Program Overview

Program Overview

The musicology programme at Heidelberg University deals with music in all its theoretical and practical forms and contexts. The main focus of the Department of Musicology is the scientific study of European music history from antiquity until today.

Facts & Formalities

• Degree: Bachelor of Arts
• Type of programme: Undergraduate
• Start of programme: Winter and summer semester
• Standard period of study: 6 semesters
• Language(s) of instruction: German
• Fees and contributions: 161.10 € / Semester
• Application procedure: Subjects with no admission restrictions
• Application deadlines: Information about deadlines can be obtained after you have put together a degree program.
• Part-time option: Yes

Course Content

The Bachelor’s degree programme Musicology is a structured academic programme with a broad range of topics qualifying graduates to enter a profession. It can also be considered the first stage in a three-tier academic education in musicology. Students can subsequently also enrol in the consecutive Master’s degree programme Musicology and the doctoral programme in musicology.

The core areas of the programme are:

• Acquisition of academic techniques and methods as well as fundamental skills in dealing with musical texts and music-historical sources
• Acquisition of a broad range of repertoire skills and knowledge in connection with an overview of the entirety of western music history as well as the study of selected specialist areas from various historical periods

The programme is supplemented by the acquisition of cross-disciplinary skills.

Course Structure

The Bachelor’s degree in Musicology at 75% is a modular programme. It consists of compulsory courses, compulsory elective courses, and electives. The compulsory courses include:

• Composition Theory and Ear Training I
• Analysis I
• Basic Principles and Methods of Musicology
• Notation
• The basic course Music History I–IV, which is taken over the course of four semesters

The curriculum has been designed in such a way that each compulsory module can be taken at least twice in its entirety throughout the course of the three-year programme.

Despite the relatively strict structure of the programme, students nonetheless have a multitude of potential electives to choose from. To this end, students can select from a wide range of courses in the music history modules every semester. The elective courses offer students further options to individualise their degree.

The cross-disciplinary skills courses are designed to enable students to acquire professional skills, interdisciplinary skills, intercultural skills, as well as organisational, pedagogical, and social skills.

The Master’s thesis is to be written in the 6th semester if students are enrolled in musicology as their major subject at 75%.

In order to successfully complete the academic programme, students should ideally have practical experience with music, an interest in historic connections, as well as basic knowledge of harmony, counterpoint, and score reading.

Additional Degrees

• Bachelor 25%
• Bachelor 50%
• Master, consecutive