Course Catalogue

Listening in Culture MUSIC1020

  • Academic Session: 2026-27
  • School: School of Culture and Creative Arts
  • Credits: 20
  • Level: Level 1 (SCQF level 7)
  • Typically Offered: Semester 1
  • Available to Visiting Students: Yes
  • Collaborative Online International Learning: No
  • Curriculum For Life: No

Short Description

This course is designed to introduce students to the challenges of listening critically to music in all styles and media, and expressing a considered argument about its cultural significance, aesthetic quality and ideological implications using non-specialist, accessible language. By indicating and exemplifying an appropriate scholarly recourse to today's multi-media resources for musical study and research, it lays the groundwork for on-going investigations of music both as a distinct discipline and an integral component of diverse cultural practices.

Timetable

Lectures over 10 weeks as scheduled on MyCampus.

One hour seminar (choice of times) over 10 weeks as scheduled on MyCampus.

Requirements of Entry

None

Excluded Courses

MUSIC 1001, MUSIC 1015, MUSIC 1016

Co-requisites

None

Assessment

The standard assessments for this course are: 

■ Essay (1,500 words) - 40% 

■  Essay (2,500 words) - 60%  

 

If required, for instance where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, the following alternatives are available: 

■ There are no alternatives to the assessments, but extensions to the deadlines can be offered as reasonable adjustment (Students should follow the usual process for extensions). 

 

Further reasonable adjustments may be provided where necessary. Students are encouraged to consult with the course convenor.  

Main Assessment In: December

Course Aims

This course will provide the opportunity to:

■ foster an engaged, critical approach to listening to music of all genres and styles

■ show effective, up-to-date research strategies that will enable students to express considered opinions about the value and significance of any given musical phenomenon

■ encourage a reflective approach to the various cultural and social factors that impinge upon musical creation and reception in a wide range of contexts and media.

Intended Learning Outcomes of Course

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ recognise a diversity of musical forms, genres and styles

■ deploy, in purposeful argument, central musical concepts such as form, texture and expression

■ write confidently about their listening experience, giving due recognition to informing cultural concerns

■ show, through written essay and in-class discussion, a sensitivity to the ideological questions attendant upon listening to music in an age of digital recording and dissemination

■ communicate experiences of close, critical musical listening in terms accessible to a diverse non-specialist readership

Minimum Requirement for Award of Credits

No exceptions