An introduction to music research
Explore the ways music can be researched in this free course. Learn about digital resources, methodologies, and online databases for music research. Understand the relationship between music, politics, and its implications for studying music.
In this free course, An introduction to music research, we have gathered together materials to allow you to explore the ways in which music may be researched. After thinking about different kinds of musical knowledge and their relationship with various musical practices (including performance, composition, and listening), you’ll be introduced to some of the digital resources and methodologies that inform music research. The next section, which constitutes the main part of the course, explores a variety of different resource types that can be the focus for music research including diaries, composer manuscripts, images, and instruments before the final section introduces you to a contentious area of current scholarship: the relationship between music and politics.
Course learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:
Understand the ways in which musical knowledge may shape certain musical practices
Identify the role digital methodologies play in music research
Use, and make sense of, a number of online databases
Understand the relevance of various different kinds of document for the study of music
Understand something of the contentious relationship between music and politics, and its implications for the study of music.