Musicology at the University of Manchester
Courses
Our approach to teaching musicology at Manchester is designed to stimulate our students’ curiosity about the many different ways in which we can think about and try to understand music and the artistic, cultural and social contexts in which it is created, as well as to encourage them to challenge some of the many assumptions that are commonly held about music, composers and works. Such questions have the potential profoundly to influence the way students’ develop as performers and as creators, as well as in their academic study of music, and we maintain a strong programme of lectures, workshops and seminars designed to help students grow as thinking musicians.
Our musicology teaching is carried out by some of the most respected figures in their fields, who have published books, articles and editions of international influence on a wide range of topics; they ensure that our courses are at the cutting edge of the discipline, growing out of the latest research. They also maintain high profiles within the musical life of the country – you may have heard them broadcasting on BBC Radio 3, encountered their names as authors of programme notes for major events such as the Edinburgh Festival, the Aldeburgh Festival and the BBC Promenade Concerts, or seen their names attached to editions of music you have played for ABRSM examinations.
Our seven musicology staff – Dr Caroline Bithell, Prof Barry Cooper, Prof David Fanning, Dr James Garratt, Dr Rebecca Herissone, Dr. Susan Rutherford, Dr Laura Tunbridge , with David Fallows as our Professor Emeritus – encompass a wide range of specialist areas, from the traditional music of the Mediterranean, to Beethoven, to nineteenth-century opera, from notions of creativity in the seventeenth century to music and politics in nineteenth-century Germany, and from reception of Schumann to music in Soviet Russia. This diversity of research areas allows us to offer an impressive variety of courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Yet our musicology staff share between them common methodological interests, which are reflected in the approaches taken across our programmes. These common areas include:
- The cultural study of music
- Music and politics
- Aesthetics
- Reception and performance history
- Source studies and print culture
- Performance practice
Working closely with the musicologists are the Quatuor Danel, our renowned resident string quartet based in Brussels, who make frequent visits to the university for recitals, workshops and seminars. Their annual concert season at the Cosmo Rodewald concert hall regularly features works our musicologists have been researching, particularly evident in their recent recordings of the complete string quartets of Weinberg, whose reputation has been significantly rehabilitated through the work of David Fanning.
At undergraduate level our courses are designed to allow maximum flexibility so that students can select topics of special interest to them as well as finding out about areas that are new to them; in their final year they have an opportunity to write an extended dissertation on a musical topic of their choice. Our MusM in Musicology (including an Ethnomusicology pathway) is designed to give expert postgraduate research training as well as offering course units that are closely tailored to the individual research interests of our students. These allow them to work on a one-to-one basis with our world-leading staff, as do our large and lively community of PhD students. Our research community centres around our fortnightly musicology fora, which include both traditional research papers, and more informal discussions in which we debate recent musicological topics and controversies.
Studies in musicology are greatly facilitated by the proximity of three libraries with extensive music collections: the John Rylands University Library (JRUL), the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) Library, and the Henry Watson Library in Manchester Public Library. The JRUL is one of the great research libraries – the largest university library in Britain outside Oxford and Cambridge – with more than 4 million printed books and manuscripts, over 41,000 electronic journals and 500,000 electronic books, as well as several hundred databases. Its extensive collection of books on music, scores, and music-specific e-resources is supplemented by many thousands of recordings housed in the Lenagan Library (in the Martin Harris Centre). The JRUL’s Special Collections, housed in the John Rylands Library on Deansgate, include many rare music scores and music-related items. The RNCM Library contains some important collected editions, music journals and source material, while the Henry Watson Library (currently accessible via the City Library on Deansgate) includes much important source material – including the only source of an early version of Vivaldi’s celebrated Four Seasons – and an extensive microfilm collection.
Studying with some of the leading musicologists both nationally and internationally – much of our research was classified as ‘world-leading’ in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise – makes musicology at Manchester a truly inspiring experience, and many former students have expressed their appreciation of the opportunities that the University of Manchester has provided in this area. You can read more about our alumni on our careers and employability pages.