School of Music Undergraduate Degree Programmes
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School of Music Undergraduate Degree Programmes www.cardiff.ac.uk/music 1 Welcome 100% of our “The willingness of graduates were lecturers and tutors in work and/or to collaborate with further education students is what makes the School of within six months of Music stand out.” graduating. Heather Fuller Source: HESA 2016/17 BMus Music Our partnerships with universities around the world allow you to spend a year or a semester studying abroad. 2 Welcome Contents Choose Cardiff 2 Why study music? 4 Studying with us 6 Enhance your experience 8 A world of opportunities 9 Life after university 10 Single honours degree programmes • BMus Music 13 • BA Music 14 Joint honours degree “The School of Music programmes is a wonderfully • BA Music and English close-knit community. Literature 15 The small classes • BA French and Music 16 enabled us to • BA German and Music 16 have close working • BA Italian and Music 17 relationships with • BA Music and History 17 lecturers.” • BA Mathematics and Music 18 Jackie Yip • BA Music and Philosophy 18 BA Music with a year abroad • BA Religious Studies and Music 19 • BA Welsh and Music 19 A capital city 20 A leading university 21 Living in Cardiff 22 96% of our Applications 23 students are How to find the School 25 satisfied overall. Source: NSS 2019 www.cardiff.ac.uk/music 31 Choose Cardiff We provide a lively and supportive environment for musical scholarship, composition and performance. 42 Choose Cardiff At the School of Music we offer thorough musical training and stimulating artistic and academic study in a friendly, collegiate and creative environment. We will help you to broaden your knowledge Our staff are also dedicated to high quality of music and your practical skills, while musical research. We are ranked 2nd among encouraging you to participate fully in our UK university music departments for the School’s wide range of activities. quality of our research environment, and 8th for overall research excellence, in the UK We pride ourselves on the quality of our government’s latest assessment of research teaching. In the 2019 National Student across the UK. Survey we were delighted to receive an overall satisfaction rate of 96% from our final-year Based in Cardiff, a culturally vibrant and undergraduate students. This result is affordable city, we are ideally located for testimony to the strong partnership we have studying music. The city has several world- with our students, as well as to the dedication class venues, such as the Wales Millennium of our staff. Centre, which hold regular concerts and performances. Many of these venues offer Students in our lively School benefit from our students reduced price tickets. Here at numerous School and student-led ensembles the School we also hold a regular concert and events, a regular concert series, and series, hosting performances from musicians opportunities to undertake work placements around the world. and study abroad. Several of our ensembles also undertake international concert tours. I very much look forward to welcoming you to our School. Our undergraduate programmes of study offer an excellent professional preparation and are highly flexible, allowing you to explore Professor Kenneth Hamilton your own musical interests while developing a Head of School, pictured solid, broad-based education in performance, composition, aesthetics, ethnomusicology, musicology and analysis. www.cardiff.ac.uk/music 53 Why study music? Music possesses the extraordinary capacity to have a direct and immediate emotional impact; it can move us, touch us, disturb us. 6 64 Why study music? study Why “Without music, life would be a mistake.” This quotation, by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, encapsulates one of the greatest benefits of studying music: the ability to appreciate what it is to be human. Music weaves its spell on everybody, in every Music also provides skills that are essential culture on earth. No one can escape its for life. Our degrees at the School of Music urgent gravitational pull. For some people, not only offer music-specific skills, such as music is essentially a sensual, physical creative and practical skills, they also include experience. The urge to move the body and fundamental academic study skills and vital to dance to certain pieces of music can often transferable and employability skills, such as prove irresistible. For other people, enjoyment critical and communication skills. and pleasure is gained purely through the At Cardiff University you will listen to and act of listening to music. And yet, for others, study music from many cultures from around academic curiosity leads them naturally to the world; you will learn how to construct a study music to help comprehend the finer well-written and well-argued essay; you will details of what makes music ‘tick’. deliver individual and group presentations; Today, music is everywhere; it penetrates into you will engage in fascinating discussions every aspect of our lives. Understanding how about the different practices of music; you music works, appreciating the many contexts will have the opportunity to compose for in which music is produced, participating in various instrumental and vocal combinations, various forms of music-making, and the act including electro-acoustic music; and there of composing music, are among the most will be many opportunities to perform in supreme forms of cultural engagement, professional music venues, such as St creative endeavour and intellectual David’s Hall in Cardiff, and other similar enrichment. Studying music, among many locations around the UK and further afield. other things, builds imagination; it develops We pride ourselves on producing talented and emotional intelligence; it fosters a sense highly employable graduates who progress of community and teamwork; it helps us to to a wide range of careers, both within and appreciate beauty; it develops language and beyond the music profession. Graduates have reasoning; it relieves stress and improves gone on to careers as performers, composers, wellbeing; and it promotes tolerance and teachers, academics, music librarians, compassion. music producers, journalists, arts managers and administrators, concert managers and music marketing professionals. They have found employment at the BBC, Arts Councils, English National Opera, music publishers, and a range of other industrial, educational, commercial and charitable organisations. Wherever your musical interests and tastes lie – whether you’re enthused by The Beatles, excited by opera, or inspired by Ella Fitzgerald – our degrees are designed for individuals with enquiring and creative minds. A very warm welcome awaits you at the School of Music! Dr Nicholas Jones Director of Recruitment and Admissions AUTUMN 2016 7 www.cardiff.ac.uk/music 75 Studying with us We are situated in a vibrant capital city with rich musical traditions. 86 Studying with us with Studying Cardiff is home to the Welsh National Opera and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, along with world-class performance venues such as the Wales Millennium Centre. In our purpose-built building, in the heart of Instrumental lessons Cardiff, we have all the facilities you need to Music students receive instrumental or vocal succeed in your studies. The Music building lessons as part of their course. Many of our offers lecture theatres with modern lecture- practical tutors are members of either the capture technology, seminar rooms, more BBC National Orchestra of Wales or Welsh than 25 practice rooms, three ensemble National Opera. rooms and electro-acoustic studios. Instrumental tuition is fully-funded by the Performance and studio facilities School on your principal study instrument. Our 250-seat concert hall hosts professional This includes accompaniment at your final public concerts and student-led events recital each year. Students receive 24-half- throughout the year, as well as being used hour lessons over the course of the year. daily by our students for teaching and BMus students taking the open recital module rehearsals. The space is integral to the life receive 24-hours of tuition in their final year. and work of the School, and is central to our student performances and concert series. Much of the performance in our concert hall connects directly with our undergraduate programmes, with a range of visiting professional performers frequently holding masterclasses and workshops in both composition and performance. Our four music studios are fully acoustically treated and equipped to industry standards. The main studio also has an attached live room for multitrack recording, voiceovers and overdubs. Don’t just take our word for it . Several things stand out about the School of Music: the supportive environment, friendly atmosphere, the staff, and the strive for excellence in both academic work and performances. If I ever needed help, advice or a contact for a placement or performance opportunity, the staff always had time for me. David Vellacott BMus Music www.cardiff.ac.uk/music 97 Enhance your experience The Chamber Choir performing in Xiamen, China 2019 Our students benefit from a rich and diverse International students The School of Music has a wide provision range of musical activities. for international students coming to study at our School. For those who have English as Our School-run ensembles perform in Cardiff Student life a second language, we offer weekly classes and further afield, with recent international throughout each semester along with courses Our small student