The Music course at Oxford covers a very wide range of different practices, methodologies, and periods. Particular areas of strength include the historical study and analysis of European repertoires, ethnography and ethnomusicology, performance, and composition.
Subject Intake: Three
Course Duration: Three Years (BA)
Course Listing and Admissions Criteria: Music at Oxford.
The College's Tutor in Music, Professor Naomi Waltham-Smith, oversees arrangements for tutorial teaching which typically takes place in small groups of one to three students, with larger classes and seminars organised by the Faculty of Music.
The first year of the music course provides a broad grounding in a range of foundational critical skills. There are a large number of optional papers in years two and three that allow students to pursue their own specialist interests.
There are no preferences for particular musical idioms or styles: music students at Merton have a very wide range of academic and creative musical interests.
The Music Degree programme at Merton is a vibrant and diverse community, with a strong record of success in both academic study and practical performance.
Our students all have access to outstanding facilities. The College's libraries hold an impressive Music section (providing almost all of the books undergraduates need during their studies), including some unique music collections/manuscripts.
All Music students are provided with a Clavinova with headphones in their rooms.
The College has excellent communal facilities for musicians including five acoustically-designed music practice rooms, each equipped with a Yamaha b2 piano, and available for use between 8:00am and 10:00pm. Merton's TS Eliot Theatre has a Steinway Grand Piano and is used for solo and chamber concerts. The College Chapel is also regularly used for performances.
The thriving College Music Society offers opportunities for students from all subjects to be involved in practical music-making whether it be as an orchestral player, instrumental soloist, or singer. The Music Society promotes regular concerts featuring the Fidelio Orchestra and the Kodály Choir. The College's Choral Foundation includes a College Choir (with scholarships for all voice parts) which sings three services each week in the world-famous Chapel, and a Girls' Choir (24 girls from local schools) who sing one service each week. Students have the opportunity to conduct the orchestra and choir, to take part in chamber music, and to give solo recitals.
The Choir of Merton College is one of Oxford’s leading mixed-voice choirs:. They tour annually and in recent years have visited Japan, Italy, France, and the USA,, as well as making a series of recordings for the Delphian label. A number of their discs have been in the Classical Charts and a recent recording led Gramophone to describe the choir as "one of the UK's finest choral ensembles". The choir regularly appears on BBC Radio 3.
The Music Faculty, based in the new Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities building, with its library and other facilities, is a 10-minute bike ride from the main college site . The Centre also houses the Bate Collection - one of the world's most extensive collections of musical instruments.
Merton music students go on to a broad range of careers in education, further study, practical performance, composition, and arts administration, as well as other non-musical related activities. Recent graduates are currently enrolled in postgraduate study at the Royal Academy of Music, Cornell University, Harvard University, and Cambridge University, to name just a few examples.
