Undergraduate Music 2026-2027

 In this course, basic concepts of Western tonal music such as primary triads, cadences, idiomatic chord progressions, and voice leading are taught using exercises in harmonic analysis, figured bass, and part writing. More advanced concepts such as secondary dominants and chromatically-altered chords are also introduced. In parallel to lectures and seminars, students will work with software designed to reinforce key concepts such as clefs, intervals, key signatures, and scale structures.

This course provides aspiring Music Educators an introduction to theoretical understandings and practical applications of models of reflective practice.

The course provides aspiring Music Educators the opportunity to explore a broad range of historical and contemporary educational theories. The course will also examine the applications of these theories in the modern classroom setting through placement experience.

This course focusses on solo performance alongside the development of core classroom performance skills. Students will receive 5 hours of tuition with a specialist instrumental / vocal tutor, as well as 10hrs of group tuition in Keyboard Skills, and 10hrs of group tuition in Vocal Skills.

Students will also have the opportunity to attend lectures on performance practice, interpretation, style & genre, practice regimes, managing performance anxiety, presentation and stagecraft. Students will be given opportunities to perform during performance lectures, receiving feedback from their peers and teaching staff, and honing their abilities to critique and evaluate performances.

This course focusses on solo performance. Students will receive 10 hours of tuition with a specialist instrumental / vocal tutor, and attend lectures on performance practice, interpretation, style & genre, practice regimes, managing performance anxiety, presentation and stagecraft. Students will be given opportunities to perform during performance lectures, receiving feedback from their peers and teaching staff, and honing their abilities to critique and evaluate performances. Students will work towards a 15 minute recital in May.

This course examines the structure and function of the global music industries within the context of the creative and cultural sectors within with they operate. Primarily focused on contemporary music activity, this course examines music as a labour practice and its associated labour markets. Within this framework, it explores a range of topics such as: live music performance and associated formats, the ongoing role of record labels and the changing nature of recording contracts, music copyright, traditional and non-traditional music studios spaces and associated technologies, music distribution models and formats, the impact (and response to) the digital revolution, and the impact (and response to) the climate crisis.

There was an abundance of song in nineteenth-century Britain. On the street and in the home, on the stage and in the classroom, singing was by turns ordinary and astounding – a feature of everyday life and a wonder to behold. This course introduces students to some of the best-known songs and singers of the era while providing them with the tools to explore many more pieces and performers off the beaten track. No detailed prior knowledge of nineteenth-century song is required. 

This course develops individual instrumental/vocal  skills.  Students work on one-to-one basis (20 x 1 hour lessons) with a specialist instrumental / vocal tutor on their principal study. Alongside instrumental and vocal lessons students are  encouraged to join one of the department's many ensembles working in weekly rehearsals towards high quality public performances. The course is assessed by a 20 minute recital, a tutor report and a performance essay.

Students must have achieved a CGS award of B3 or higher in year 2 in order to be able to progress to this course in year 3.

This course focusses on solo performance alongside the development of core classroom performance skills. Students will receive 10 hours of tuition with a specialist instrumental / vocal tutor, as well as 20hrs of group tuition in Keyboard Skills, and 20hrs of group tuition in Classroom Instruments and Vocal Skills.

Students will have the opportunity to attend lectures on performance practice & interpretation, style & genre, practice regimes, managing performance anxiety, presentation and stagecraft. Students will be given opportunities to perform during performance lectures, receiving feedback from their peers and teaching staff, and honing their abilities to critique and evaluate performances.

‘Every Community Musician believes they invented Community Music’ (Imry 2013, cited in Camlin 2015)

The first part of the course course is designed to explore and challenge what community music is and can be, and what it means to each of us in our individual contexts. Using the above as a provocation as well as Kushner Walker and Tarr’s 2001 Publication Case Studies and Issues in Community Music the course will explore the practice of Community Music through academic and participatory lenses.

‘Good intentions are not enough to avoid bad results when you make art with people‘ (Matarasso 2019) 

The second part of this course is designed to situate Community Music within the broader Community Arts field exploring the role of artists in the creation of social, political and economic change.

There was an abundance of song in nineteenth-century Britain. On the street and in the home, on the stage and in the classroom, singing was by turns ordinary and astounding – a feature of everyday life and a wonder to behold. This course introduces students to some of the best-known songs and singers of the era while providing them with the tools to explore many more pieces and performers off the beaten track. No detailed prior knowledge of nineteenth-century song is required.

As different cultures and nations have come into contact through European colonialism and globalisation, so too have their musics. In this course, we will approach the issue of cultural encounter through the prism of music, and music’s ability to represent and to bring into dialogue different cultural identities. ‘Music, Representation and Cultural Encounters’ will adopt a cross-disciplinary approach examining current scholarship in musicology, ethnomusicology and popular music studies. In the course, we will encounter a number of familiar (and not so familiar) repertoires and genres, including opera/western art music, jazz, popular music, Mediterranean and North African genres.