BMus Traditional Music

In your second year, you will continue to nurture and extend your knowledge and practical skills as a solo and collaborative traditional musician through a broadening exploration of technique, repertoire and style relative to your instrument or vocal tradition.

You will extend your skills in group Scots and Gaelic singing and in programming, performing and calling a ceilidh. You will expand outwards as a musician-researcher, exploring historic and social contexts and concepts, and draw relationships between practice, perception and context.

You will further nurture your composition and arrangement skills and expand your entrepreneurial skillset with reference to multiple audiences, licensing issues, intellectual property, marketing and digital music distribution.

Year 2 has a total of 120 credits across the modules below.

Principal Study Exam Requirements

Year 2 Performance A (Recital):

Internal recital, 30 minutes in duration, consisting of a varied programme of repertoire drawn from different regional, national, period or other styles/repertoires (or similar), drawn from appropriate sources (both traditional and contemporary), developed over the course of the academic year and open to observation by other students and staff.

Year 2 Performance B (Recital Audition):

Two in-lesson recitals (Last week of T1 and of T2) in which you should prepare a programme of 10-15 minutes duration, demonstrating evidence of progress in performing different regional, national, period or other styles/repertoires fundamental to your Principal Study discipline, drawn from appropriate sources (both traditional and contemporary).  In your programme you should articulate how they inform your own personal stylistic approach.

Material demonstrated in these lessons may be performed formally on the occasion of Performance A.

Year three will see you develop a solid musical persona through fluent knowledge and expertise informed by your principal study and a consolidation of your critical artistry in research and reflection. You will do this whilst developing your pedagogical knowledge and your practical skills in teaching traditional music in a range of environments.

You will address essential vocational issues in greater detail, such as self-assessed taxation, contract negotiation, creative arts funding and administration and the option of a formal work placement, in addition to an ongoing array of elective opportunities to be found in the department, the Royal Conservatoire and beyond; thereby continuing to nurture your own distinct artistic specialisms in a traditional, folk, or broader arts context.

Year 3 has a total of 120 credits across the modules below.

Principal Study Exam Requirements

Year 3 Performance A (Public Recital):

Public recital, 45 minutes in duration, that articulates a specific theme developed over the course of the academic year. Your theme may be soloist in nature or may involve collaboration with other singers or instrumentalists, accompaniment and (if appropriate) improvisation. Your programme may include, or indeed emphasise, your own compositions and arrangements so long as this is in alignment with your recital’s theme and your tutor’s approval.

You may involve a maximum of two accompanists in your public recital.

Year 3 Performance B (Recital Auditions):

Two in-lesson recitals (Last week of T1 and of T2) in which you should prepare a programme of 15 minutes duration, demonstrating evidence of progress in performing project material being developed to date that contribute to the theme of the final public recital.

Material demonstrated in these lessons may be performed formally on the occasion of Performance A.

Year four — the Honours year — occasions a synthesis of your critical, technical and creative development as a traditional musician or piper. In addition to engaging in your own substantial project work, deeply rooted in both tradition and innovation, toward an independent and original contribution to the field, you will continue to take advantage of the array of elective opportunities to be found in the department, the Royal Conservatoire and beyond. The Honours year is student-centred: working to achieve a distinct identity and musical voice within your own established parameters, culminating in a themed final public recital.

Year 4 has a total of 120 credits across the modules below.

Principal Study Exam Requirements

Year 4 Performance A (Public Recital):

Public recital, 45 minutes in duration, that articulates your distinct idiomatic voice through a specific theme or project developed over the course of the academic year in collaboration with your tutor(s) and, if appropriate, your peers, making explicit your depth of learning in one or more specialisms. Your programme may focus on, for example, composition, arrangement, improvisation, historical period styles, contemporary cross-genre, exploration of particular canons of repertoire, innovative collaborations, etc (you are free to choose).

You may involve a maximum of two accompanists in your public recital.

Year 4 Performance B (Recital Audition) Indicative content:

Two in-lesson recitals (Last week of T1 and of T2) in which you should prepare a programme of 15 minutes duration, demonstrating evidence of progress in performing project material being developed to date that contribute to the theme of the final public recital.

Material demonstrated in these lessons may be performed formally on the occasion of Performance A.

Year 4 Research Paper (20%)
A paper of c. 4,000 words analysing a chosen topic relevant to your performance
practice and professional/artistic aspirations.

Year 4 Viva examination (10%)

A 20-minute viva examination to discuss your learning and forward planning.