MA (Hons) Art History and Music Bachelor's degree at the University of Aberdeen

This compulsory evaluation is designed to find out if your academic writing is of a sufficient standard to enable you to succeed at university and, if you need it, to provide support to improve. It is completed on-line via MyAberdeen with clear instructions to guide you through it.

This course, which is prescribed for level 1 undergraduate students and articulating students who are in their first year at the University, is studied entirely online, takes approximately 2-3 hours to complete and can be taken in one sitting, or spread across the first 4 weeks of term. Topics include University orientation overview, equality & diversity, MySkills, health, safety and cyber security, and academic integrity.

This course will examine key ideas and methodologies in music studies, incorporating approaches from a range of 'disciplines' such as musicology, ethnomusicology, performance studies, music education and community music. We will discuss a diverse range of topics including: cross cultural definitions of music; the role of music in society; different methodological approaches to the study of music history; how music is learnt in different places and times; and the relationship between music, econo

This course discusses key works and movements in the history of art from c. 1800 to today. It serves as an introduction to one of the most dynamic and multifaceted chapters in art history. Topics to be discussed may range from the Pre-Raphaelites and the rise of abstraction to contemporary performance art. The course will also consider the global intersections of Western art, aiming to de-centre our understanding of what counts as 'modern'

This course provides an introduction to the history and theory of fashion, one of the most dynamic, intriguing and influential artforms. From premodern tailoring to contemporary pret-a-porter, costume design and creative subcultures: the course surveys a wide range of ever-changing fashion trends, and asks what they tell us about identities, aesthetics, and popular culture.

This course explores art history in the Western world from antiquity to the nineteenth century. We examine the artistic production of distinct historical periods, with reference to their social, religious, political and cultural contexts, and consider art history's use of specific labels and chronologies, from Classical and Medieval, to Renaissance, Baroque, and Romantic art.

Collecting, like art-making, is a universal human activity. This introductory course takes you on a journey through the history of collecting, from early modern cabinets of curiosities, over the origins of the modern art museum, to questions of curation in the digital age. We will explore how changing modes of display affect our perception and understanding of artworks. The course also addresses key debates on the practice and ethics of museums, on restitution and decolonisation.

This course will engage students in practical music making, developing skills in performing and composing. Students will receive 10 hours of tuition with a specialist instrumental / vocal tutor, and attend lectures on genre, performance style, composing / arranging techniques, rehearsal etiquette, and stagecraft. In groups of 5-8 performers, students attend a series of rehearsal sessions, where they will plan and manage a group creative project, culminating in a 10-minute performance as part of

Combining key components in digital technology and musicianship, Digital Musicianship encourages music students to acquire basic digital skills that will help them explore a wide range of music making in the 21st century, through skill building in the applications of technology to the discipline of Music. This hands-on, project-based course introduces basic knowledge in digital music technology, and key issues related to the music making in the 21st century.

Building on "Performing and Composing 1", this course will guide students to developing their own range of interests in creative musical practice. Students will work towards a portfolio of creative outputs, which can include a range of compositions and musical arrangements, and recordings of solo / ensemble performances. Students receive 10 hours of one-to-one tuition on their chosen instrument / voice, and attend lectures and tutorials focussing variously on issues related to performance, compo

In this course, basic concepts of Western tonal music such as primary triads, cadences, idiomatic chord progressions, and voice leading are taught using exercises in harmonic analysis, figured bass, and part writing. More advanced concepts such as secondary dominants and chromatically-altered chords are also introduced. In parallel to lectures and seminars, students will work with software designed to reinforce key concepts such as clefs, intervals, key signatures, and scale structures.

In this course you will explore ways of writing and talking about music. Lectures will focus on recent work in music studies, showcasing the kind of scholarship you will encounter later in your degree. Tutorials will provide opportunities for experimenting in a range of formal and informal styles, working both individually and in small groups. By the end of the course you will gain a deeper understanding of both established writing conventions and emerging forms of multi-media communication.

'Art' is a controversial category. In museums, you might see urinals and cardboard boxes exhibited – but what earns them this accolade? Is it about skill? Creativity? Beauty? Who decides what counts as 'good' art? And why are museums full of stuff made by white men? This course discusses these and related questions. It will introduce you to a wide range of historical definitions of art, and discuss key works, from antiquity to Instagram - many of which challenged the boundaries of 'art'.

This course focuses on how artworks are made. Students will be introduced to a wide range of materials, techniques and processes over the centuries relating to paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture, photography and more. Each method and material will be examined using case-study examples, with discussion opening out to issues of the agency of materials and media and their cultural logics. In doing so, students will learn how artistic intentions are shaped and determined by material qualities.

This course introduces students to the principal aspects of Scottish oral traditions from historical times to the present. It should appeal to both international and local students who are interested in learning more about traditional culture in Scotland, as well as the disciplines of Ethnology, Folklore, and Ethnomusicology.

Students will develop a critical awareness of form and structure in music by studying various approaches to musical analysis. The course will draw on a range of analytical methods and musical genres, such as functional harmony and classical form, pitch-class set theory, rhetoric in music, and computer-aided analysis.

This course offers students an introduction to the field of ethnomusicology, including the historical development of the field, how to conduct fieldwork and some of the field's key theoretical perspectives. The course will introduce students to a range of musical traditions from around the world through case studies that demonstrate the close relationship between music, society and culture (topics include nationalism, colonialism, identity, race and globalisation). Teaching will take the form of

Ranging widely across space and time, this course introduces some of the reasons and methods for studying the musical past in a global context. Students will encounter case studies from across world history, with lectures summarising key topics and tutorials allowing for deeper discussion. Students will also consider how historical knowledge about music is itself the product of a global past and will be encouraged to question how we tell the stories of those who made music before us.

Surrealism was one of the most significant international avant-garde movements of the twentieth century (1924-1968) and has interdisciplinary reach as a theory of knowledge and mode of political activism making it pertinent to study today. This course introduces the core themes and activities of this vibrant art and literary history. Through study of key examples, students hone understandings of Surrealism's enduring impact on, and practical manifestation in, early twenty-first century culture,

Architecture can be a synonym for power. Castles that loom over the landscape, the country house and its links with the British Empire and the Victorian prisons designed to incarcerate and extinguish hope. This course takes a thematic approach to the history of architecture to examine the institutions that define our landscapes and cities. Far from being neutral blocks of stone, brick and wood, the architecture of power reveals the way societies organise themselves.