Course overview
This course covers a broad range of methods used in research by musicologists today. These include (1) ethnographic methods such as field observation (including participant-observation), field documentation and interviewing techniques; (2) music transcription and analytical methods as applied to a wide range of notated musical forms and oral performance practices; computer aided methods for data collection and analyses of music and musical instruments; and (3) historical methods and approaches to collect and interpret musical past.
Course learning outcomes
- To demonstrate critical evaluation of music scholarship as relevant to both the theoretical and practical aspects of music and music-making both in any cultural context
- To be able to conceptualise a problem in music or arising from music-making and identify appropriate methodologies to investigate it
- To have confidence in the communication of research outcomes, whether delivered through oral, written, performance, composition or other media, employing appropriate professional standards
- To understand the key theoretical and practical issues in music and apply them more broadly in professional life