MUS 747 : Research in Musicology

Creative Arts and Industries

2024 Semester One (1243) (30 POINTS)

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.

Course Requirements

Prerequisite: 15 points from MUS 340, 345-348

Capabilities Developed in this Course

Capability 3: Knowledge and Practice
Capability 4: Critical Thinking
Capability 6: Communication

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to:
  1. Demonstrate a thorough knowledge of the principal research concepts and methods specific to the discipline of musicology in recent years (Capability 6.1)
  2. Consider, critique and compare these methods and concepts (Capability 4.1)
  3. Apply this knowledge and critical thinking to a series of short essays (Capability 4.1)
  4. Communicate ideas clearly and effectively through spoken presentation and well-written, well-referenced and well-argued prose (Capability 3.1)

Assessments

Assessment Type Percentage Classification
Assignments 100% Individual Coursework
Assessment Type Learning Outcome Addressed
1 2 3 4
Assignments

Assignments are to be submitted, according to submission type specied on CANVAS, by the due date. In the event of illness or other circumstances that prevent completing an assignment, please contact the course coordinator with evidence as appropriate before the due date. Late assignments that do not have an approved extension will be penalized 10% for each day or part thereof. No assignment will be accepted after that assignment has been returned to students.

Teaching & 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.

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.

Delivery Mode

Campus Experience

Attendance is required at supervisions.

Learning Resources

Course materials are made available in a learning and collaboration tool called Canvas which also includes 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.

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

Student Feedback

At the end of every semester students will be invited to give feedback on the course and teaching 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.

Class Representatives in each class can take feedback to the department and faculty staff-student consultative committees.

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

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.

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.

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 http://disability.auckland.ac.nz

Special Circumstances

If your ability to complete assessed coursework 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 https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/academic-information/exams-and-final-results/during-exams/aegrotat-and-compassionate-consideration.html.

This should be done as soon as possible and no later than seven days after the affected test or exam date.

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 your assessment is fair, and not compromised. Some adjustments may need to be made in emergencies. You will be kept fully informed by your course co-ordinator, and if disruption occurs you should refer to the University Website for information about how to proceed.

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 https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/forms-policies-and-guidelines/student-policies-and-guidelines/student-charter.html.

Disclaimer

Elements of this outline may be subject to change. The latest information about the course will be available for enrolled students in Canvas.

In this course students may be asked to submit coursework assessments digitally. The University reserves the right to conduct scheduled tests and examinations for this course 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.

Published on 26/10/2023 10:19 a.m.