BMus Music

Learn a language as part of this programme

Degree programmes at SOAS - including this one - can include language courses in more than forty African and Asian languages. It is SOAS students’ command of an African or Asian language which sets SOAS apart from other universities.

First-year modules cover the basic principles of ethnomusicology and survey a variety of Asian and African musics. Students additionally receive aural training (e.g. in transcription) and follow lessons in one or more Asian or African performance traditions. The Department is linked with nearby King’s College, University of London. Qualified SOAS students may take up to 30 credits in Western music at King’s, and King’s students may take modules in ethnomusicology at SOAS, subject to approval from the appropriate tutors.

In Years 2 and 3, the student is encouraged to focus on the music of a selected region or regions through “area” modules focussing on Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, and the Jewish world. A number of non-regional “thematic” modules and independent research projects are also available. Modules in other departments (“open options”) may be taken as appropriate, once the Music requirements have been met.

Please note that a 15 credits module corresponds to a 0.5 unit (taught over one term) and a 30 credits module corresponds to a full unit (taught over both terms).

• Students are required to take modules to the total value of 360 credits over the duration of their degree, 120 credits per year. A 30 credits module will be taught over both terms, while a 15 credits module is taught over one term.
• Up to 90 credits may come from "open option modules" (modules outside of this programme - e.g. language or non-music modules), but only 30 credits of open option modules may be taken in each year.
• SOAS Music undergraduates may take selected Western music modules at King's College, with the approval of the module tutor, as open option modules. Many King's modules are taught during one term only, and term and exam dates may differ from SOAS. In particular, some exams are held in January.

Single-subject students take six compulsory 15 credits modules (90 credits in total) in the "Compulsory Modules" listing below. Their remaining 30 credits may be an "open option" module.

Single-subject students take the compulsory 15 credits module Ethnomusicology Themes & Variations. They must also take 30 credits modules chosen from the "Area modules" list. Remaining modules can be selected from any of the modules groups, with up to 30 credits from an open option module, or music modules at Kings College London.

Single-subject students take the compulsory 15 credits module Urban Soundscapes. They must also take 30 credits chosen from the "Area Modules" list below. Remaining modules can be selected from any of the modules groups, with up to 30 credits from an open option module, or music modules at Kings College London.

• Introduction to Music Analysis
• Great Works: art, films, literature, music
• Music and Culture
• Performance 1a
• Performance 1b
• Sounds and Cultures

• Studying Popular Music

• Ethnomusicology: Themes and Variations

• Urban Soundscapes

• Atlantic Africa: (P)Layers of Mediation in African Popular Music (UG)
• Classical singing in India: continuity and change
• Jaffa: Music and Urbanism in the Contested Middle East
• Klezmer Music: Roots and Revival
• Mughal Arts: Sound, Text, and Image
• Music, Religion and Society in South Asia
• Music and Religion in South East Asia
• Music in Africa
• Music in Africa: Critical Listening - The Mande World
• Music in Africa: Musical Crosscurrents in East Africa and the Indian Ocean
• Music, Religion and Society in the Middle East and North Africa
• Music and travel on the Silk Road
• Musical Traditions of East Asia
• Pop and Politics in East Asia
• Popular and Fusion Music in South East Asia (UG)
• Raga: concept and practice
• The World of Cuban Music

• Arts, Culture and Commodification: Themes in the Global Creative and Cultural Industries
• Composition
• Curating Global Arts
• Critical Readings in Arts and Cultures
• Gender and Music
• Global Hip-Hop
• Introduction to Sound Recording
• Music, Shamanism and Healing
• Presenting World Music On Radio
• The Music Business

• Extended Essay in Music 1
• Extended Essay in Music 2
• Independent Study Project in Music

• Performance 2
• Performance 3

Important notice regarding changes to programmes and modules