What does music mean? What does it do? These are the queries at the heart of this module. You'll explore how music conveys meanings and has an impact within its social contexts before moving into investigations of audiences, performances, and film music. The module incorporates a focus on the transmission of music, examining how it is edited, notated, and recorded. The final part looks at music in relation to specific social and historical contexts, incorporating case studies of works of Western art music from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries.
What you will study
In this module, you'll study music in a wide range of historical and contemporary contexts.
Block 1 introduces the central questions of the module – ‘What does music mean?’ and ‘What does music do?’ – exploring how they relate to an array of musical repertories. The block also discusses musical performances and audiences and investigates how music functions in film. You'll look at the way music establishes genre, setting and characterisation in films and do a case study of Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Block 2 focuses on how music has been transmitted, including through written and printed notation, critical editions of music, and audio and visual recording. Here, too, you'll look at a range of repertories and transmission styles. You'll explore how the music notation used by composers such as Bach, Handel and Dowland can be translated into contemporary notation. You'll also explore some of the creative ways music from inside and outside the western art tradition has been represented visually. You'll look at how recording technologies and practices have shaped our encounters with jazz, pop, and western classical music, among other traditions.
Block 3 continues the investigation of what music means and does, with particular attention to western art music from the seventeenth to twenty-first centuries. You'll look at several important composers and genres and undertake case studies of works, including Handel’s oratorio Saul, Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, Robert Schumann’s Piano Quintet, op. 44, and Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. The block also includes units on nineteenth-century Italian opera and contemporary Scottish music.
Entry requirements
This is an OU level 3 module. OU level 3 modules build on study skills and subject knowledge acquired from studies at OU levels 1 and 2. They are intended only for students who have recent experience of higher education in a related subject, preferably at the OU.
Understanding music (A234) is highly recommended as preparation as it develops a number of skills that you should possess before attempting this module, including reading, writing and understanding music notation and analysing music.
If you have any doubt about the suitability of the module, please speak to an adviser.
Teaching and assessment
Support from your tutor
You’ll get help and support from an assigned tutor throughout your module.
They’ll help by:
marking your assignments and offering detailed feedback to help you improve
providing individual guidance, whether that’s for general study skills or specific module content
guiding you to additional learning resources
facilitating online discussions between your fellow students in the dedicated module and tutor group forums.
Online tutorials run throughout the module. Where possible, we’ll make recordings available. While they’re not compulsory, we strongly encourage you to participate.
There will be two day schools during the module, led by our expert team of tutors that will focus on key concepts. Each day school is mirrored by online sessions that cover the same topics. You are strongly encouraged to attend these sessions either face-to-face or online to maximise your chances of success on this module. Where the day schools are held will depend on the numbers and distribution of students, where tutors are based, and what online alternatives are provided. We cannot guarantee that they will be hosted in specific locations, or locations that have been used previously.
Assessment
Course work includes:
5 Tutor-marked assignments (TMAs)
Examination
What's included
You'll be provided with books of scores and teaching units, audio CDs, a DVD, and have access to a module website, which includes:
a week-by-week study planner
module materials
audio and video content (replicating the content of the CDs and DVD)
assessment guide
online tutorial and forum access.
You will need
Good quality (but not necessarily expensive) headphones so that you can distinguish important details in performances, interpretations and recording techniques.
Computing requirements
Primary device – A desktop or laptop computer with at least 8 GB of RAM and a quad-core processor (2.4 GHz minimum speed). It’s possible to access some materials on a mobile phone, tablet or Chromebook; however, they will not be suitable as your primary device.
Peripheral device – Headphones/earphones with a built-in microphone for online tutorials.
Operating systems – Windows 11 or the latest supported macOS.
Internet access – Broadband or mobile connection.
Browser – Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge are recommended; Mozilla Firefox and Safari may be suitable.
Our OU Study app operates on supported versions of Android and iOS.
Software – Any additional software will be provided or is generally available for free.
If you have a disability
The OU strives to make all aspects of study accessible to everyone, and this Accessibility Statement outlines what studying A342 involves. You should use this information to inform your study preparations and any discussions with us about how we can meet your needs.
To find out more about what kind of support and adjustments might be available, contact us or visit our Disability support website.
Future availability
Central questions in the study of music starts once a year – in October.
This page describes the module that will start in October 2026, when we expect it to start for the last time. A replacement module, Music in context (A346), is planned for October 2027.