BA English and Music

Programme overview

Entry requirements

Entry Requirements are available on the Course Search entry

Programme specification

The information on this page is accurate for students entering the programme in 2022/2023 or before. For students entering the programme from September 2023 or after, you can find the details of your programme: BA English and Music(For students entering from September 2023 onwards)

English and Music is a diverse degree that allows you to engage with a variety of literature and music spanning a broad range of periods, cultures and themes. The combination of these two subject areas will allow you to develop advanced academic skills including critical analysis, interpretation, and research. You'll also have the chance to enhance practical skills in music composition, performance, and creative writing.

You'll study a wide variety of texts, both fiction and non-fiction, developing an understanding of the relationships between meaning, interpretation and language. You will also have the opportunity to focus on areas of music such as musicology, performance, composition or music technology.

Our impressive range of academic expertise means that you have the opportunity to choose from a variety of optional modules, tailoring your degree to suit your interests and career aspirations. You could study historical literature from Medieval to Victorian, influential writers from Shakespeare to Jane Austen, or explore language in the context of power or gender. In music, you could choose to explore a musicology topic linked to an area of staff expertise.

Facilities

We have plenty of resources to enhance your academic experience. Our world-class Brotherton Library boasts unique manuscript, archive and early printed material in its Special Collections. The University Library also offers a comprehensive training programme that will enable you to make the most of our extensive library resources.

Take a look around our libraries:

Brotherton Library
Laidlaw Library
Edward Boyle Library

The School of Music has purpose-built practice rooms, extensive rehearsal facilities, studio spaces, a music psychology lab, percussion instruments and plenty of specialist computing facilities. Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall, also on campus, hosts a varied programme of concerts during term time, all free to students.

The University and School also have a close partnership with Opera North, as well as hosting the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition, and the University of Leeds International Concert Series.

Year 1

[Learning Outcomes, Transferable (Key) Skills, Assessment]
View Timetable

At Level 1, students are required to take 120 credits, with a minimum of 40 credits in both English and Music.

Compulsory Modules

They must take the following core modules: Basket 1:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
ENGL1055	Writing Matters	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL1065	Reading Between the Lines	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
MUS1001	Music and Society	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
MUS1002	Materials of Music	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)

Optional Modules

Level 1 students may select up to two of the following English option modules:

Basket 2:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
ENGL1070	Drama: Text and Performance	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL1221	Modern Fictions in English: Conflict, Liminality, Translation	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL1261	Poetry: Reading and Interpretation	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL1855	Race, Writing and Decolonization	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Level 1 students may select up to two of the following Music option modules:

Basket 3:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
MUS1131	Talking About Pop Music: Discourse and Debates in Popular Music	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
MUS1132	Film Music	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
MUS1151	Introduction to the Psychology of Music	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
MUS1161	Studio Recording	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
MUS1211	The Music Industries	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
MUS1221	Creating Music	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
MUS1231	Film Music	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
MUS1232	Talking About Pop Music: Discourse and Debates in Popular Music	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
MUS1241	Collaborative Performance	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
MUS1341	Performance Studies	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)

Discovery Modules

Candidates may take up to 40 credits of Discovery modules in place of two of the option modules above.

Year 2

[Learning Outcomes, Transferable (Key) Skills, Assessment]
View Timetable

To be eligible for a joint honours award, students must pass at least 40 credits at level 2 in each of the named subjects.

Compulsory Modules

Students must take the following three core modules: Basket 1:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
ENGL2030	Writing Environments: Literature, Nature, Culture	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL2045	Body Language: Literature and Embodiment	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
MUS2001	Researching Music	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)

Optional Modules

Candidates may select up to 2 further English option modules from Basket 2:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
ENGL2029	Renaissance Literature	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL2055	American Words, American Worlds	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL2065	Postcolonial Literature	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL2080	Contemporary Literature	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL2085	Medieval and Tudor Literature	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL2090	Modern Literature	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL2095	Other Voices: Rethinking Nineteenth-Century Literature	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL2096	The World Before Us: Literature 1660–1830	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Candidates must select at least 1 and up to 3 Music option modules from baskets 3-5 (no more than 2 options from any single basket)

Basket 3:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
MUS2111	Marketing for the Music Industry	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
MUS2131	Creating Screen Music and Sound	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
MUS2132	Cultures of Performance	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
MUS2133	Music and Politics	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
MUS2134	Notations of Music	20	Not running in 202526
MUS2151	Psychology of Listening and Performance	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)

Basket 4:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
MUS2231	Music, Sound, and Media	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
MUS2232	Music and Meaning	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
MUS2233	Aesthetics and Criticism	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
MUS2241	Collaborative Performance	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
MUS2242	Conducting and Musical Directing	20	Not running in 202526
MUS2261	Applied Music Technology	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Basket 5:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
MUS2321	Composition	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
MUS2331	Opera North: Opera in Practice	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
MUS2341	Performance	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)

Discovery Modules

Level 2 students may take up to 40 credits of Discovery modules or a module from Basket 6 in place of English or Music options, provided they have fulfilled the programme requirements to take at least 40 credits in both JH subjects.

Year 3

[Learning Outcomes, Transferable (Key) Skills, Assessment]
View Timetable

Students must take 120 credits in Level 3 and must take a Final Year Project in either Music or English.

Over levels 2 and 3 combined, students must take:
1. English - a minimum of 80 credits (at least 40 credits must be at Level 3)
2. Music - a minimum of 80 credits (at least 40 credits must be at Level 3)
3. At least 100 credits at Level 2
4. At least 100 credits at Level 3.

Additionally, students must take:
5. a further 40 credits in the named subjects (i.e. in English, Music, or a combination of both).
6. a further 40 credits in either the named subjects (English or Music) or in Discovery modules (i.e. outside the named subjects).

In order to be eligible for an honours degree, students must:
- meet the Rules for Award
- pass all modules which are designated 'pass for progression'
- pass the required number of credits at each level (a minimum of 100 credits at each Levels 1, 2 & 3) as specified in the Curricular Regulations

Optional Modules

Candidates will be required to study ONE of the following two core modules:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
ENGL3041	Final Year Project	40	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)	PFP
MUSS3140	Dissertation	40	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)	PFP

Please note that modules which run over both semesters 1 & 2 will have the credits divided equally between the two semesters.

Candidates may choose up to 40 credits of specialist research modules in English from Baskets 2 and 3, provided they have met the requirement to study at least 40 credits of Music modules. The list provided below is indicative and is subject to change year by year depending on staff availability:
Basket 2:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
ENGL3031	Sex and Suffering in the Eighteenth-Century Novel	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3033	Writing and Gender in Seventeenth-Century England	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3037	Speech Acts: Contemporary Approaches to Text and Performance	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3046	Parts, Periodicals, Newspapers: Literature and the Nineteenth-Century Press	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3063	Haunted Hinterlands: Wyrd Works and Folk Horror Fictions	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3068	African American Narrative	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3069	African Literature	20	Not running in 202526
ENGL3073	Turks, Moors and Jews: Race and Identity in Early Modern Drama	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3114	Forming Victorian Fiction	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3268	Transformations	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3321	Angry Young Men and Women: Literature of the Mid-Twentieth Century	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3484	Prose Fiction Stylistics and the Mind	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3680	Postcolonial London	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
FOAH3001	Global African Writing	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)

Music modules at Level 3. Note that the list is indicative, and may change year by year.
Basket 3:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
ENGL3008	Writing Modern Sexualities	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3027	Shakespeare	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3062	Charles Dickens Then & Now	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3065	Page, Publication and Audience	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3072	Narratives of Witchcraft and Magic	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3153	Refugee Narratives	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3163	Milton	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL32111	Gender, Culture and Politics: Readings of Jane Austen	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3391	September 11 in Fact and Fiction	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3394	Bowie, Reading, Writing	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3396	Fictions of the End: Apocalypse and After	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3461	Imagining the United States: Citizenship, Domesticity and Slavery	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3476	Crime Fiction Stylistics: Crossing Languages, Culture, Media	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3483	The Politics of Language	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3579	Law and Literature: Transgression, Justice, and Interpretation	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
LLLC3953	Advanced Creative Writing Project	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

OPTION MODULES
Candidates who have NOT chosen to undertake a Final Year Project in Music MUST study at least 40 credits from the following list of optional modules.

Candidates who have chosen to undertake a Final Year Project in Music may choose to take up to 40 credits from the following list:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
MUS3132	Cultures of Performance	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
MUS3133	Music and Politics	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
MUS3231	Music, Sound, and Media	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
MUS3232	Music and Meaning	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
MUS3331	Opera North: Opera in Practice	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
MUSS3020	Analysing Music	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
MUSS3240	Composition	40	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
MUSS3324	Ensemble Performance	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
MUSS3325	Applied Project	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
MUSS3340	Performance	40	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
MUSS3640	Music Technology	40	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
MUSS3940	Music Psychology	40	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)

Please note that modules which run over both semesters 1 & 2 will have the credits divided equally between the two semesters.

Discovery Modules

Candidates may choose to study up to 40 credits of Discovery modules over both Level 2 and 3 or pursue additional modules in the two named subjects.

Last updated: 10/07/2025 09:48:23

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