: (0131 6)50 2426
Email: A.C.Davison@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Rhona MacMichael
Tel: (0131 6)50 2422
Email: rhona.macmichael@ed.ac.uk
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