Music BMus (Hons) - 2024/5

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The Department of 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.

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. Examples include the Topic Study and Music Project modules, which typically rotate each year so as to ensure wide international coverage of musical cultures; as well as compulsory modules such as Encountering Music History, Nineteenth-Century Music and Modernism and Postmodernism, and the Performance modules. Students conduct an in-depth investigation of an area of music of their own choice in the final-year Individual Project module, producing original research which may be dissertation-, performance- or composition-based.

Digital capabilities are developed throughout the programme including the use of digital resources (text, score-based and audio) to conduct research, the preparation of digital documents (e.g. word processing, spreadsheets, images and charts), and the use specialist music software (e.g. notation software; applications used in the creation of music) to create digital artefacts. These are embedded in a wide range of different ways, not least through the institutional virtual learning environment which is used in all modules, but may be clearly evidenced by the Composition modules and Fundamentals of Music Technology and Production, which require facility in specialist music software and equipment, and involve outputs such as digital recordings and computer-produced notated scores.

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, overcoming difficulties and other challenges. While these attributes are fostered in all modules, many of which for instance offer a range of different assessment possibilities (e.g. essay, performance, composition, oral presentation, concert management etc.), they are particularly evident in the Music Project modules, the culminating point of which is 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 arts industries, as well as transferrable skills appropriate to all graduate destinations. An optional Professional Training placement in the four-year pathway of this programme gives students the opportunity to undertake an in-depth placement in the cultural industries, for which they are prepared by the Arts Policy and Practice module, and on which they reflect in the Professional Investigation module, producing a sustained written report researched across the entirety of their final year. Core knowledge and understanding of music history and theory is delivered in the Harmony modules, and in 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 arts professions.

Sustainability may also be addressed in various modules 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 Professional Investigation; and the Music Project modules. These values are embedded within the programme's learning outcomes and educational aims, and throughout its constituent modules.