Score reading, music analysis and other philological skills serve to theorise larger (historiographical) issues: the rethinking of musicianship in the age of technology, the emergence of a new type of listener, the conjuncture of hearing and vision. The course contents therefore feed into other scholarly fields of research such as history, sound studies, media theory and the philosophy of technology.
Repertoires that are addressed in music history and critical musicology courses encompass European and North American art music traditions, jazz worldwide as well as past and present popular musics. The Music History core module triennially alternates the themes of Music & Machines, Music & Film, and Music & Recording.