Philosophy and Music (BA)

The 17th and 18th centuries, a period of great intellectual and social upheaval, saw the rise of Modern Philosophy. In continental Europe, the 'Rationalism' of Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz argued for the capacity of reason to arrive at knowledge and und...

This module is based on a selection of recent and innovative scholarly writings on music, which challenge the reader to examine their assumptions about the nature of both scholarship and music as cultural practices. It is taught together with MUSI6022 Adv...

You might watch a stunning film, hear a delightful song, enjoy a beautiful sunset, read a dreadful poem, attend an elegant dance, or see a garish building. Experiences like this can stimulate thoughts and feelings of great depth, and provide pleasure or d...

This module focuses on the detailed 'hands-on' analysis of works of European art music, guided by a selection of classic and contemporary theoretical and analytical writings that challenge assumptions about the inner structure of musical works. Extramusic...

This module explores important historical and contemporary techniques and approaches to composition to give you a range of ways of thinking about creating, varying, transforming and organising musical materials. We will look at examples of compositional i...

This module covers basic gestures used in duple, triple, compound, mixed and asymmetric metres; cueing of players and singers, and introducing expressive gestures for dynamics, phrasing etc.; basic approaches to rehearsal and score-marking technique.

In this module students prepare one programme, lasting 20 minutes, of instrumental, vocal, or mixed-ensemble music of their own choice, which is coached regularly by members of staff. Entry to this course is subject to approval of the appropriate Head of...

Epistemology is dedicated to questions about the nature and structure of knowledge and justified belief. Some central questions in epistemology include: - What is knowledge? Why is it valuable? - To gain knowledge from a reliable source, does one n...

Ethics of Global Poverty examines the duties of affluent people towards those living in poverty around the world. Among the questions we will examine are: What obligations do we have to help strangers in need? What bases might such obligations have? Are s...

This module involves the ethical evaluation of public policies. Note that it is not primarily concerned with how public policies are made and implemented, nor with non-ethical assessment of them, such as how effective they are in achieving their aims. The...

Hip-hop is one of the most ubiquitous, lucrative and popular musics in the world. Although it emerged in the South Bronx (New York City) in the 1970s, the history of hip-hop goes far beyond the USA and includes myriad transnational exchanges. Hip-hop has ...

How will the arts get working again after Covid-19? This is a critically important question for everyone who cares about them, artists and audiences alike. If you’re a student considering a career in the arts you’ll want to know where fresh opportunities ...

Interactive music and sound can be found in diverse forms, from video games and interactive installations through to data driven sonic art and works with audience/performer interventions. Such situations provide composers and sound artists with both exci...

Among philosophers in the modern era, Immanuel Kant is widely acknowledged as the most important, original and influential. His challenging book, Critique of Pure Reason, asks what we can know about the nature of reality at the most fundamental level. Can...

Ever since Aristotle, philosophers have been interested in developing formal systems of logic to refine our ability to distinguish valid from invalid arguments and to further our understanding of the nature of logic and validity. The aim of this module is...

We all make moral judgments and think about moral questions. For instance, you might think that torture is typically wrong but wonder whether it may sometimes be right. Whereas normative ethics tries to answer these questions, metaethics is concerned with...

Metaphysics is the study of what kinds of things there and what they are like in the most general terms. We have both a common sense picture of the world and a scientific picture of the world, and sometimes these two appear to conflict. Part of the job of...

Moral philosophy is concerned with questions of right and wrong, good and bad, virtue and vice. Such questions are familiar: can it be right to lie to someone to avoid hurting their feelings? Is it okay to favour my friends and family, or should I be impa...

This module explores how music therapy uses music very differently to the entertainment industry, introducing you to the unique use of music as a powerful clinical tool in health and education settings. Using clinical music therapy techniques, music can b...

This module allows you to explore basic multi-track recording and production techniques. The module is based in the University’s recording studios and music computing facilities where you will explore a range of techniques and equipment from both theoreti...

This module allows you to continue to develop your music performance skills. A combination of individual tuition (10 1hr lessons) and a variety workshop and public performance opportunities provide you with the chance to study new repertoire, improve yo...

Can there be a proof that God exists? Or might phenomena such as suffering serve to show that an omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent being cannot exist? Such questions are central to the philosophy of religion; attempting to answer them leads us to ...

We build our world on scientific knowledge, in fact we stake our lives on it. Every time we board a train, send an email or take a medical drug we reaffirm our trust in the products of science. But what, if anything, gives science the authority it seems t...

This module offers a practical introduction to organising, arranging for, rehearsing and performing with groups of singers of any level, from beginners to professionals. It is particularly aimed at students who are interested in community music or music e...

This module introduces you to the history of the American Musical and examines some of the issues connected with race, exoticism, gender and national identity as they were articulated in this multimedia entertainment between the late nineteenth century an...

Philosophy of mind explores questions about the nature of the mind and mental states – states such as perceptual experiences, beliefs, desires, and emotions. What is the mind? Is it an immaterial substance? Is it the brain? Is it something like a computer...

In this module you will explore the operas by Benjamin Britten, one of Britain’s most influential composers. Britten’s operas are among the few 20th-century works that hold a central position in today’s operatic canon. They are produced regularly by world...

This module gives students a chance to compose for jazz and jazz influenced ensembles. This module will embrace the rich tradition of jazz writing and its conventions as heard in the works of the great jazz composers, such as Duke Ellington, Herbie Han...

You will be introduced to a series of techniques and processes that can be applied to a wide range of commercial musics in the first semester; in the second semester you will work closely with course tutors in one-to-one tutorials to develop a portfolio o...

With a mixture of lectures and individual supervision, Composition Portfolio is the final stage of the undergraduate pathway in concert-music based composition. Building upon the skills gained in first and second year creative music based modules, the lec...

Students taking this module undertake research on a philosophical topic of their choice (subject to approval by the Department), and write a dissertation of 8,000 words on that topic.

This module is based on a topic chosen by the student, completed under the supervision of a member of staff and culminating in a detailed dissertation. The topic may be musical (historical, analytical, critical) or it may relate music to another art or di...

This module is based on a selection of recent and innovative scholarly writings on music, which challenge the reader to examine their assumptions about the nature of both scholarship and music as cultural practices. It is taught together with MUSI6022 Adv...

This module focuses on the detailed 'hands-on' analysis of works of European art music, guided by a selection of classic and contemporary theoretical and analytical writings that challenge assumptions about the inner structure of musical works. Extramusic...

Philosophy flourished in classical India for well over a millennium, with figures in this tradition producing works that are on a par with those of figures in ancient Greece and late antique and medieval Europe. In fact, figures in classical India contri...

This module explores important historical and contemporary techniques and approaches to composition to give you a range of ways of thinking about creating, varying, transforming and organising musical materials. We will look at examples of compositional i...

This module covers basic gestures used in duple, triple, compound, mixed and asymmetric metres; cueing of players and singers, and introducing expressive gestures for dynamics, phrasing etc.; basic approaches to rehearsal and score-marking technique.

The aim of this module is to familiarise you with several important, but competing, theories of justice. Such theories give guidance on important questions of distributive justice (who ought to get what, when and why?), and provide, to varying degrees, gr...

In this module students prepare one programme, lasting 30 minutes, of instrumental, vocal, or mixed-ensemble music of their own choice, which is coached regularly by members of staff. Entry to this course is subject to approval of the appropriate Head of ...

We are all familiar with fictions from Romeo and Juliet to Jaws, from The Hobbit to Harry Potter. Despite this familiarity, the nature of fiction and of our engagement with it appears puzzling. On the one hand, fictional characters do not exist. On the ot...

Hip-hop is one of the most ubiquitous, lucrative and popular musics in the world. Although it emerged in the South Bronx (New York City) in the 1970s, the history of hip-hop goes far beyond the USA and includes myriad transnational exchanges. Hip-hop has ...

It seems clear that people’s lives can go well or badly. But what is it for one’s life to go well? Does it consist in feeling good more often than feeling bad? Or getting most of what you want? Or does it consist in achievement, friendship, knowledge and ...

How will the arts get working again after Covid-19? This is a critically important question for everyone who cares about them, artists and audiences alike. If you’re a student considering a career in the arts you’ll want to know where fresh opportunities ...

Interactive music and sound can be found in diverse forms, from video games and interactive installations through to data driven sonic art and works with audience/performer interventions. Such situations provide composers and sound artists with both exci...

This module explores how music therapy uses music very differently to the entertainment industry, introducing you to the unique use of music as a powerful clinical tool in health and education settings. Using clinical music therapy techniques, music can b...

The aim of this module is to look beneath the surface - challenging assumptions made about music being therapeutic and exploring how to prove music is effective as therapy. Drawing on the knowledge gleaned in the second year module, the module aims to dev...

This module allows you to explore basic multi-track recording and production techniques. The module is based in the University’s recording studios and music computing facilities where you will explore a range of techniques and equipment from both theoreti...

Reading the works of Friedrich Nietzsche is both exciting and troubling. He sets out to undermine the basis of many of our beliefs about values. Christianity, he believed, has had a powerfully negative effect on the potential of human beings. His method o...

This module allows you to expand your music performance skills to a high standard. A combination of individual tuition (10 1hr lessons) and a variety workshop and public performance opportunities provide you with the chance to study new repertoire, impr...

The science of psychology and the project of artificial intelligence raise profound philosophical issues as they attempt to understand, simulate and even go beyond human thought. Some concern the kind of explanation that these ventures seek: If we underst...

In this module you will explore some major philosophical questions related to sex. We will begin by considering the nature of sex, discussing a range of theories of sex including the traditional view of sex as essentially connected to reproduction and “pl...

Socrates wants to cross a river and comes to a bridge guarded by Plato, who says: “Socrates, if you say something true, I will permit you to cross. But if you speak falsely, I shall throw you into the water.” Socrates answers: “You will throw me into the ...

The aims of this module are to explore some central issues about the relationship between action, reason, and ethics. Questions we shall consider may include: What is an action? What is it to act intentionally? What are reasons for action? Do all, some, o...

We seem to know our own minds - our beliefs, desires, intentions, thoughts, feelings and sensations - in a distinctively secure and immediate way, without having to rely on observation of our own behaviour. Such self-knowledge seems different from knowled...

This module offers a practical introduction to organising, arranging for, rehearsing and performing with groups of singers of any level, from beginners to professionals. It is particularly aimed at students who are interested in community music or music e...

This module introduces you to the history of the American Musical and examines some of the issues connected with race, exoticism, gender and national identity as they were articulated in this multimedia entertainment between the late nineteenth century an...

The climate crisis is one of the most urgent issues facing humanity. Climate change is having an increasing impact on individual lives, and on social and political relations and institutions. This module examines the moral and political philosophical issu...

In this module you will explore the operas by Benjamin Britten, one of Britain’s most influential composers. Britten’s operas are among the few 20th-century works that hold a central position in today’s operatic canon. They are produced regularly by world...

This module gives students a chance to compose for jazz and jazz influenced ensembles. This module will embrace the rich tradition of jazz writing and its conventions as heard in the works of the great jazz composers, such as Duke Ellington, Herbie Han...

It is commonplace to hear people say such things as, ‘You shouldn’t believe that God exists—look at all the evil in the world’, or ‘You ought to believe that there is life on other planets—it’s entirely probable’, and the like. These judgements concerning...

Wittgenstein is the most important philosopher of the twentieth century. He offers a sustained critique of many of the most common assumptions underlying much contemporary philosophy of mind and language. He explores, among other things, the questions of ...