Module manager: Professor Edward Venn
Email: e.j.venn@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2025/26
| MUS2232 | Music and Meaning |
This module is not approved as a discovery module
The meanings music might have – what they are and who gets to decide – form a perennial subject of debate in music studies. Music’s interactions with other media, narrative, and aspects of cultural and social identity enrich but complicate its potential meanings for listeners and performers alike. On this module you will analyse music and meaning in critical contexts relating to staff specialisms. You will draw on relevant methodologies to appraise the relationships between music and meaning, and the resulting issues and challenges they raise. 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 interpret the relationship between music and meaning. You will learn to apply relevant methodologies to appraise the ways in which music takes on its meanings, and analyse connections between theories of meaning and the reception of music in its social and cultural contexts.
On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following learning outcomes relevant to the subject:
1. Show creative initiative in synthesising academic knowledge and skills from music and related disciplines.
2. Interrogate and critique methodologies used in the study of music and meaning.
Skills Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following skills learning outcomes:
3. Show critical judgement in the selection and use of relevant research, practice and scholarship.
4. Communicate ideas in precise, organised and accessible 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 – which proposes and justifies a title for the final assessment, an associated research question, and a proposed choice of sources and methodology – will be provided before or within the seminar, helping to build skills in preparation for the final assignment. This feedback will be provided individually through Minerva. As at level 2, lectures will incorporate seminar elements (Q&A and group work) that engage students directly with aspects of source selection, critique and methodology.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Coursework | Written Assignment | 100 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
The assignment may use any discursive format, including e.g. a podcast or multimedia essay (incorporating online video or audio examples).
The reading list is available from the Library website
Last updated: 07/04/2025
Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team