MA in Music and Cultural History

An alternative to conventional postgraduate programmes in musicology, the one-year MA in Music and Cultural History draws on the diverse expertise of internationally renowned scholars to combine the very best of traditional and contemporary scholarly practice. Students are presented with the opportunity to acquire and develop core musicological skills, including research techniques and the critical editing of music. But they are also introduced to some of the most exciting developments in recent music scholarship, including explorations of politics, gender and sexuality in music; the interaction of music with other media; and the new links being formed between musicology and other disciplines like film studies, cultural studies and philosophy.

Modules

Performance Studies (15 credits)
Musicology and Text I and II (15 credits each)
Musicology and Theory (15 credits)
Dissertation (30 credits)

Performance Studies

Situating the study of musical performance within the discourse of performance theory, this module will address issues of musical meaning, creativity and identity. Recent topics have included the anthropology and ethnography of performance, performance and media technology and gender and sexuality in performance.

Musicology and Text I and II

An introduction to musicological skills and practices, focusing on the methodologies musicologists have developed to interpret, contextualize and critically evaluate their primary texts: scores, recordings and writings about music. Students will be encouraged both to deepen their awareness of the historical and cultural contexts of selected case studies and to broaden their knowledge of relevant music repertoires. Recent case studies have included Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Handel’s Giulio Cesare and topics in the aesthetics of sound and music in European film. Musicology and Text II is co-taught with the MA in Film Studies.

Musicology and Theory

This module introduces students to the discipline of musicology by examining its engagement with key critical problems such as the cult of genius, the notion of the musical work and the construction of musical meaning. The emphasis will be on recent developments, on musicology’s relationship to other disciplines, and on the value of critical theory and cultural studies for contemporary musicology. Recent topics have included analysis of recorded music and explorations of intertextuality in Berio’s Sinfonia.

Dissertation

Through a programme of individual research under the direction of staff, students will explore a particular aspect of the subject, employ appropriate theoretical and methodological approaches, and present the findings in a dissertation. Recent topics include music after 9/11, opera simulcasts in the cinema, music in prison, dramaturgy in Handel’s Serse, Irishness in the score of The Quiet Man and identity politics in the music of Rory Gallagher.

Staff

Dr Christopher Morris (Course Coordinator)

BMus, MA (Toronto), PhD (Leeds), a musicologist specializing in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century music, cultural theory, digital media, opera and film music.

Dr Paul Everett

BMus (Sheffield), PhD (Liverpool), a musicologist specializing in music of the Baroque period (especially Vivaldi), the study of music manuscripts and critical editorial method.

Dr Danijela Kulezic-Wilson

BMus (Belgrade), PhD (Ulster), a musicologist specializing in comparative arts, film music and the musical poetics of film.

Dr Mel Mercier

BMus (UCC), MFA (California Institute of the Arts), PhD (Limerick), an ethnomusicologist specialising in Irish traditional music and African, Indian and Indonesian music. He is an internationally renowned performer and composer.

Dr Karen Desmond

BMus (UCC), MA, PhD (NYU), a musicologist specializing in treatises on music in the later Middle Ages, intersections between medieval music and the history of ideas and digital humanities.

Entry Requirements

Second Class Honours Grade 2, BA Degree, or equivalent, in Music.

Applications

The closing date for applications is 1 June. Applications may be made online at www.pac.ie using PAC course reference CKE79. Please refer to the application procedure outlined in the Postgraduate Prospectus.

Enquiries

Dr Christopher Morris
University College Cork
School of Music
Cork, Co. Cork
Ireland

Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Phone: +353 21 4904530
Fax: +353 21 4212507

Further Information

Further information is available from the UCC Postgraduate Prospectus at http://www.ucc.ie/en/CKE79.