Module manager: Emily Payne
Email: e.l.payne@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable
Year running 2025/26
| MUS3132 | Cultures of Performance |
This module is not approved as a discovery module
Increasingly, music has come to be recognised not simply as an object conceived by a composer and reproduced by a performer, but as performance: something embodied, material, inherently creative, and embedded in historically and socially distinct performance cultures. On this module you will analyse musical cultures of performance in critical contexts relating to staff specialisms. You will draw on relevant methodologies to appraise the implications of positioning performance as the primary object of musical study, and examine the meanings musical performance takes on in wider social settings. Please note this is an optional module and runs subject to enrolments. If a low number of students choose this module, then the module may not run and you may be asked to choose another module.
This module aims to develop your capability to engage critically with musicological sources to situate musical performance as primary in the study of musical culture and meaning. You will learn to apply relevant methodologies to appraise the relationship between the theory and cultural practice of performance, and situate musical performances within their cultural and analytical contexts.
On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following learning outcomes relevant to the subject:
1. Situate music with respect to a range of analytical contexts and critical perspectives relevant to performance and performance studies.
2. Analyse connections between theories and the cultural practice of performance.
3. Apply a range of appropriate methodologies to the study of musical performance and its cultures.
Skills Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following skills learning outcomes:
4. Analyse sources to appraise, debate and defend scholarly arguments
5. Communicate ideas in clear and structured ways.
Details of the syllabus will be provided on the Minerva organisation (or equivalent) for the module.
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lecture | 8 | 2 | 16 |
| Seminar | 1 | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| Private study hours | 182.5 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 17.5 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 200 | ||
Formative feedback on a preparatory task to the summative coursework assessment – which may take the form of a literature review, abstract or other similar task as appropriate to the form of the final assessment – will be provided before or within the seminar, helping to build skills (especially SLO4 and 5). This feedback may be provided in plenary form, with opportunities for individualized follow-up feedback via email or drop-in hours extended to students who wish to take advantage of it. It is anticipated that, rather than being ‘accompanied’ by ‘set readings’, lectures will incorporate seminar elements (Q&A and group work) that engage students directly with texts, appropriate reading strategies and literature search approaches, and allow them to gain a clearer sense of the effectiveness of their reading and research.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Coursework | Written Assignment | 100 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated
Check the module area in Minerva for your reading list
Last updated: 03/03/2025
Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team