Music

About the major

The Music major in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences has a distinguished record of music scholarship, composition and teaching, producing many of Australia’s leading music professionals. Its aim is to enrich Australia through a unique multi-cultural music education, broadly based in studies of society, culture and performance.

The curriculum for the Music Major allows students to study Composition, Musicology, Popular Music, Music and Media, and Performance in ways that are broadly integrated with one another across the curriculum as well as within individual units of study. A wide range of units of study are offered which are designed for both intending professional musicians, students with broad interests in the study of music in culture, and students who will pursue other careers. This means that students can pursue projects in which their music practice can be integrated with the study of history or media or any other Arts Major. The BA with a Music major offers a variety of pathways to a vast array of rewarding careers such as composing, arranging, and performing music for theatre, concert, film, and media, writing about music as a journalist, commentator, critic, or media professional, or arts administration, including curating, marketing, festival and venue management.

Requirements for completion

A major in Music requires 48 credit points from the Music Units of Study table including:

(i) 6 credit points of 1000-level selective units from Analysis, History and Culture Studies units
(ii) 6 credit points of 1000-level selective units from Music Skills: Music Theory and Aural Skills units
(iii) 12 credit points of 2000-level selective units
(iv) 6 credit points of 3000-level core unit: MUSC3699 Understanding Music: Modes of Hearing
(v) 18 credit points of 3000-level selective units
* 3000-level selective units must include one interdisciplinary unit and one project unit

A minor in Music requires 36 credit points from the Music Units of Study table including:
(i) 6 credit points of 1000-level selective unit from Analysis, History and Culture Studies units
(ii) 6 credit points of 1000-level selective unit from Music Skills: Music Theory and Aural Skills units
(iii) 12 credit points of 2000-level selective units
(iv) 12 credit points of 3000-level selective units

First year

You will gain and develop foundation skills in one or more pathway, including Music and Media, Contemporary Music, Music History and Musicology, and Performance and Composition.

You will be able to engage with your choice of a broad range of intra-disciplinary musical practices including the study of music history, analytical and interpretive writing and research, as well as writing and performing music. This will prepare you to focus your studies in your 2nd and 3rd years in the areas of your primary interests.

Second year

You will begin to take more specialised subjects, many of which have a strong orientation towards interdisciplinary learning and others which have a strong orientation towards practice-based learning.

You will use the skills and knowledge in music history, analysis, and research you have developed and apply these to more specific types of music and musical understanding.

You will expand the range of music you will study to include a wide range of musical traditions from around the world, including popular music, European classical music, avant garde music, jazz, and Latin American music.

You will increasingly study across the curriculum to develop the ability to use a wide range of skills in such areas as musicological research, analysis, performance, and composition.

Third year

The goal of your third year of study is to expand your study of music and engage in interdisciplinary and project-based study. This will allow you to focus your studies on specific, semester-long projects in which you use the full range of skills and abilities you have gained and apply them to complex, large-scale, research-based projects.

Honours

Honours is both a completion of an academic education in music, and a preparation for postgraduate study in music. Students enrol in two semesters of full-time study involving a combination of research seminars, classes and supervision.
Admission to Honours requires completion of 48 credit points of Music units with an average of 75 percent or above. Admission to the Honours program is by permission of the Honours Coordinator.

Contact/further information

Music Major Program Leader:

Associate Professor Charles Fairchild

Pathways through the major

Music History and Musicology

1st Year: MUSC1506 Music in Western Culture; MUSC1501/1503/1504 Fundamentals of Music 1, 2, or 3

2nd Year: MUSC2644 Philosophy of Music; MUSC2691 Music and Politics

3rd Year: MUSC3699 Understanding Music: Modes of Hearing; MUSC3609 Musicology; MUSC3629 Music and Everyday Life; PERF3640 Industry and Community Projects

Composition and Performance

1st Year: MUSC1506 Music in Western Culture; MUSC1501/1503/1504 Fundamentals of Music 1, 2, or 3

2nd Year: MUSC2612 Music Performance; MUSC2614 Composition Workshop

3rd Year: MUSC3699 Understanding Music: Modes of Hearing; MUSC3609 MUSC3629 Music and Everyday Life; MUSC3640 Rhythms and Sounds of Latin America; PERF3640 Industry and Community Projects

Contemporary and Popular

1st Year: MUSC1507 Sounds, Screens, Speakers: Music and Media; MUSC1501/1503/1504 Fundamentals of Music 1, 2, or 3

2nd Year: MUSC2654 Popular Music; MUSC2672 Australian Popular Music

3rd Year: MUSC3699 Understanding Music: Modes of Hearing; MUSC3629 Music and Everyday Life; MUSC3602 Contemporary Music Making 2; PERF3640 Industry and Community Projects

Music and Media

1st Year: MUSC1507 Sounds, Screens, Speakers: Music and Media; MUSC1501/1503/1504 Fundamentals of Music 1, 2, or 3

2nd Year: MUSC2654 Popular Music; MUSC2666 A Global Sound: Drum and Bass, Rhythm and Soul

3rd Year: MUSC3699 Understanding Music: Modes of Hearing; MUSC3629 Music and Everyday Life; MUSC3639 Music Journalism; PERF3640 Industry and Community Projects

Learning Outcomes

1. Demonstrate an understanding of and literacy in basic music skills.
2. Demonstrate a broad understanding of the history of various traditions of both popular and classical music.
3. Demonstrate the ability to analyse, interpret or express important musical concepts. This may be done in the form of musicological analysis, musical performance or composition.
4. Demonstrate an understanding of a variety of analytical approaches to understanding and interpretation of music and musical practices using appropriate methods and sources, and subsequently the ability to link musical practices to the social contexts in which they were created.
5. Demonstrate the ability to evaluate the prevalent principles, standards, values and boundaries of current music knowledge.
6. Demonstrate the ability to exercise critical thinking in creating new understandings and practices of music analysis, music composition, music education, music history, music technology or music performance.
7. Demonstrate the ability to work effectively across discipline boundaries, applying skills and knowledge from the Music major to issues encountered in an interdisciplinary context.