Music

Bristol has one of the UK’s leading music departments, featuring high-quality teaching and achieving excellent student satisfaction ratings. Housed in the spacious Victoria Rooms, the relatively small size of the department in terms of student and staff numbers enables us to maintain the kind of personal contact with our students that creates a friendly, nurturing study environment. The excellent choice of units on offer allows you to explore a wide range of aspects of music as well as develop intellectual, practical and interpersonal skills.

Music courses

Single honours

BA Music (W300)

Joint honours

Why study Music at Bristol?

Our undergraduate courses allow you to explore historical, technical, compositional, analytical and performance aspects of music, as well as focusing increasingly on your particular interests. Specialisms include: composition, British music, Russian and Soviet music, Turkish music, film music, popular music, hip-hop, music theatre, medieval music, 19th century French music, and historical performance practice. Optional units are available in these and related topics each year.

What kind of student would this course suit?

This course is suitable for those with an interest in learning how to invent, play, talk and write about music. Successful candidates will enjoy confronting a wide range of challenges. These include working alone (practising, researching, composing, writing) and with others (rehearsing and performing), appearing in front of audiences (on stage or in the seminar room) and presenting work in different forms (in recitals, scores, recordings, presentations, essays and dissertations).

In order to achieve all of that, successful candidates will learn how to plan projects and organise their own work and time.

How is this course taught and assessed?

In our teaching, we use a mixture of lectures, seminars, tutorials and individual lessons. All students are allocated a tutor responsible for overall progress. In year one, students have small-group sessions with their tutor once every teaching week. Assessment methods include coursework, written examinations (for historical and technical units), solo and ensemble recitals, practical exercises (eg for conducting), dissertations and composition portfolios/digital media.

What are my career prospects?

Employers are increasingly attracted by both the wide variety of practical, creative and intellectual skills a music degree fosters, and the ‘soft skills’ of self-organisation, teamwork and self-motivation you will acquire. Our graduates enter a wide range of professions, including performance, teaching, arts administration, publishing, library work and the media.

Why did you choose Bristol?

I chose Bristol because of the friendly atmosphere and versatility of the course, which allows me to specialise in my chosen areas. It’s a great city to live in and there are always things going on.

Kerensa Briggs
BA Music