Music with Placement

Our Music BA degree has been designed to develop your particular interests in music-making. It aims to equip you with a solid grounding in the craft of creativity which reflects the diversity of musical styles and genre in today’s world.

In your first year you will gain a strong understanding of composition, performance and musicology. You will also be introduced to sonic arts and sound recording. Your peer group of musicians will discuss, review and give you constructive feedback on your musical activities.

You can choose from a range of optional modules in your second year and final year. This means you develop your own bespoke pathway during your music course, and this prepares you for your chosen career in the music world. Examples of specialist options you could choose include orchestration and arrangement, and taking sonic art to the stage.

You will be taught by some of the leading figures in today’s contemporary music comprising composers, performers and musicologists. They are performing, composing and writing books, and have strong connections with the music community in London, the UK and in Europe. This opens up opportunities for you to collaborate with them and work together on installation projects.

Our music facilities include a fully sound-proofed recording studio for rehearsals, and performance spaces and practice rooms equipped with grand pianos, drum kits and amps. Access is available to an editing suite with Mac computer workstations where you’ll work on your music using industry standard music making software.

During your time at Brunel, you’ll benefit from guest lectures delivered by leading figures in the music industry who give advice on music promotion and how to get a gig. In addition, you have the advantage of Brunel’s close location to London’s exciting music scene for planned trips to music concerts, festivals, galleries, and museums.

Our music undergraduate degree can be studied full-time over three years, four years with a placement year, or part-time over six years.

We encourage the placement year option. This time in the music industry helps you to further prepare for the world of work and you’ll have a year’s worth of invaluable professional experience when you graduate. If you decide to go on a music work placement year, you could find yourself working at record companies, TV companies, or teaching music in a school.

You’ll have the opportunity to showcase your musical talent before you graduate alongside external musicians. There are a variety of performances hosted by Brunel including concerts, recitals and ensembles where you’ll be able to network and gain feedback on your creativity from the visiting music artists.

Year 1
Core Modules
Reading Resilience
Perspectives 1: Introduction to Theatre Studies
World Literature, World Literacies
Creative Reading Portfolio
Ensemble Production

Optional Modules
Acting: Essential Skills
Applied Drama Practice 1: An Introduction
Physical Theatre 1: Between Dance and Theatre
Theatre Making 1
Digital Performance 1
Musical Theatre 1

Year 2
Core Modules
Perspectives

Optional Modules
Writing 2: Experiments in Language for Performance
Physical Theatre 2: Performance and Embodiment
Acting Beyond Naturalism
Digital Performance 2
Musical Theatre 2: Histories, Practices and Theories
The Nineteenth-Century Novel
Shakespeare: Text and Performance
Modernism
Romanticism and Revolution
The Women’s Movement: 20th Century and Contemporary Writing
Contemporary British and Irish Fiction
Genre Fiction
Theatre Making 2
Applied Drama 2: Project
Performance as Research: Second Year Production Module
Post-Colonial Writing

Year 3
Core Modules
Final Production (Practical)
Written Dissertation
Project
English Project
Written Dissertation Single

Optional Modules
Perspectives 3: Battling with Ideas
Professional Experience and Development
Advanced Physical Theatre 3
Psychogeography
Advanced Musical Theatre 3
Post War and Late 20th Century Literature 1945-2001
Victorian Literature and Culture
Jane Austen and Her Novels
Writing Ireland
The Creative Industries
Violence
Psychogeography
Advanced Acting
The Canon Re-loaded
New Writing: Page to Stage
Chaucer to Shakespeare
Creative Industries and Labour Practices
Digital Performance and Technology 3
Modern and Contemporary Lesbian Literature
Writing Poetry for Performance