Music

This course offers an overview of the history of western classical music from the Middle Ages to Viennese Classicism. The course is organized as a series of fortnightly blocks. During the first week of each block, students are introduced to the music history of a period and to its wider cultural and philosophical contexts. The lectures and tutorials explore major theoretical and aesthetic systems, and issues of transmission, representation, cultural norms, and performance practice. The second week of each block focuses on a representative set work from the period. Students are introduced to analytical methods and develop an awareness of the ways music reflects the time period in which it is created.

Through a focus on music and migration, this course addresses two fundamental questions in historical musicology and ethnomusicology: what is our relationship with the past? and what is our relationship with the Other? Charting the movement of people around the globe from the 16th century onwards provides students with historical depth to examine contemporary issues related to migration. Students utilize various methodological apparatus and approaches, from psychoanalysis and historiography to urban ethnography. Students explore wide-ranging musics from across the globe, and consider their relevance to theories of globalization, cosmopolitanism, and diaspora. This comparative focus encourages students to think beyond national and cultural boundaries, and make connections across different historical periods.

This course provides a platform to understand traditional music repertoire and practice more fully, and to contextualize traditional music through listening and/or playing, analysis, critical evaluation of leading scholarship, and discussion. The discipline of ethnomusicology, which seeks to understand music in its social and cultural contexts and from the perspectives of those who make it, is emphasized throughout the course. This is supported by the introduction and development of key skills of fieldwork and descriptive analysis. In this course, traditional music is viewed through a Scottish lens and international examples and connections feature throughout. Seminar topics, themes and case studies respond to the interests of course participants and can include: Scotland's "national" instruments, "broken" tradition: Scottish harp, Niel Gow and 18th century dance music, composers and collections, 20th century revival: search for authenticity, tradition and community, electronic tradition, advances in harmony, and contemporary practice: seeking genre parity. In addition to essay and presentation, class tasks provide the opportunity to engage with archive materials, historically-informed performance, creative/contemporary performance, and a range of traditional music notation.

The course examines stylistic characteristics of music in major geo-cultural regions of the world, illustrated through selected recordings, performance organization, musical instruments, concepts of aesthetics, artistic, and philosophical values. The course surveys various musical cultures including Africa, Native America, Black America, Caribbean, South America, Eastern Europe, South India, Indonesia, China, and Japan.

This course examines the techniques used in the production and performance of electronic music, including synthesis, and the use of relevant software and analogue and digital hardware. Students are supported in the development of commercial and experimental outcomes via practical, creative, and technical approaches.

This course provides thirty-minute voice lessons where students each choose a song they wish to improve. Each student in the group gets a few minutes to work on their song with the professor.