Music Studies at the NZSM

Music Studies is a flexible and dynamic programme that embraces a range of musics and encourages students to think about them from a variety of perspectives. The NZSM offers papers in subjects from the music of Beethoven to popular music, film music, jazz history, and Maori waiata. The diversity of the programme reflects the cultural diversity and vibrancy of Wellington, home to Te Papa, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Music New Zealand, the National Library and Archives New Zealand. The NZSM itself is known for its active Javanese and Balinese gamelan ensembles (the percussion orchestras of Southeast Asia), while additional resources available to Music Studies students include both instrument and sound recording collections and connections with Te Herenga Waka Marae at Victoria University.     

Although music studies complements the composition and performance programmes, music studies also exists as a separate major, and students can take many music studies papers without any prior formal training in music.

Music Studies combines well with many papers in other departments, such as Maori, Pacific, and Asian Studies, History, Art History, English, Theatre and Film, Culture and Media Studies, and Anthropology. Students may include courses from these programmes in the Music Studies major. Alternatively, students interested in Music Studies may also include Music Studies papers as part of a BA. 

The flexibility of the music studies programme allows students to form their own combinations of papers to reflect the diversity of their individual interests, completing a music studies major ‘Without Specialisation’

Alternatively, students may also opt to follow one of the following specialisations, each of which provides a distinct pathway to the more focussed specialisation of postgraduate study:

Musicology
the musicology specialisation at the NZSM allows students to focus on a wide range of European art musics from the middle ages to contemporary art music, approached from a range of historical, critical, sociological, philosophical, and analytical perspectives. Students are encouraged to consider the factors contributing to the creation of this music, its significance in its own time, as well as the ways in which this music functions in our world today.

Ethnomusicology
the study of music in cultural contexts from global and local perspectives and as an integral component of human life. Ethnomusicology at the NZSM offers study and practical experience in New Zealand, Maori and Pacific Island, Indonesian and Asian musics.  The Ethnomusicology specialisation will prepare you for understanding and researching the music of different cultures through performance and analysis, recording and documenting, and critical theory. 

Jazz studies
The study of jazz as a style of music and as an art form. Topics currently covered at the NZSM include Free Jazz, Jazz Rock Fusion, and New Zealand Jazz. Classes examine the music in its social and cultural context as well as developing students’ theoretical and analytical understanding of jazz idioms.

BMus in Music Studies

Subject Requirements

Music Studies

1. For a major in Music Studies without specialisation:
1. MUSC 105; either MUSC 164 or 166; MUSC 151 or any PERF or CMPO paper; and two additional papers, one from MUSC 120–159 and one from MUSC 120–174;
2. 80 MUSC, PERF, or CMPO points at 200-level, including at least two papers from MUSC 220–259;
3. 75 MUSC, PERF, or CMPO points at 300-level, including at least one paper from MUSC 320–359.
2. For a major in Music Studies with a specialisation in Musicology:
1. MUSC 105, 166, 167; MUSC 151 or any PERF or CMPO paper; and one paper from MUSC 130–139;
2. MUSC 266; two papers from MUSC 230–239; and one additional paper from MUSC 220–259;
3. 75 MUSC, PERF, or CMPO points at 300 level, including at least three papers from MUSC 320–359, of which at least one must be from MUSC 330–339 and at least one must be from MUSC 330–349.
3. For a major in Music Studies with a specialisation in Ethnomusicology:
1. MUSC 105, 150, 151; and either MUSC 164 or MUSC 166.
2. MUSC 264 or MUSC 266, one of PERF 250–259; 60 further MUSC, PERF, or CMPO points at 200 level, including at least two papers from MUSC 220–269, of which one must be from MUSC 248–259.
3. 75 MUSC, PERF, or CMPO points at 300 level, including at least three papers from MUSC 320–69, of which two must be from MUSC 349–359.
4. For a major in Music Studies with a specialisation in Jazz Studies:
1. MUSC 105, 125, 164; one paper from PERF 120–129; and one from MUSC 130–159;
2. 80 MUSC, PERF, or CMPO points at 200 level, including MUSC 264, CMPO 235, and one paper from MUSC 225–229;
3. 75 MUSC, PERF, or CMPO points at 300 level, including at least one paper from MUSC 325–329 and one from MUSC 320–324 or 330–359.

Postgraduate degrees in Music Studies

Please see the Postgraduate Degrees page

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