University of Galway

Course Module Information

Course Modules

Semester 2 | Credits: 5

This module provides students with an introduction to the history of western art Music, covering the late romantic period and twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and the genres and vocabularies associated with these periods. Students will learn the principles of active listening, how to engage with musical scores and appropriate secondary sources, and the relationship between musical composition and practice and broader social and intellectual trends. More generally, they will be equipped with skills to work independently as music researchers.
(Language of instruction: English)

Learning Outcomes
  1. Identify the characteristics of key musical periods in terms of genres, styles and forms.
  2. Place the development of music in its cultural, social and historical contexts, and give examples of how music responds to, and/or creates, these contexts.
  3. Apply accurate scholarly terminology for key musical developments, genres, and techniques.
  4. Apply their knowledge of musical periods through essay-writing and active listening.
Assessments
  • Continuous Assessment (50%)
  • Oral, Audio Visual or Practical Assessment (50%)
Teachers
Reading List
  1. "A History of Western Music (Ninth Edition)" by J. Peter Burkholder,Donald Jay Grout,Claude V. Palisca
    ISBN: 9780393918298.
    Publisher: W. W. Norton
  2. "Norton Anthology of Western Music: Classic to twentieth century" by James Peter Burkholder,Claude V. Palisca
    ISBN: 9780393979909.
  3. "The Norton Anthology of Western Music, 2 vols." by Claude Palisca
  4. "The Oxford History of Western Music" by Richard Taruskin,Christopher H. Gibbs
    ISBN: 9780195097627.
    Publisher: OUP USA
The above information outlines module MU2108: "Music History 2" and is valid from 2020 onwards.
Note: Module offerings and details may be subject to change.