BA Music and East Asian Studies
Entry requirements
A Level: ABB; BBB IB: 33, with 5 in Higher Level Music; 32 + Grade 8 in either Practical (ABRSM/Trinity/Rockschool/LCME or equivalent) or Performance (ABRSM/ARSM/Rockschool/Trinity) + Grade 5 Theory (ABRSM/Trinity/LCME); 32, with 5 in Higher Level Music, and B in a music-based extended essay
About this course
BA in Music and East Asian Studies, an undergraduate degree centred on Chinese and Music. Core topics include Programming, Data Analysis, Research Methods, Fieldwork, Historical Research, Critical & Analytical Thinking, Ethics & Professional Practice, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Design & Creative Practice, Social & Cultural Analysis, and Global & Comparative Perspective. The course includes a third year spent studying abroad at a partner university. The first year covers foundations through compulsory modules such as Digital Skills for Music, History of Western Music, Key Questions in East Asian Studies, and Inventing Traditions in China, Japan and Korea. Optional modules in the first year allow students to study areas such as Composition, Popular Music Studies, or language options like Chinese 1, Japanese 1, and Korean 1. The second year continues with compulsory modules including Western Music in Context, Work in Music, Global Citizenship and East Asia: Responding to Contemporary Challenges, and Mapping East Asia, alongside optional choices such as Studio Practice, Chinese 2, and Music and Sound in East Asia. Later stages feature a year abroad at a partner institution and a minor project involving options like Composition, Performance, Dissertation, or a special project. Further optional modules span topics including Orchestration and Arrangement, Community, Music and Education, and Reading Early East Asian Sources and Contexts.
Modules
- School of Languages, Arts and Societies Year Abroad
- Core Modules: Minor project: - Composition / Performance / Dissertation / Special project
- Analysis and Criticism of Western Art Music
- Orchestration and Arrangement
- Community, Music and Education
- Sound and Moving Image
- Traditional Music in the Modern World
- Creative Performance and Improvisation
- Music Psychology in Everyday Life
- Digital Platforms and Alternative East Asia
- History, Memory and Heritage in East Asia
- Transnational Activism Beyond East Asia
- Curating East Asia: Culture, Media and Creative Practice
- East Asian Futures: Sustainability and Transformation
- Interrogating Identity in East Asia
- Reading Early East Asian Sources and Contexts
- Korean 3
- Japanese 3
- Chinese 3
- Digital Skills for Music
- History of Western Music
- Key Questions in East Asian Studies
- Inventing Traditions in China, Japan and Korea
- Composition
- Popular Music Studies
- Music in a Global Context
- Performance
- Music Analysis
- Psychological Foundations of Music
- Korean 1
- Japanese 1
- Chinese 1
- Thinking Cross-culturally
- Arts, History and Culture in East Asia
- Politics, Economy and Society in East Asia
- Western Music in Context
- Work in Music
- Global Citizenship and East Asia: Responding to Contemporary Challenges
- Mapping East Asia
- Topics in Popular and Contemporary Music
- Composition and Instrumentation
- Music Psychology in Practice
- Performance
- Writing Musical Culture
- Studio Practice
- Korean 2
- Japanese 2
- Chinese 2
- Twentieth-Century East Asian History: Dynamism, Destruction and Dissent
- Film, Television and Screen Cultures in East Asia
- Music and Sound in East Asia
- International Relations in East Asia: Power, Identity and Security
- Everyday East Asia: Ethnographic Approaches
- East Asia Inc: Business, Competition and Innovation