Creative Music Technology BMus (Hons) - 2024/5

Other information

The Creative Music Technology BMus programme, as indicated by its name, centres around a hands-on creative approach to studying the intersection between music and technology within an academic context. Our students are given the opportunity to study multiple genres of music through the modes of both composition and performance. Students develop analytical and aural skills in the context of studying both traditional music and that involving technological approaches. Technical and theoretical knowledge and skills are developed both using computer software and other specialist music technology audio hardware and instruments. Teaching is research-led by staff members and guest practitioners from industry are included in selected modules to offer different perspectives on the subject and to demonstrate the pathway of students¿ learning to contexts outside of the university.

Music and Media proactively nurtures the relationship between the Creative Music Technology degree and its sibling programmes (particularly the Music and Tonmeister programmes), such that students share some modules and have the opportunity to collaboratively work together. We do not regard the endpoint of the first degree as the endpoint of study necessarily, since many students progress to further study thereafter (e.g., teacher training, postgraduate degrees, specialised training). This enables the Creative Music Technology programme to appeal to the diverse interests of its students, accommodating heterogenous cohorts with varied educational backgrounds.

Music and Media is committed to developing graduates with attributes encompassing employability, digital skills, global and culture awareness, sustainability as it relates to music and the wider arts and, finally, resourcefulness and resilience.

Digital capabilities are systematically developed throughout the Creative Music Technology programme, especially by virtue of its emphasis on music as mediated through technology. These capabilities arise through the use of digital software and hardware in relation to the research, production, recording, performance and analysis of especially electronic music in throughout the programme. Digital capabilities are embedded in a wide range of different ways and may be clearly evidenced the majority of compulsory modules, including the Composing Electronic Music, Recording and Production and Creative Music Technology Practice series of modules, amongst others. The majority of these require facility in specialist music software and equipment and involve outputs such as digitally produced audio recordings and in some cases computer-produced musical scores.

Cultural and global capabilities are embedded throughout the programme, which addresses the cultural phenomenon of music ¿ in its many manifestations ¿ internationally in many countries across the world. Students develop an appreciation of different artistic cultures and traditions internationally, encompassing a range of practices as performer, creator, consumer and/or researcher of music as a cultural and global phenomenon. This approach applies to such modules as the Composing Electronic Music and Creative Music Technology Practice modules, as well as optional modules including amongst others, Immersive Sound Practices and the Topic Study and Music Project modules. In their final year, students develop and research an in-depth investigation of an area of music technology of their own choice in the Creative Music Technology Research Project module, producing original creative work which typically demonstrates varied cultural and global capabilities.

Resourcefulness and resilience are developed throughout the programme in students who undertake a wide range of pursuits and different assessment types, cultivating independence of practice, skills and work for assessment, maximising available resources, managing multiple deadlines and competing activities, finding creative ways to address assessments and exercising resilience in doing so. Students gain experience in overcoming difficulties and other challenges. These attributes are fostered in all modules, many of which offer a range of different assessment possibilities, for example composition, varieties of written work, performance, oral presentation and so on. Group work is an important aspect of a number of modules, including Digital Improvisation, Immersive Sound Practices and the Music Project modules, the latter of which culminate in a student-led event or series of events (e.g., concert, conference etc.).

Employability is embedded in many modules, developing a general awareness of music, culture and society that prepares students for many careers in the diverse cultural industries, as well as transferrable skills appropriate to all graduate destinations. In-depth knowledge and experience with working with music production and digital audio tools across many of the programme¿s modules equip students with key skills required in a wide variety of employment contexts in the cultural industries, for example the Recording and Production modules, amongst others. In addition, core knowledge and understanding of music history and theory is delivered in the Harmony series of modules, and in the module Encountering Music History. Guest practitioners from industry (e.g., performers, composers, teachers, practitioners in specialist professions) are included in the teaching of many modules to offer perspectives on different aspects of the cultural industries.

Sustainability is addressed via a relevant themes introduced in modules such as the Creative Music Technology Practice series, as well as in Immersive Sound Practices, in which, for example, students are introduced to acoustic ecological case studies. Sustainability may also be addressed in other contexts, depending on the precise nature of the topics studied and the students¿ pursuit of independent study for assessment. This may be particularly true for modules that consider aspects of contemporary and popular culture, such as many of the Topic Study modules; those that consider the contemporary creative and cultural industries, such as Arts Policy and Practice and the Music Project modules.

These values are embedded within the programme's learning outcomes and educational aims, and throughout its constituent modules.