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Overview

Course Prescription

An overview of the discipline of musicology, its principal concepts and associated methods of research. Students consider key texts from the scholarly literature and musicological viewpoints and perspectives. This course also develops advanced writing skills.

Course Overview

As a scholarly discipline, musicology embraces a range of concepts (topics, themes and subject matter) and methods (approaches, perspectives, ways of thinking and of conducting research). Each of these has its own historical significance; the reasons behind the prominence of certain concepts and methods in the scholarship of certain authors are important, and can tell us about the history of our discipline in recent years. This history has tended increasingly towards the interdisciplinary. Present-day musicologists, drawing on literary criticism, art history, postcolonialist theory and philology (to name a few), are tackling some of the most important issues across the arts and humanities: issues of agency and authorship; the hermeneutic (and anti-hermeneutic) impulse; a return to formalism; the interdependence of society, politics and art; and the impact of technological development on the nature and function of scholarly enquiry.
This course explores some of these principal concepts and methods in relation to representative texts and authors from the past few generations. Students will consider, critique and compare scholarly writings, also exploring how concepts and methods can be implemented in future research of their own. The course, then, is essential for students planning to continue with independent musicological study. Equally, the course will assist all students to think critically and imaginatively about the literature they encounter, and the various ways in which this literature might cast new light on all forms of musical experience – listening, performing and composing, as well as academic writing and research.

Workload Expectations

This course is a thirty-point course and students are expected to spend 20 hours per week involved in each thirty-point course that they are enrolled in.

For this course, you can expect a minimum of 24 hours supervision, 112 hours of reading and thinking about the content and 164 hours of work on assignments.

Course Prerequisites, Corequisites and Restrictions

Prerequisite

Locations and Semesters Offered

LocationSemester
City

Teaching and Learning

Campus Experience

Attendance is required at supervisions.

Teaching and Learning Methods

This course will be delivered by a series of supervisions with individual staff members, based on various chosen texts. Students will have to complete eight assignments of various kinds totalling 12,000 words, which will comprise summaries and discussions of different texts, as given in the Reading List. They will work on four of the assignments with two teachers in the first half of the semester, with those essays due in week 7, and then on the other four assignments under the same terms in the second half of the semester.

Learning Resources

Taught courses use a learning and collaboration tool called Canvas to provide students with learning materials including reading lists and lecture recordings (where available). Please remember that the recording of any class on a personal device requires the permission of the instructor.

Additional Information on Learning Resources

The current reading list for this course is:
Attali, Jacques        “Listening”, in Noise: The Political Economy of Music, trans. Brian Massumi (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1985), 3-20
Blanning, Tim        The Triumph of Music: The Rise of Composers, Musicians and Their Art (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2012)
Bonds, Mark Evan    Music as Thought: Listening to the Symphony in the Age of Beethoven (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006)
Caplin, William    “The Classical Cadence: Conceptions and Misconceptions”, Journal of the American Musicological Society 57/1 (2004), 51-118
Goehr, Lydia        The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works: An Essay in the Philosophy of Music, revised edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007)
Johnson, James    Listening in Paris: A Cultural History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995)
Lehman, Frank    Hollywood Harmonies: Musical Wonder and the Sound of Cinema (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018)
McClary, Susan    “Gender Ambiguities and Erotic Excess in the Operas of Cavalli”, in Desire and Pleasure in Seventeenth-Century Music (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012), 104-126
Margulis, Elizabeth Margulis    On Repeat: How Music Plays the Mind (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014)
Parakilas, James    “The Power of Domestication in the Lives of Musical Canons”, Repercussions 4/1 (1995), 5–25
Taruskin, Richard    The Oxford History of Western Music, five volumes (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005)
Weber, William    “The History of Musical Canon”, in Rethinking Music, ed. Nicholas Cook and Mark Everist (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 336–355

Copyright

The content and delivery of content in this course are protected by copyright. Material belonging to others may have been used in this course and copied by and solely for the educational purposes of the University under license.


You may copy the course content for the purposes of private study or research, but you may not upload onto any third-party site, make a further copy or sell, alter or further reproduce or distribute any part of the course content to another person.

Learning Continuity

In the event of an unexpected disruption, we undertake to maintain the continuity and standard of teaching and learning in all your courses throughout the year. If there are unexpected disruptions the University has contingency plans to ensure that access to your course continues and course assessment continues to meet the principles of the University’s assessment policy. Some adjustments may need to be made in emergencies. You will be kept fully informed by your course co-ordinator/director, and if disruption occurs you should refer to the university website for information about how to proceed.

Academic Integrity

The University of Auckland will not tolerate cheating, or assisting others to cheat, and views cheating in coursework as a serious academic offence. The work that a student submits for grading must be the student's own work, reflecting their learning. Where work from other sources is used, it must be properly acknowledged and referenced. This requirement also applies to sources on the internet. A student's assessed work may be reviewed for potential plagiarism or other forms of academic misconduct, using computerised detection mechanisms.

Similarly, research students must meet the University’s expectations of good research practice. This requires:

  • Honesty - in all aspects of research work
  • Accountability - in the conduct of research
  • Professional courtesy and fairness – in working with others
  • Good stewardship – on behalf of others
  • Transparency – of research process and presentation of results
  • Clarity - communication to be understandable, explainable and accessible

For more information on the University’s expectations of academic integrity, please see the Academic Conduct section of the University policy hub.

Disclaimer

Elements of this outline may be subject to change. The latest information about taught courses is made available to enrolled students in Canvas.

Students may be asked to submit assessments digitally. The University reserves the right to conduct scheduled tests and examinations online or through the use of computers or other electronic devices. Where tests or examinations are conducted online remote invigilation arrangements may be used. In exceptional circumstances changes to elements of this course may be necessary at short notice. Students enrolled in this course will be informed of any such changes and the reasons for them, as soon as possible, through Canvas.


Assessment and Learning Outcomes

Course Learning Outcomes

CLO #OutcomeProgramme Capability Link
1
2
3
4

Assessments

Assessment TypeAssessment PercentageAssessment Classification

Additional Information on Assessment

Assignments are to be submitted, according to submission type specified on CANVAS, by the due date. If your ability to complete assessed coursework is affected by illness or other personal circumstances outside of your control, please complete an application for extension form at the following link

https://www.forms.auckland.ac.nz/en/student/creative-arts-and-industries/te-whare-o-ng_-pkrero-poro---school-of-music-undergraduate-exten.html

You must submit your extension application as early as possible before the assignment due date.

Assessment to CLO Mapping

Assessment Type1234

Student Feedback, Support and Charter

Student Feedback

Feedback on taught courses is gathered from students at the end of each semester through a tool called SET or Qualtrics. The lecturers and course co-ordinators will consider all feedback and respond with summaries and actions. Your feedback helps teachers to improve the course and its delivery for future students. In addition, class Representatives in each class can take feedback to the department and faculty staff-student consultative committees.

Additional Information on Student Feedback

No formal feedback received in 2023, as class size did not meet the minimum number required.

Class representatives

Class representatives are students tasked with representing student issues to departments, faculties, and the wider university. If you have a complaint about this course, please contact your class rep who will know how to raise it in the right channels. See your departmental noticeboard for contact details for your class reps.

Tuākana

Tuākana is a multi-faceted programme for Māori and Pacific students providing topic specific tutorials, one-on-one sessions, test and exam preparation and more. Explore your options at Tuakana Learning Communities.

Inclusive Learning

All students are asked to discuss any impairment related requirements privately, face to face and/or in written form with the course coordinator, lecturer or tutor.

Student Disability Services also provides support for students with a wide range of impairments, both visible and invisible, to succeed and excel at the University. For more information and contact details, please visit the Student Disability Services’ website.

Wellbeing

We all go through tough times during the semester, or see our friends struggling. There is lots of help out there - please see the Support Services page for information on support services in the University and the wider community.

Special Circumstances

If your ability to complete assessed work is affected by illness or other personal circumstances outside of your control, contact a member of teaching staff as soon as possible before the assessment is due. If your personal circumstances significantly affect your performance, or preparation, for an exam or eligible written test, refer to the University’s aegrotat or compassionate consideration page. This should be done as soon as possible and no later than seven days after the affected test or exam date.

Student Charter and Responsibilities

The Student Charter assumes and acknowledges that students are active participants in the learning process and that they have responsibilities to the institution and the international community of scholars. The University expects that students will act at all times in a way that demonstrates respect for the rights of other students and staff so that the learning environment is both safe and productive. For further information visit Student Charter.

Student Academic Complaints and Disputes

Students with concerns about teaching including how a course is delivered, the resources provided, or supervision arrangements, have the right to express their concerns and seek resolution. The university encourages informal resolution where possible, as this is quicker and less stressful. For information on the informal and formal complaints processes, please refer to the Student Academic Complaints Statute in the Student Policies and Guidelines section of the Policy Hub.