TOPIC STUDY 3B - 2023/4

Module Overview

The purpose of this module is to critically engage with and employ your knowledge of research, discussion, and writing about music of the Western classical tradition or popular repertoires at HE level. This is pursued through the study of a single work or a small group of works a single album or group of tracks and its/their various contexts. The module provides further foundation for historically based study at FHEQ 5 and 6.

This topic will change throughout the course of the degree and topics may include Popular Music and New Media, Popular Music and Culture, Musical Theatre, Jazz Studies, Opera Studies, Historical Performance Practice, Studying Music as Performance, and English Music from Elgar to Britten (this is not an exhaustive list). The module title identifies the topic in any given year.

Module provider

Music & Media

Module Leader

MCGRATH John (Music & Med)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 6

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 2

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

n/a

Module content

Indicative content includes:

• What it might mean to understand music.


• The roles and limits of contextual enquiry and close reading.


• Recipricol relationships between contextual enquiry and close reading.


• Ways in which understanding popular music might be different from understanding music from the Western Classical tradition.


• The relationship between lyrics and music in popular genres.


• Selection of appropriate approaches for the study of particular works or popular music tracks.


• Examination of a selected work or small group of works using a variety of approaches.

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

N/A

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide you with the opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the issues surrounding academic study of music through engagement with selected work(s) and their contexts.

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

• A coursework essay with a maximum length of 3000 words (100%), to be submitted by the Monday of week 12. (Addresses learning outcomes 1–6.)

Formative assessment

An essay plan and bibliography, to be submitted by the Monday of week 7.

Feedback

Detailed written feedback will be provided within three weeks of both the submission of the formative and summative assessment.

Verbal feedback will be given to contributions during class discussions as well as individual tutorials on coursework essay plans.

Module aims

• To critically engage with and employ approaches to the historical and technical understanding of music from the Western classical tradition or popular repertoires.
• To critically engage with and employ skills and confidence in discussing Western classical music in oral and written form to a level suitable for further study at HE level.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:

Develop awareness of some of the intellectual means by which understanding of music is sought and achieved, and to develop the ability to employ some of these means to inform discussion of the selected work(s). This will involve directed reading and listening, class discussion, and the formation of critical responses to secondary literature in the coursework essay. The strategy will also reinforce techniques and styles of academic writing and analysis introduced in the FHEQ 4 modules Encountering Music History, Music Project 1A, and Topic Studies 1A and B that are critical to success in FHEQ levels 5 and 6.

The learning and teaching methods include:

• Lectures, incorporating class discussions as appropriate (2 hours per week x 11 weeks)

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: MUS3082

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2023/4 academic year.