Music and War Level Three
| Code | School | Level | Credits | Semesters |
| MUSI3054 | Music | 3 | 20 | Autumn UK |
- Code
- MUSI3054
- School
- Music
- Level
- 3
- Credits
- 20
- Semesters
- Autumn UK
Summary
Recent years have been rife with anniversary events commemorating conflicts of the last few hundred years: the Battle of Waterloo (1815), World War One (1914-1918) and World War Two (1939-1945), to name but a few. New books have been published, concert series have taken place (the Wigmore Hall’s ‘Music in the Shadow of War’ series, 2013) and broadcasts on the topic are a regular feature on the airwaves (for example, the Radio 3 series ‘Music in the Great War’, 2014). The course uses this timeliness to explore a previously neglected aspect of modern warfare, but one that is increasingly becoming a scholarly concern: the role music and sound have played in conflict and its representation. Beginning with the Battle of Waterloo, the course will track various conflicts of the past two centuries—including the battle noise of World War One and the use of music as propaganda in World War Two, and will culminate with the use of music as torture in the detention camps of the so-called ‘war on terror’. We will consider composers such as Beethoven, Schoenberg and Ireland; popular song and ephemeral ditties; and aspects of broader auditory culture. Our main aim is to explore the role that music and sound have played in how war has been represented, imagined and memorialised.
Target Students
Available to all Year 3 students including Liberal Arts, exchange and subsidiary students.
Classes
- One 1-hour workshop each week for 6 weeks
- One 1-hour seminar each week for 6 weeks
- One 2-hour lecture each week for 12 weeks
Assessment
- 70% Coursework 1: One essay of 4000 words
- 30% Exam 1 (24-hour): One take-home exam
Assessed by end of autumn semester
Educational Aims
In doing this course you will develop:An understanding of the role that music and sound have played in modern conflict;A critical awareness of issues of musical meaning, music in society and the history of sound;An ability to discuss and critically analyse a broad range of repertoire from various wartime periods;An appreciation of the part that listening, the senses and sonic affect can play in histories of music.Learning Outcomes
- An understanding of the history of sound and music in wartime.
- A development of critical skills and the handling of primary source material.
- A theoretical grounding in sound studies, historiography, and music in society.