Bachelor of Arts in Music

What is this course about? 

The BA Music is a globally conceived contemporary performance based music programme. The BA Music welcomes students with or without previous formal music education from all musical backgrounds including early music, western classical, pop, rock, metal, hip-hop, experimental music, jazz, folk, traditional musics, electronica, or others.  The aim of the programme is to enable students to navigate their own path as artists in the contemporary global creative sector.

Throughout the four years of the course, students develop their performance skills by taking individual lessons on their own main instrument (including percussion and voice).  Students study a wide range of music theory related to classical, popular and other global traditions, including western keyboard theory, Jazz, Indian Classical and Middle Eastern music and more. 

Group-playing is a core aspect of the course. Students participate in a wide range of ensembles, including Popular Music Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble, Javanese Gamelan from Indonesia, Electroacoustic Ensemble, Middle Eastern and Balkan Music, Early music, Ewe Drumming from Ghana, Indian Classical Ensemble and an Inter-Arts Ensemble. Students also have regular masterclass workshops with international artists from a wide variety of world music traditions.

Students also receive individual lessons on a choice of world music instruments and can learn diverse repertoire such as:  ragas on the North Indian lute called the sarode, early music on the harpsichord, gypsy jazz on the violin, West African rhythms on the djembe and Javanese court music on the two-stringed bowed fiddle, the rebab.

BA Music students are introduced to critical thinking and scholarship through the academic study of a wide range of world musics including classical, traditional and popular music forms. Specialist modules include Global Pop Music, Traditional music, Western Art music philosophy, Ethnomusicology and World Music Survey. Students are encouraged to develop their own niche area of specialist interest through independent studies and project-based work. 

Why study Music?

Students on the BA Music develop their scholarly and theoretical knowledge of music while also taking a number of vocational modules that will support them in the development of a fulfilling career. This course develops students’ music skills and knowledge of their own current, chosen style(s) of music while broadening their musical horizons through playing and learning about music from around the world.

Individual lessons, ensemble tuition and academic lectures are delivered by a team of accomplished professional musicians with extensive teaching and performance experience in a wide range of music genres. Students are based at the world-class Irish World Academy, with its cutting-edge performance and rehearsal spaces, and state-of-the-art technological infrastructure. In addition, this course offers work experience and students have the option to study abroad for one semester as part of UL’s Exchange and Erasmus partnerships.