Music - 2012 entry

Course content

Why we ask you to study notation and harmony

One of the possible endpoints of the single honours music course is that students could go on to teach music in secondary school, and it’s essential that music students have a solid grounding in theory. For some applicants, theory will have been covered only through the insistence of the ABRSM that Grade 5 theory is passed before progressing to Grade 6 on an instrument or voice. Some students will be relatively new to harmony and notation, some familiar with them, while a rock guitarist’s experience of theory is different from that of a classical singer. Our experience is that everyone benefits from a review of these basic concepts, and this is what the Notation and Harmony module sets out to provide.

Composition at Oxford Brookes

Composition is at the heart of musical study – the creation of new sound-worlds, the combination of conventional and experimental sound sources, the expansion of timbral possibilities, and the search for new forms. Composition at Oxford Brookes provides students with a chance to experiment, to explore sound-making and to re-examine the experience of the listener.

Key to the composition teaching at Oxford Brookes is a desire to equip composers with the conceptual and technical tools to take an active role in the pluralistic compositional world of the 21st century. Students will be urged to question the role of the composer – why do we need them and what is their function in contemporary musical culture? Throughout the course, composers at Oxford Brookes will be able to take advantage of a range of opportunities for performance by professional ensembles.

Recently composers have had the opportunity to write for vocal ensemble The Sixteen, toy piano virtuoso Isabel Ettanauer, OKEANOS – an ensemble that mix traditional Japanese and Western classical instrumentation – and amplified ensemble. There is a committed and active community of composers at Brookes including undergraduates, students on the MA in Composition and Sonic Art, PhD students, and staff, alongside the Sonic Art Research Unit, who recently collaborated with harpsichordist Jane Chapman.

Songwriting (which you can take as an Independent Study module) offers individual songwriters in bands, or singer-songwriters, the opportunity to develop a portfolio of new songs with guidance from a tutor. In addition, students study a particular songwriter of their choice or a theme in songwriting, while attempting in one song to imitate that repertory. Past studies have included Oasis, Elliott Smith, Syd Barrett, Aimee Mann, Seth Lakeman, and confessional female songs. Finally, the songwriter aims to get the songs heard through performances, and web and radio exposure.

Musicology at Oxford Brookes

Musicology is the part of the study of music that tends to culminate in forms of written work about music, rather than its invention or performance. This is often the formal essay but includes many other forms of writing: concert reviews, summaries of arguments in books and articles, spoken presentations, the large-scale dissertation. It is in the area of musicology that students experience two of the biggest leaps from their previous studies to what is offered at Oxford Brookes.

The first arises from students being in control of the resources rather than, as at school, the conduit for material passed on by the teacher - at university you are responsible for gathering material and have to ‘stand by’ your final presentation, in which every word counts. This means in turn that you are responsible to the history of a subject area, and so the skills of supporting your argument by reference are important, and developed during the first year.

The second leap is in the content and the way it is approached. In a parody version, musicology is the dull regurgitation of facts about famous composers. However, musicology was always a far broader area, incorporating topics such as the production of editions for performance, questions of performance practice, the relationship of music to areas such as theatre and literature, the study of the music of other cultures, and the establishment of useful procedures in musical analysis. Debates in ‘new’ or ‘critical’ musicology in the last 20 years or so have expanded the range further to incorporate questions about social issues such as race, gender and education, and to include popular and world music, as well as music on film.

Department

School of Arts

Course length

Full-time: 3 years
Part-time: 5 - 8 years

Teaching location

Headington Campus, Headington Hill

Start date

September 2012

UCAS code

W300 BA/MD

This course can be combined with one of the following subjects:

Computer Science
GW4H Mod/MSSD

Drama
WW43 Mod/MSDW

Education Studies
XW33 Mod/MSWD

English
QW3H Mod/MSEA

English Language and Communication
QW93 Mod/MSLD

Film Studies
PW33 Mod/MSFM

Fine Art
W1W3 Mod/MSFX

French Studies
RW13 Mod/MSFC

History
VW13 Mod/MSHI

History of Art
VW33 Mod/MSHA

Japanese Studies
TW2H Mod/MSJB

Mathematics
GW13 Mod/MSMA

Philosophy
VW53 Mod/MSPQ

Psychology
CW83 Mod/MSPS

Publishing Media
PW4H Mod/MSPJ

Languages: Spanish (minor)
W3R4 Mod/MSSX

Questions about fees?
Contact Student Finance on:
+44 (0)1865 483088
finance-fees@brookes.ac.uk

Funding and scholarships

For general sources of financial support, see:

• funding for students from the UK and EU
• funding for students from outside the EU

Typical offers

A-level: BCC or equivalent

Advanced Diploma: grade B, including A-level Music at grade C

A-levels should include grade C in Music.

Other typical offers:

• BC at A-level (including grade C in Music) and CC at AS-level
• Grade C at 12-unit vocational A-level plus grade C in Music A-level
• Applicants with HND in Music Technology or Music Production may be considered for Year 2 entry in the single honours course. Consideration will be given to the modules taken at HND level and their relevance to the programme.
• For combined honours, normally the offer will lie between the offers quoted for each subject.

Why Oxford is a great place to study Music

As a student in Oxford you'll be at the heart of the UK's most successful economic region and in a centre for leading industries which will provide you with a host of work placement and other learning opportunities.

Oxford has a dynamic music scene with music from across the spectrum and is more notably home to historic concert venues, the Sheldonian Theatre and the Holywell Music Room (England's first concert hall). Brookes Music students have the opportunity to hone their performance skills in a wide range of venues in Oxford, from new music in the O2 Academy to chamber music in the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building.

One of the world's great academic cities, Oxford is a key centre of debate, with conferences, seminars and forums taking place across education, science, the arts and many other subjects. It is a vibrant city with plenty of attractions for its large student population, from theatres and cinemas to museums, art galleries and music venues. A bustling and stunning cosmopolitan city, Oxford has excellent shopping, restaurants, cafes, pubs and clubs.

Situated in the heart of rural England and home to around 150,000 people, Oxford offers students a clean and safe environment less than an hour from London and international airports.

Career prospects

A music degree develops general skills appropriate for careers where a lively, questioning and organised mind is required. Our graduates have taken up positions in many different professions including teaching (primary or secondary), the civil service, business, arts administration, the record industry and the media.

Our Professional Practice module (offered in Year 3 of the course) enables students to consider their learning on the degree course in relation to that considerable section of the world of work which has, broadly speaking, and in a phrase often used by music graduates in the past, ‘something to do with music’. Whereas in 1980 the phrase ‘the music profession’ might still have implied a narrow range of work, especially related to performance, the age of the global, service-led economy means there is a greater range of diverse possibilities, and the module aims to encompass the potential of that range, in relation to each individual student’s needs.

At the module’s instigation, and building on past practice, the module works with four broad divisions of work-related activity: professional development or further study at postgraduate level (in musicology, composition or performance), concert and artist management, education and therapy, and aspects of the music or recording industry.