Traditional and World Music (Distance Learning) MA

Course description

The course allows students to specialise in an area of their choice, while providing the opportunity to study musical phenomena from a global perspective. Some students take advantage of Sheffield’s position as a major hub of both English and ‘Celtic’ musical activity to pursue in-depth studies on traditional musics of the British Isles. Others enjoy the opportunity to develop new understanding of musical sounds, practices and cultures from elsewhere in the world. In this course, ‘World Music’ is interpreted quite literally as encompassing, in principle, the study of any and all musical activity in the world: Western as well as ‘exotic’, popular as well as classical, amateur as well as professional.

Traditional and world musics and their associated cultures are studied through practical methods such as fieldwork and direct participation in music-making, as well as library research and theoretical interpretation. Students gain both a deeper knowledge of the music and a set of skills for discovering and communicating new knowledge about music. The course is intended for musicians, educators and other enthusiasts who want to know more about traditional and world musics and about ways of studying and understanding music in its social and cultural context.