3-year full-time;4.5 - 6-year part-time
Overview
About the course
This programme is designed for students who wish to focus on the academic study of music, while retaining the freedom to pursue composition, performance, and music technology.
You will gain knowledge of the development of Western music by studying song, contrapuntal forms, sonata form, the symphony, opera, music-theatre, and film music.
This leads to a focussed and in-depth study of the music of the 20th and 21st centuries at Level 3. It introduces important methods of analysis, as well as ideas in aesthetics and the sociology of music.
Students will gain skills in writing about music and are free to take a wide range of practical modules in addition to the compulsory musicology strand.
Practical music-making
Brunel’s College of Business, Arts and Social Sciences and Brunel Arts have a strong tradition of practical music-making and there are a number of ensembles that you can participate in, including Jazzbridge, Brunel Vox, New Noise and Chamber Orchestra. Brunel Arts holds regular lunchtime and evening concerts featuring visiting performers, music students and staff.
Music at Brunel also has a number of artists and ensembles in association: currently these are Apartment House, Piano Circus, and Distractfold Ensemble.
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Aims
The course requires students to explore fundamental questions about the nature, structure and meaning of music by analysing and critiquing musical texts, and by considering their social, cultural and political contexts. Developing skills of writing about music is a central aim of the course.
