This course offers an introduction to musicology, the systematic study of music. This is undertaken through the detailed study of European concert music of the period 1890-1940, and through engagement with the challenges offered by Ethnomusicology, the ethnographically informed study of Music. It aims to develop students’ critical thinking in areas of historiography, musical meaning, and aesthetics.

It applies students developing skills in Musicianship, particularly those of analysis and aural perception, and introduces further methodologies employed in upper level courses in Music. It develops student knowledge of exemplary works of Western classical music and jazz, and how to critically discuss such music within the disciplinary conventions of musicology.

The course will develop the skills involved in scholarly enquiry in Music, and the capacity for analytical and critical thinking and for creative problem solving, both in general and in a manner specific to the discipline.