Music

Throughout this Music degree you’ll explore practical performance in areas such as classical music, jazz and contemporary styles, extend your creativity through composition, and investigate musical contexts from the medieval period through to the present day. You can also study areas including music psychology, community music, and ethnomusicology. Over the three years you’ll develop ways to apply what you learn to help your future career and understand current issues within the music industry.

We have a vibrant and active musical community, with an exciting range of ensembles open to all students. This includes choirs and instrumental ensembles of many genres, including our own Javanese gamelan, mbira, ukulele, folk, traditional, and experimental music groups.

The course is structured around modules which focus on four strands: performing, creating, understanding and employing music, with each module having a lot of choice as to how you develop your skills and understanding in a way relevant to your aspirations. The first two years immerse you in new ideas and experiences, culminating in your final year independent study which gives you a space to explore your ideas in a large-scale project.

Year one
You’ll study performance, including regular one-to-one instrumental/vocal lessons, and learn exciting concepts and tools used in composition to create music in a wide range of styles and genres. You’ll study music technology in our industry-standard labs. Ethnomusicology combines lectures on music and culture with practical global music workshops, while musicology combines lectures and seminars on key current topics in music with research and study skills.

Year two
You’ll develop skills in teaching and in the area of music management and promotion through the professional module and have the option to undertake a placement in a musical organisation. You'll continue to develop your performance skills, explore at a greater depth the strategies for creating your own music, learn forward-thinking ways to analyse music and increasingly specialise in areas of particular strength and interest.

Year three
You’ll have the freedom to explore your own musical identity in a wide range of specialisms, depending on your career aspirations and goals, with a full spectrum of independent study options. You'll also choose from a wide range of supporting modules designed to prepare you for the professional world of music; practical research skills will enable you to challenge the status quo and apply composition skills to interdisciplinary environments.

You’ll be assessed through coursework, including creative artefacts, written and spoken presentations, and through practical assessments such as recitals and public ensemble performances.

The Music course is taught through workshops, masterclasses, lectures, seminars, individual tutorials and instrumental/vocal lessons.

You’ll be taught by, and work alongside, a creative community of experts. Full-time staff are all practising performers, composers and researchers.

You’ll also be taught by visiting staff, many with international reputations.

There are opportunities to study abroad for a term or longer in year two – we have links with university music departments and schools in Europe, particularly Germany, and the USA. We also welcome overseas students into the department on placement every year which further enriches your experience as a music student.

We give regular performances throughout the year on campus, in Bath and further afield. Each year we stage opera and musical theatre productions, as well as running events in the city and wider region. We have a wide selection of ensembles and facilitate forming your own groups as part of the performance strand of the course.

We have a very active community of composers, improvisers, producers, songwriters and sound artists at Bath Spa and our open and exploratory approach to making work gives you the space to find your own voice. You can make work for and with other students, collaborate with practitioners in other disciplines such as dance, drama or film, and produce a final portfolio of work which will help take you to the next stage of your career as a creative practitioner.

In years two and three, you'll have the opportunity to undertake fieldwork related to your creative and research projects, as well as running and participating in activities with community music groups. We also give performances in accessible venues off campus, including the Holburne Museum and the Museum of Bath at Work.

You can choose to take a Professional Placement Year in your second year to develop the personal and professional skills employers are looking for in a competitive job market. During the course you'll explore the constantly changing needs of the creative industries sector in particular, benefitting from masterclass sessions from leading international musicians, composers and performers, as well as experts from the music industry.

Recent placements have included the BBC Proms, Dorling Kindersley, Bath International Music Festival, Welsh National Opera, Glyndebourne, Royal Opera House, BBC Music Magazine, and Real World Studios.

Graduates from BA (Hons) Music at Bath Spa go on to successful careers in a range of roles including those in education, special needs and community music, performance, composition, promotion, publishing and other aspects of the music business.

We offer three cash prizes in performance, composition and ensemble to students in their final year. The University also offers a range of scholarships, bursaries and awards.

This optional placement year provides you with the opportunity to identify, apply for and secure professional experience, normally comprising one to three placements over a minimum of nine months. Successful completion of this module will demonstrate your ability to secure and sustain graduate-level employment.

By completing the module, you'll be entitled to the addition of 'with Professional Placement Year' to your degree title.

Before your Professional Placement Year, you'll work to secure your placement, constructing a development plan with your module leader and your placement coordinator from our Careers and Employability team.

On your return to University for your final year, you'll submit your Placement Portfolio, detailing your development on your placement.

Based at the Michael Tippett Centre, we have excellent facilities including:

• A purpose-built concert hall with superb acoustics
• 17 practice rooms, three with electronically variable acoustic
• A wide range of medieval, renaissance and baroque instruments, and a large collection of percussion and orchestral instruments
• A Javanese Gamelan
• A high spec music technology laboratory
• Five recording studios
• Two band rehearsal rooms
  
• Large, well-stocked Music Library and a wide range of online music resources.