Popular Music BA (Hons)

This module provides an overview of key developments in Anglo-American popular music particularly during the latter part of the twentieth century and the early twenty-first century.  Students are introduced to the musical characteristics of key styles and genres, as well as significant social/cultural movements and critical issues that are relevant to an understanding of the music in question. The module also provides an introduction to key perspectives and issues in popular music studies.

This module will introduce students to the structure, history and contemporary challenges of the music industries, as well as potential careers available in this sector. Students will be introduced to key debates around the commodification of music, and the influence of technology, managers, artists and market forces on the development of the music industries. Topics covered within the module will typically include: the roles and functions of record labels, the digital watershed, the relationship between live and recorded music industries, as well as exploring how professional music workers have forged careers in the sector today.

Music is ubiquitous, yet its function and meaning can be specific to the context in which it is situated. Similarly studying music, in the 21st century context for example, is both complex and specific in equal measure. This module will examine how and why music matters as a cultural expression, intimately linked to the contexts of its production, dissemination, and reception. The scope and breadth of the study of music will be introduced, along with key terms and concepts used in the study of music in relation to culture. The module will provide students with a foundation for the further study of music and culture at levels two and three, and helps students to understand interdisciplinary approaches to the study of music.​

This module provides students with a structured framework to enhance practical performance skills. Students work with the module leader and an assigned instrumental or vocal teacher towards the development of technical, aural, practice and performative skills.

Students will gain historical and practical knowledge of contrapuntal techniques in music composition. Students will demonstrate comprehension of counterpoint rules through several assignments over the course of the term. Students will then complete an original composition which centres around contrapuntal writing.

This module bridges the gap between A Level music theory and those required for music analysis at University level. It starts by reviewing the most fundamental elements of western classical music theory, in order that students emerge with a deeper understanding of their relationships and of the function of the key building blocks of the musical repertoire. By the end of the module, students should emerge feeling comfortable working with complex harmonies and cadences, and be able to take these foundational skills on to further analytical study.

This module ensures a solid foundation in the history of western art ("classical") music since the Baroque era, providing students with suitable experience for second and third year classical history modules on more specific topics. The module deals not only with key composers, genres, and structures, but also with appropriate contextual issues. In unscheduled time, the module also provides a basic grounding in core study skills.

This module is an introduction to MIDI sequencing in Logic Pro and Ableton Live. It is suitable for complete beginners and intermediate users of Logic. Through lectures and workshops, both of which involve much hands on practice, students learn about MIDI sequencing, software instruments and Digital Audio Workstations (DAW). Topics and techniques covered include recording and editing MIDI; use of effects processors and mixing, software synthesis and sampler instruments. Two creative coursework projects, concentrating on differing compositional approaches and styles, enable students to demonstrate the technical and compositional skills taught and practiced during the module.

This module introduces students to the use and role of music in a range of audiovisual media. It focuses specifically on the sound and music of mainstream narrative cinema, as the lead expression in contemporary audiovisual media and one that has shaped this aspect of other artforms, such as television and videogames. From the relationship between music and early moving pictures, to the importance of re-using popular musics to score gender or sexuality in the modern Hollywood blockbuster, the module considers both the historical practicalities of sound and music in cinema and some of the key critical ideologies that have been shaped by and shaped the soundtracks of film. Through a focus on key case studies and fundamental theories, students will acquire a firm grounding in the history, nature, and critical discussion of the function of sound and music in film specifically, and audiovisual media more generally. The module is delivered in a manner designed to be equally accessible to students from a non-Music background.

​​​The module introduces students to the basic principles of sound, acoustics and music technology. They will learn about many of the core concepts, relevant terminology and theories essential to modern music technology studies. Subjects covered will include acoustics and sound propagation, analogue and digital audio theory, key electronics theories and sound measurement systems. The module includes some practical work at a digital audio workstation. Normally, the module will include a visit to the University’s Acoustics Research Unit.​

This module introduces students to Sound, Recording and Production techniques in the University Recording Studio. This is a practised based module where teaching is delivered through hands on workshops and lectures. Lectures will discuss recording, audio editing and effects processing techniques in Pro Tools. The weekly workshops, which are in small groups, will be led by the module leader who will demonstrate production techniques and then set group tasks which will allow students to practice key skills during the workshop sessions. By the end of the module the student will be competent enough to use the studio independently and effectively.

Students will complete two assessments. The first is an individual mixing assignment to be completed in the Mac Suites. Assignment 2 is a group recording project carried out in a University Studio and includes a group presentations about the project.

A practical and constructive course in Music Theory, with specific reference to the practical needs of popular musicians. Students will be introduced to a range of scales and modes, diatonic chords and their extensions, common chord symbols, along with common musical forms and structures. Musical notation will be used, though not exclusively, and there will be an aural component. Delivery will be via online lectures, workshop sessions, seminars and tutorials. Formative assessment will be an important teaching tool, and summative assessment will be via an end of term theory test.

A practical module that explores issues in Popular Music performance.

Content will include but not limited to:

Content will include but not limited to:
Musique concrete,
ElektronischeMusik,
American Experimentalism,
Tape composition,
Analogue Synthesizers,
Computer Music,
BBC Radiophonic Workshop
Electronic music in rock and jazz,
Noise Music – Japanoise, Noise in Rock, Metal, Punk and Hardcore
Hardware Hacking – Reed Ghazala and Nicholas Collins
Minimalism – Tape Looping and minimalist compositional practices
Sound Design in Cinema.

Building on a foundational knowledge of music theory, this module examines repertoires from popular music and the classical era as well as music from film. The module first explores formal contrasts in musical works, through examples of dynamic contrasts from Stravinsky and Radiohead, influenced by ‘montage cinema’. This develops through a study of modes, scales and keys in the nineteenth century classical repertoire and in rock and jazz. Techniques for analysing electronic music are adapted and developed by students, while the final lectures introduce the dynamics of form in Baroque and Classical music.

This module will cover techniques and strategies for writing for instruments which are applicable to many different musical genres. We will learn how to write for various instruments found in the orchestra – strings, woodwinds, brass, and pitched and unpitched percussion. Students will be assessed on arrangements of stylistically diverse musical excerpts (prog rock, classical, electronic) for various small chamber ensembles. Seminars will feature live demonstrations from members of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic detailing how to write idiomatic parts and offering tips on how to notate your ideas for performers. Fluency with musical notation is required for this module.

Students will develop a practical understanding of compositional techniques in songwriting since the beginning of the recording age (early 1900s) focussing mainly on popular composition since 1950. Through analysis of songs up to the present day, students will examine melody writing, chord structures, lyrics, arrangement and the implications of technology (recording techniques), creating their own original material in two assignments through the semester.

This course continues to develop students’ performance skills, with a particular emphasis on developing technique and an awareness of historical performance practices. Ultimately, the course intends to benefit students’ own practice, performance, and ensemble skills.

MUSI 202 is a continuation of MUSI 201 in which students will continue to improve upon the listening and technical skills developed during Semester One. This module will delve further into the relationship between theory, technique, and a mature professional approach to the practice of each student’s individual instrument. Students work with the module leader and an assigned instrumental or vocal teacher to further develop their technical, aural, practice and performative skills.

Students will learn how to effectively compose and arrange music for film and television. The module will cover practical issues such as: working in a software programme such as Logic Pro to compose with synchronised video clips; arranging instrumental parts using sample libraries, working with tempo, speed and appropriate harmonic languages. The coursework will involve a series of compositions to written briefs and video clips, totalling 4-8 minutes in duration. Each composition assignment will address a different challenge and style aspect of film or TV music and be accompanied by a written commentary explaining the reasons for the approach and style taken in the music.

In this course, students will gain experience composing original classical or contemporary music for two different small ensembles from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. The lectures will cover techniques for writing themes and accompaniments, designing musical contrast, and rudimentary approaches to musical structure. Seminars will be used to workshop specific compositional techniques and also to hold recording sessions with orchestra musicians. This module’s two assessments are musical compositions, and students will receive recordings and musician feedback on both. This module will draw heavily on the material the prerequisite modules (MUSI105 Writing for Instruments; MUSI106 Classical Composition 1) and fluency with music notation is required.

The module is designed to introduce critical perspectives on current developments in popular music. Each week will introduce a particular genre or subgenre of contemporary popular music which will act as a way in to a discussion of a set of theoretical issues relating to culture, identity, aesthetics, technology and industry. Topics may include: Introduction to genres and classification, mainstreaming, R&B, UK dance and post-dub musics, New Folk and the legacy of authenticity, Post Rock, Noise music, DIY scenes and digital democratisation, new strains in electronic music, metal in the 21st Century.

The module uses both scores and recordings to examine music across different repertoires, focusing on how harmony, chord progressions and pitch are organised. We explore different techniques and methods for understanding harmonic developments, and evaluate the use of these techniques through a range of pieces from different repertoires (classical, popular and film). The module uses examples ranging from Schubert, to Frank Zappa, to Hitchcock films. It will be of use to those wishing to learn about how harmony and chord progressions are constructed, and will be a useful supplement to those studying performance, composition or musicological topics.

This module explores the development of popular musics of the world. Particular emphasis will be given to popular music genres and styles of non-Anglophone origins to understand how different artistic creativities and practice operate in the contemporary system of popular music production, distribution and consumption.
How are specific genre and styles of indigenous/local popular music created? What are the local characteristics of musical techniques and aesthetics? How are specific regional and local cultural values reflected in these musical outputs while cultural, economic and political globalisation also gives shape to these musical processes. In connection with these broad questions, we will look into specific musical genres and forms from Asia, South/Latin America, Africa and the Middle East to develop the skills needed to analyse and critically assess the developments in popular musical outputs and their specific socio-cultural contexts which facilitate the creation and consumption of these artistic works throughout the world.

This module introduces students to the process, skills and approaches expected when conducting instrumental or choral ensembles.

Music Psychology is a multi-disciplinary field that aims to understand and explain musical activities and experiences through the scientific study of mind and behaviour. This module introduces key contemporary topics and research in this area, including the origins of music, music and emotion, the brain on music, musical development, music and cognitive performance, and music and health. The module will follow a flipped classroom instructional strategy that includes a set of video lectures, hands-on seminars, and individual tutorials. In the lectures, students will be introduced to central concepts, perspectives, and research on a variety of core topics of Music Psychology. These topics will then be actively explored during the seminars through a set of practical activities and group discussions. Individual tutorials will support students to develop their knowledge of research in the field, refine their areas of interest within the topics discussed and coursework preparation. The assessment framework includes one coursework assignment and one multiple choice exam.

This module introduces students to Live Sound technology and the practical skills needed to competently and safely operate a Live Sound system. Students will receive lectures on live sound equipment and its applications, along with relevant electronics and acoustics theory. They will also have weekly practical workshops in the Music Hub, where they will learn to operate the Hub P.A. system. They will cover front of house mixing and stage monitor mixing techniques, as well as microphone techniques for live sound and learn about ancillary equipment requirements for live sound. The module also covers very basic lighting set-up and control.

Students will be introduced to Ableton’s Live software for music creation, and they will learn how to create simple effects plugins using Max for Live. They will create electronic music in Live that utilises effects they have created with MAX, as well as learn how to use both the session and arrange windows to compose and structure musical material. They will learn how to mix music in Live and discover the new options Live offers for music production, compared to other common digital audio workstations.

This module aims to introduce students to a range of ideas about gender and sexuality, and to explore how they interact with musical texts, practices, and cultures. Over the semester, students will consider a range of theories and movements to do with gender and sexuality, which might include social constructionism, psychoanalysis, feminism, and queer theory. The module traces the historical developments of some of these models and considers the extent to which musical texts, practices, and cultures reflect and/or contribute to prevailing ideologies of gender and sexuality. The case studies used to explore these ideas will be drawn from a range of musical repertoires, including popular and art musics. The module aims to encourage students to think about all kinds of western music as gendered practices and to introduce them to ways of exploring the relevance of gender and sexuality as questions for consideration when thinking about the cultural work being done by particular musics. Students should emerge from the module with an understanding of the intersections of history, culture, and music, in terms of ideas about gender and sexuality.

This module examines the function and design of music in video games (including games-consoles, PCs, and smart-phone ‘apps’). It considers the historical development of music in gaming, the relationship between game-music and technological advance, and the role and function of music in different types of game (and how this dictates compositional choice). This is achieved via a combination of case-study analyses and engagement with appropriate literature and research. Delivery incorporates lectures, workshop/seminars, and directed activity. Assessment incorporates a discursive essay and a portfolio of case-study analyses. The module assumes the study and discussion of case-study examples, but is delivered and assessed in a manner which does not require technical music skills (ie notational literacy or formal analytical method).

​This module will explore the musical practices of film traditions outside the Anglophone world and their cultural contexts, with particular emphasis on comparisons to classical Hollywood practice. Students will develop the ability to think and write about music in audiovisual contexts. Topics will variably include East Asian films, Bollywood, North African/Middle Eastern films as well as cinemas from Europe and Latin America.

​The module will study musical theatre in its twentieth/twenty-first century context.​

This module considers the relationship between opera and politics, both broadly conceived, with a view to understanding operatic responses to political developments, and the response to opera in political contexts. Along the way, students will gain an understanding of the development of opera and its sub-genres.

Themes under consideration throughout the course and in relation to a variety of operatic material include:
• the politics of operatic production (including composition and staging);
• the politics of representation (for instance, gender, race, sexuality);
• the intersection of national/international politics with local/identity politics
• and the production and reception of opera in relation to landmark historical events and developments (for instance, the French Revolution and the ensuing wars, the unification of Italy and Germany, or the rise of European nationalism and imperialism).

Specific topics and material may vary annually according to staff availability and research areas.

During the course of their education, students will already have travelled on an individual musical journey. This course aims to continue this process by exposing them to models of song writing and composition from a broad array of popular music, underpinned with a solid and practical theoretical grounding. Arrangement and orchestration of instruments from beyond those used in the standard rock “backline” will also be covered.  An over-arching theme of the course will be the need to identify a broader “common practice” than that traditionally associated with classical composition classes. Practical exercises and assignments will lead to the completion of two original compositions.

A practical module that explores issues in Popular Music performance, including development of individual instrumental and vocal skills as well as ensemble playing and group dynamics.​​ Normally students will have taken MUSI 104 Popular Performance 1; proficiency and understanding of how the module works may also be established via a demonstration recording or audition.

A practical module that explores issues in Popular Music performance, including development of individual instrumental and vocal skills as well as ensemble playing and group dynamics.​ Normally students will have taken MUSI 104 Popular Performance 1; proficiency may also be established via a demonstration recording or audition.

The module aims to prepare students for a smooth transition into a work placement year and, more broadly, to develop lifelong skills, attitudes and behaviours and support students in their continuing professional development. This will help students lead flexible, fulfilling careers working as a professional in their field, and enable them to contribute meaningfully to society.

A study of music by composers writing under the influence of Richard Wagner whose philosophy of life and music influenced much of fin de siecle Europe.

This module provides an introduction to the university’s student-run record label, Merciful Sound Records. Working in a fully functioning record label, students will develop ‘real-world’ employability skills focussed on music marketing, promotion and distribution, culminating in the release of an album to be launched at the end of the semester.

In this module students learn techniques for mixing and remixing, using samples, stems or tracks from existing songs. Using Apple’s Logic audio editing and sampling techniques are explored, as well as mixing techniques suitable for EDM and electronic music. There will also be a focus on correctly using relevant software instruments and effects plugins available in Logic.

This module is an opportunity for you to undertake a placement in a setting which matches your academic and possible career/industry interests, develop materials and/or undertake tasks within a practical or vocational context, apply academic knowledge from your degree, and develop your personal and employability skills within a working environment. SOTA300 is not open to students who have taken SOTA600.

This module will introduce the student to sound recording, audio editing and sound transformation in a DAW in the context of sound design for the moving image. Students will learn a variety of recording techniques, audio editing and sound transformation skills in the studio a DAW and third-party applications to produce the foley for a video clip and also produce the sound design for number of idents. The module will be delivered via lectures in the Mac Suites and workshops in the studio.

This module will extend students’ knowledge of studio recording and production techniques, including stereo recording; editing; mixing tracks with problems (poor quality recordings, unwanted noise, poor performances); making timing and tuning adjustments; audio quantisation; comping; and working with large multitrack projects.

​This course examines the ongoing relationship between technological development, popular music and the cultures which surround it. Students are introduced to major perspectives on popular music and technology in order to examine social, aesthetic and historical issues.

This module introduces students to who does what in music industry. Essentially, music industry is a collaborative effort between musicians and various personnel from a range of music companies. Music companies ‘add value’ to musicians by providing them with services they find difficult or impossible to provide for themselves. These ‘music companies’ are spread across the music industries of recording, music publishing and live performance; increasingly companies from outside traditional music industry also offer services to musicians (for example, online and IT companies). The module will consider what key jobs and roles exist in the world of converting imaginative ideas into commodities for sale in music markets.

Early Musical Cultures from the Islamicate Court to the English Reformation introduces students to a wide range of early cultures of song and instrumental music from before 1600. Students will learn about the role of musicians in diverse contexts, including: the troubadours and trobaritz (12th-century France); music and mysticism (including Abbess Hildegard von Bingen and the pilgrimages of Margery Kempe); gender-queer musicians working at court in modern Syria, Israel, and Iraq (7th – 13th century); the role of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish musicians in late medieval Iberia; disability and musicianship (Notker, Landini, Machaut); and English composers negotiating their music during a period of dramatic religious change (Dunstaple, Fayrfax, Tallis, Queen Katherine Parr, Byrd). Teaching will take the form of lectures based on key themes, and seminars and workshops that consider sources relevant to certain musical traditions. Students will have the opportunity to work first-hand with early musical sources (digitally and using the archives), to explore early notations, and to engage in informal practical work. On the completion of this module, students will have a strong knowledge of the ways in which musicians played key roles in culture, and of the musical repertories that they produced. They will be able to identify compositional styles, and will know about how to handle early manuscript and print sources in their research, in person or via key online resources. Final projects combining written and practice-based elements will be encouraged, but may alternatively be fully written.

This module provides an introduction to the design and implementation of sound and music in video games. Students engage with game music scholarship and case studies, then apply their knowledge to create original sounds and music for premade game projects.

This module invites performance and technology students to learn how to use Ableton Live as a gateway to poly-genre group improvisation. Students will learn about using unique aspects of Ableton Live to design systems to collaborate with colleagues across styles of music.

Additionally, students will learn about graphic notation and free improvisation and compose group and/or solo works for performance. These works will be reflected in the systems designed in Ableton and their realisation.

Students will gain experience arranging a variety of pre-existing musical excerpts for large orchestra. The foundations of orchestration will be honed through the careful study of instrumental timbres, balance, voicing, and the distribution of musical elements. Assessed orchestrations will cover a range of prototypical styles, including the pastoral/beautiful, the dramatic finale, the spooky, and the fast-paced/quickly changing. Seminars will utilise a number of non-assessed exercises that will ensure comprehension of topics and techniques and help prepare students for assessed tasks. This module will draw heavily on the knowledge and concepts from the prerequisite module musi105 writing for instruments. Fluency with musical notation is required for this module.

An overview of central orientations and key texts in the aesthetics of music, from ancient to modern. Lectures will guide students through influential ideas in the history of music philosophy and intellectual history; and seminars will afford an opportunity to reflect upon and discuss this material in greater depth and detail.

​​This module offers an exploration of the song form in a western art music context. Taking Beethoven’s ‘An die Ferne Geliebte’ as a starting point, we progress to explore Schubert’s Lieder in some depth, exploring his settings of poetry, performance traditions and techniques. We then consider the role of Art-Song in the 19th and 20th centuries, using art-song as a prism for examining cultural changes in music and society, culminating in Maxwell-Davies’ "Eight Songs for a Mad King". A continued focus throughout the module will be Schumann’s song-cycle "Dichterliebe", which will a ‘set work’ that will form part of your final exam.

The music of Ludwig Van Beethoven has become central to the Western classical tradition. Not just popular with audiences worldwide, Beethoven’s symphonies, quartets, sonatas, and concertos have shaped the values by which all other composers are judged. As well as surveying Beethoven’s music, this module will explore how and why it has captured the imaginations both of listeners and critics (including analysts and philosophers). The module will engage a variety of methodological approaches, including music analysis, reception history, aesthetics, and semiotics. Ultimately, it will engage with the ‘big question’: Is Beethoven’s fame constructed, or earned?​

​The module will consider how popular music is presented as heritage in different contexts such as museum exhibitions, library collections and DIY online archives. It will examine the different ways in which popular music heritage has been represented, mobilized and interpreted. Taking a case study approach, it will explore who is invested in discussions of heritage, how heritage is defined, and what this can tell us about representations of the popular past. The module will have a particular focus on the context of gallery and museums and will examine curatorial approaches to popular music and its related cultures.​

The module examines and explores musical form, rhythm and time in a range of repertoires – pop, classical, jazz and film. It uses recent music theory to provide new ways of thinking about these issues in a cross-repertoire environment. It will explore pre-existing compositions and encourage students to use the module to supplement their other musical activities – composition, performance and musical appreciation – to give a greater insight into how musical forms are constructed from rhythms to structure. We will explore issues such as repetition, ‘form as becoming’, cinematic montage forms, ‘two-dimensional forms.’ Repertoire will vary but will cover a range of musics from Arab Strap and LCD Sound System’s “cyclic forms” to Beethoven’s Eroica; from Pulp and Arcade Fire’s “terminally climactic forms” to the “two-dimensional” sonata forms of Franz Liszt. There will be opportunities for improvisers to participate in workshops focusing on rhythm.

This module offers final-year students the chance to ‘major’ in performance, where ‘performance’ is loosely conceived to incorporate any genre of music as a solo or ensemble instrumentalist/vocalist, and also conducting/directing. Students will be supported in their development as vocalists, instrumentalists, or conductors/directors by way of a series of one-to-one lessons and a number of large group sessions bringing together students in related areas.

This module offers final-year students the chance to create a substantial music composition with instruments. Projects may include concert music, film music, and/or works for acoustic instruments as well as works for acoustic instruments and and electronics. Note that each work completed for this module must include a professional-quality score and this module isn’t suitable for purely electronic music (for those wishing to do the latter should select MUSI396 instead). For those wishing to do songwriting or write popular music, select musi394 popular composition, which has different prerequisites. Students will have the chance to have their music read and recorded by professional musicians.

Student are allowed to design their own project to carry out across semesters 1 & 2 of Year 3. In consultation with their allocated supervisor, they will agree a programme of research which will lead to a pilot project submission in Semester 1 and a short presentation. In semester 2, students will produce a 12-15 minute portfolio, as well as a commentary that contextualises their work. The content of the portfolio is intended to be a tool for seeking future employment and may have a technical focus, be more concentrated on composition projects or have research focus on a practical music technology related area, depending on the student’s career aspirations.

This module offers final-year students the chance to ‘major’ in popular performance, where "performance" is loosely conceived to incorporate any genre of popular music as a solo or group instrumentalist/vocalist. Students will be supported in their development as vocalists, instrumentalist, band members, or solo artists by way of a series of one-to-one lessons and a number of large group sessions bringing together students in related areas.

This module is an extended research project in which students can concentrate in an in-depth manner on a particular issue or subject area. This gives students the opportunity to carry out independent study at an advanced level, with appropriate support, into a topic of interest to them and to draw on and extend the skills and knowledge acquired in taught modules. The module will include a taught element providing guidance on dissertation planning, preparation and skills.

The module will cover jazz in the broadest sense of the genre – from its nineteenth/early twentieth century precursors to assessments of the present day scene and its global significance. Awareness of the historical scope and trajectory of the genre will be complemented by analysis of specific ‘moments’ (e.g. albums, tracks, concerts) and longitudinal topics (e.g. personalities, race, dance, improvisation, nationalism/transnationalism). There will be opportunity for students to develop work for assessment based on their own interests.​

This module will develop students’ knowledge of experimental approaches to electronic music composition, to an advanced level. Building on the sound design skills acquired MUSI208, the first half of the module will focus on developing the students’ sound organisation and transformation skills to an advanced level through production of an acousmatic composition, advanced sound processing such as granular synthesis will be covered. The second half will develop the students’ knowledge of synthesis to an advanced level by focusing on modular synthesis and non-linear composition such as building a modular instrument or creating a generative composition.

In MUSI 210 Students have investigated a range of tonal and rhythmic practices, some of which will have informed their own music making. This module will continue this process. Song-writing, extended and jazz harmony, improvisation and orchestration will all be further investigated.  Practical exercises and assignments will lead to the completion of two original compositions.​

This module examines various issues relating to popular music performance, in an attempt to better understand how music has resonated with audiences, aiming for a more informed appreciation of popular music in all its forms.

Students in this module oversee the day-to-day operations of the university’s student-run record label, Merciful Sound Records. Working individually and in teams, students will manage the label’s various departments as well as oversee the production, marketing, sales and distribution of an album to be released at the end of the academic year.

This module introduces students to the A&R, artist management, recording, production and project planning aspects of the university’s student-run record label, Merciful Sound Records. Working in a fully functioning record label, students will develop ‘real-world’ employability skills focussed on music management, recording and production and project planning, culminating in the release of an album to be launched at the end of the academic year.

This module is an opportunity for you to undertake a placement in a setting which matches your academic and possible career/industry interests, develop materials and/or undertake tasks within a practical or vocational context, apply academic knowledge from your degree, and develop your personal and employability skills within a working environment. SOTA300 is not open to students who have taken SOTA600.

This module will introduce students to various theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of music and sound in their social and cultural contexts.   The module considers sounds and music as experienced across diverse settings (private, public, individual and collective) and considers key issues relating to how the sonic is embedded in everyday life and impact upon our perception and understanding of the world.   Using a wide variety of examples drawn from popular music, art music and other audiovisual media it will outline key issues relating to the sociology and philosophy of sound.  

This module examines the film-music output of the composer John Williams. It considers the historical development of John Williams’ compositional style, in the context of Hollywood convention and the evolution of the ‘blockbuster’. It situates his style in relation to classical and other relevant influences (especially late romantic and early modernist techniques). It considers the relevance of his close relationship with particular directors (e.g. Lucas and Spielberg). It relates particular compositional techniques (such as leitmotif) to the filmic and narrative context. Delivery incorporates lectures, workshop, and directed activity. Assessment incorporates a discursive essay and a portfolio of case-study analyses. The module assumes the study and discussion of case-study examples, but is delivered and assessed in a manner which does not require technical music skills (i.e. notational literacy or formal analytical method).

This module invites classical and popular musicians, singers, and music technologists for a course into hardware-hacking and hyper-instruments; Students will explore imagining and designing their own bespoke instruments, by uniquely re-purposing electronic circuits, soldering and connecting their choice of components towards artistic goals.

Additionally, students will build on their existing instrumental, vocal, and technological skills and extend these into new technologically enabled modes of performance and practice.

Weekly lectures covering the theories and history of the field will supplement workshops exploring, testing, and building bespoke instruments using hardware and software in laboratories and performance spaces.

Most musicians and music industry practitioners are self-managed and self-employed. This final year module prepares students who want to work in any role within the music industries for the realities of managing the businesses aspects of developing a career in music. Through the lecture and online content and seminar tasks, students will develop a practical understanding of the fundamentals of contracts and copyright, royalties and accounting, marketing and promotion and other relevant enterprise and business skills necessary for developing a sustainable career in the music industries and wider creative economy. Students are assessed on their ability to produce a professional portfolio of work that demonstrates their ability to devise and deliver career development activities and their understanding of professional standards of engagement in areas such as planning, marketing, accounting and working with third parties.

This module develops skills learnt in MUSI214 and takes a more in-depth look at advanced live sound theory and practical techniques. Students will receive lectures covering theory content and the opportunity to develop these skills on a variety of different systems including those in The Music Hub and The Tung Auditorium in weekly practical workshops.

This module offers final-year students the chance to create a portfolio of popular compositions. Projects may include popular-styled concert music, an album, and/or works for instruments and technology.
Students will have the chance to have their music read and recorded by professional musicians.