Stream

Music Studies - MUSCA13437

Stream Summary

Faculty: ARTSC - Faculty of Arts&Social Science

School: School of the Arts and Media

Contact: sam@unsw.edu.au

Program: 3437 - Arts and Business

Award(s):

Bachelor of Arts and Business (Major)

View stream information for previous years

Stream Outline

This stream structure is for students commencing prior to 2016.

Students commencing from 2016 should refer to the relevant stream version for their program. Please click here for a complete list of programs in which Music can be studied.


The major stream in Music Studies examines music not only as a human intellectual product, but also as a specific reflection of experience, manifestation of culture and product of society. The disciplinary study of music has as a core the methodologies of Musicology. The major stream in Music Studies enables students to develop their musicianship, musical skills and contextual understanding of music in preparation for professional work in music areas as diverse as broadcasting, recording, arts administration and advocacy, concert planning, and music and general arts journalism.


The specific aims of the major stream in Music Studies are:
  • To develop in the student an awareness of the influence of music in the social, cultural, and political domains of human activity.
  • To nurture in the student an appreciation of the role of music, and its relationship to other disciplines in the Liberal Arts.
  • To establish a solid grounding in the key concepts and skills that form the basis of musical study and practice.
  • To recognise the role of historical, cultural, social and political contexts as fundamental to the study of music practice and criticism.
  • To understand and appreciate a diversity of music forms, values and practices in addition to the Western tradition.
  • To develop a deep awareness of the ethical dimensions of diverse musical practices.
  • To develop research skills and methodologies in documenting, analyzing, synthesizing and communicating information about musical practices and musical contexts.
  • To develop writing and critical skills necessary for the advocacy of music making and music literacy.

Stream Structure

The major stream in Music Studies is for students with less formal training in music and who wish to gain a general degree in music, one that explores music as part of the Liberal Arts.

Students intending to complete the major stream in Music Studies must complete 54 units of credit. At level 1 students must complete 12 UOC consisting of the core courses, Materials & Structures of Music 1 and Western Music: a Panorama. At Level 2 students must complete at least 18 UOC including the core course, Sound, Society and Self in World Music, and 12 UOC of prescribed music electives. At level 3 students complete 24 UOC including the music capstone course and any combination from the Performance Laboratory courses 1 & 2 and/or prescribed music electives.

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3
One of the following capstone courses:
And any combination of 18 UOC from the following:

Prescribed Music Electives

Studying Music at UNSW

Study Levels

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