Module Catalogue 2024/25

Pre Requisite Comment

N/A

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

• To develop an understanding of the place of music in early modern England
• To introduce and explore a range of musical repertoires from the period – both sacred and secular, popular and art music, instrumental and vocal
• To place musical practice during the period in its wider social, cultural, political and religious contexts
• To develop research skills for dealing with relevant primary source materials
• To develop an understanding of the scholarly field of early modern studies, and musicological studies and methodologies within this field

Outline Of Syllabus

This module is be split into units of study. Across these units, topics typically covered will include the place of music in early modern thought, attitudes to music and gender, the use of music in court politics, music and the Reformation, the impact of print technology on musical practice and transmission and the music making activities of both professional and amateur musicians in early modern England. Through these topics a range of repertoire will be introduced from court songs, instrumental music and sacred music to popular ballads and metrical psalms. All topics will be introduced through lectures and enriched by close studies of relevant primary sources and current scholarship in the field in the seminars.

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

• •       To gain an understanding of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England and the place and role of music within it
•       To gain an understanding of a broad range of musical repertoires from the period, including their musical features, primary exponents and the cultural contexts in which they were produced and consumed
•       To gain an understanding of the range of primary sources scholars can draw on to gain an understanding of musical life in early modern England

Intended Skill Outcomes

• To be able to competently draw upon and analyse relevant primary sources, both musical and non-musical, in order to gain an understanding of the place of music in early modern England
• To develop the research skills required to independently access relevant primary sources and secondary scholarship
• To develop a relevant research question, research it and to produce an argument in written form, following scholarly convention

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Lectures introduce overarching topics, themes, music, musicians and sources while seminars allow for more detailed explorations of primary sources and secondary scholarship in small groups. Source-based seminar activities include workshops, discussion and presentations.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Essay 1 is set and directed by the module leader to develop primary source research skills and to provide the student with mid-semester feedback. The research question for the final essay is developed by the student and agreed by the module leader. It will give the student the opportunity to focus in detail with a particular aspect of the module, and they will be required to engage directly with primary sources and relevant secondary literature that has been introduced during the module.

General Notes

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