Contemporary and Popular Music BA Honours
UCAS Code: W301
(3 Years)
Our degrees are divided into Stages. Each Stage lasts for an academic year and you need to complete modules totalling 120 credits by the end of each Stage.
Applicants who have an HND or approved Foundation Degree in any form of popular or contemporary musical practice may be considered for direct entry at Stage 2. Please see the Entry Requirements for details.
Please be aware that programme modules do change and therefore may differ for your year of entry.
Stage 1
Compulsory modules
- MUS1011 Understanding World Music
- MUS1014 Understanding Contemporary and Popular Musics
- MUS1023 Contemporary Musical Materials
- MUS1030 Music Skills (Vernacular)
- MUS1058 Performance Studies 1
- MUS1097 Creative Projects
Stage 2
Compulsory modules
Optional modules
You choose modules from the following lists to bring your total to 120 credits. A minimum of 20 credits must be chosen from each list.
List 1
- MUS2001 Early Music: Materials, Sources, Contexts
- MUS2002 Modern and Postmodern Musics
- MUS2012 World Music in Practice I
- MUS2044 Practising Music Analysis
- MUS2060 Ethnomusicology
- MUS2066 Organology: Musical Instruments and Cultures
- MUS2087 Hearing the Individual in Traditional Music
List 2
- MUS2011 Techniques of Counterpoint
- MUS2041 Contemporary Compositional Techniques
- MUS2045 Indian Music in Practice 1
- MUS2088 Folk Music Studies: Resources and Research Materials
- MUS2098 Noises, Sounds, and Gestures: Experimental Improvisation and Electroacoustic Composition
- MUS3095 Music Enterprise
- MUS3111 Teaching Music in Schools: Issues and Practice
- MUS3112 Tradition, Learning and Community: Folk and Traditional Music
Stage 3
Compulsory modules
Optional modules
You choose 40 credits from the following list:
- MUS3012 Major Specialist Study: Composition
- MUS3013 Major Specialist Study: Dissertation
- MUS3015 Major Specialist Study: Project OR
- MUS3023 Independent Creative Project in Post Vernacular Composition AND
- MUS3087 Contemporary Music Practice 2
You choose a further 60 credits of optional modules from the two lists below. You must take at least one module from each list. You may not repeat a module already taken at Stage 2.
List 1
- MUS3001 Early Music: Materials, Sources, Contexts
- MUS3002 Modern and Postmodern Musics
- MUS3011 World Music in Practice II
- MUS3017 Minor Specialist Study: Dissertation
- MUS3019 Minor Specialist Study: Project
- MUS3030 Twentieth Century Music and Nationalisms
- MUS3032 The Roots of Hip-Hop
- MUS3106 Entrez dans las danse: round dancing in Brittany
