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BA Music

Course Overview, Structure, Application Details, and Information on Funding

Average student intake: 3

Course length: 3 years

Studying Oxford’s Music course at Hertford means that you will engage with music as a rich, multi-textured subject, comprising many different aspects. You will be able to study music history, analysis, composition, performance, orchestration and the philosophy of music, to name but a few. This variety is what makes studying Music here so rewarding, while also helping to develop your critical thinking skills.

Your degree in Music can be tailored to your interests and expertise, meaning that although everyone studies the same core syllabus your own experience will be unique. If you’re interested in the creative processes behind music, you can study options which will give you the opportunity to develop your own style and idiom. If you’re inspired by a historical period or particular composer, you can research and write a scholarly dissertation with the guidance of our tutors. Whatever you choose to study, we will arrange for you to work with academics across the Music Faculty so that your ideas can be developed in collaboration with experts in your field.

It’s important to note that performance is only one part of a Music degree at Oxford, which involves reading and writing about music as much as playing it. This doesn’t mean that passionate performers will regret coming to Hertford – many wonderful performers have benefited from the Oxford course and it is common for Music graduates to attend conservatoires or perform professionally directly after graduation.

At Hertford the college music society arrange weekly sung evensong and concerts, offering you an opportunity to sample the musical life of the college outside of official open days. As an applicant you would be more than welcome to come along – contact Dr Oliver Chandler, Hertford’s Organising Music Tutor, for more information.

Teaching and learning

Alongside lectures and classes in the Music Faculty, we will teach you in college tutorials. Tutorials are something like a conversation centred on a particular topic between a tutor and one to three students. In a tutorial we’ll challenge your views and ask you to defend and develop them, helping to develop your self-organisation and motivation. The central role that you will take in your own teaching means that there’s plenty of opportunity to explore what excites you most within the broad framework of the course.

While students can hone their keyboard and/or more general musical skills in specific first-year college tutorials, instrumental or vocal lessons (to the sum of £250 a term) are funded by the music faculty and students will choose their own external teacher (although the faculty does have a list of faculty-affiliated tutors that students can draw on, should they wish to).
After Hertford

Many former Music students have progressed to exciting careers as performers, teachers, and arts administrators. In recent years, the vast majority of Hertford Music students have gone on to further study at Oxford, conservatoires and other universities. We will encourage you to explore what inspires you and will do everything possible to help you when applying to jobs and postgraduate study.

Like any humanities degree at Hertford, studying Music will sharpen your critical thinking and hone your application of intelligence and rationality. These transferable skills can be employed in all sorts of careers, and it isn’t unusual to see our former students working in the financial, legal and management sectors.
Making an application

If you decide to apply, we will carefully consider all aspects of your application, including your UCAS form. You’ll need to submit two essays (these need not be on music) and one piece of harmony or composition work too. More details can be found on the faculty website.

If you are invited to interview, you will be interviewed twice by our Music Tutor and you may have an interview with a second college too. Both interviews, one of which will focus on a short score and the other on a short musicological article, will be around twenty minutes long. Half an hour before each interview, you’ll receive either a score (1-2 pages of A4) or a short written excerpt.

During the analytical interview we’ll discuss the formal design and harmonic framework of the given piece. You will be asked about the music’s character, to suggest a possible composer and to talk about any other characteristics which you deem significant. In the prose interview, you will be asked to respond to the written extract – whether or not you agree with the writer’s argument and how it can be applied to different types of music with which you are familiar. Although there might be issues of disagreement in the interview, this is no bad thing – we’re looking for applicants who will thrive in tutorials and your interview helps us to glimpse how you might work in this system.

As part of the admissions process, we’ll also ask you to submit a pre-recorded performance. It is not a requirement to be a fantastic performer – your performance helps us to build a picture of your overall musicianship.