Program Overview

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Course Overview

Course Description

The course "Women in Western Music" (MUSV1107) introduces students to feminist music criticism, focusing on the place of women in music history from different periods and Western traditions. The course explores the performers and performative acts that have brought these women to stage life, observing how women's voices often functioned as instruments of political ambition and sexual power.

Course Details

Course Content

The course will consider the cultural interpretation of opera, exploring the genesis, source models, and influences of selected operas, and negotiating the role of contemporary notions of gender and sexuality, and debates about women's role in society.

Learning Outcome

Knowledge

An examinee with a completed qualification in MUSV1107 will have:

• A broad knowledge of the presence of women in music history
• A critical understanding of canon formation in Western music and women's exclusion from the canon
• A critical understanding of the role of culture in shaping musical meaning and practices
• Knowledge of key texts in gender studies in musicology
• A critical understanding of opera as a medium of contemporary views about women and their role in society

Skills

An examinee with a completed qualification in MUSV1107 will have:

• The ability to engage with complex texts critically
• The ability to present knowledge, findings, and critical insight in a coherent and convincing form both orally and in written form
• Well-developed oral and written skills of argument and debate
• The ability to apply acquired knowledge and understanding in their own work

Learning Methods and Activities

Weekly instruction varies between lectures and seminar activities.

Evaluation

The text for the home examination should have a length of circa 4,000-6,000 words (line-spacing 1.5/12-point font size).

Recommended Previous Knowledge

Interest in Western music history.

Credit Reductions

• Course code: MUSV2007
• Reduction: 7.5 sp
• From: Autumn 2021 This course has academic overlap with the course in the table above. If you take overlapping courses, you will receive a credit reduction in the course where you have the lowest grade. If the grades are the same, the reduction will be applied to the course completed most recently.

Subject Areas

• Gender Research
• Music History
• Comparative Literature
• Drama and Theatre Studies
• History
• Musicology
• Music Performance Studies
• Theatre Studies

Course Logistics

Credits

7.5

Level

Foundation courses, level I

Language of Instruction

English and Norwegian

Location

Trondheim

Study Years

Study year 2025/2026, Study year 2024/2025, Study year 2023/2024, Study year 2022/2023, Study year 2021/2022 Lessons are not given in the academic year 2025/2026