UNISA Music in History and Society Course Module 2025-2026
Major combinations:
NQF Level: 5: MHS1501, MHS1502
NQF Level: 6: MHS2602, MHS2604, MHS2615
NQF Level: 7: MHS3701, MHS3702, MHS3703, MHS3704, MHS3705
It is advised that students have regular access to a computer for the above mentioned modules. Students who have completed this module: MHS2601 will be exempted from MHS2614, and for MHS2605 will be exempted from MHS2615.
| Jazz Studies – MHS2605 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 6 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Purpose: To enable students to develop an understanding of the historical origins of jazz by encouraging them to listen critically to jazz recordings, thereby broadening their knowledge of key elements in jazz performance; and to induce them to consider jazz as a social practice in the twenty-first century in South Africa and globally. |
| Jazz Studies – MHS2615 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 6 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Purpose: Qualifying students will be able to explore a range of genres in jazz music history, both local (South African) and international. Furthermore, students will grasp historical and contemporary approaches to the study of jazz from both a South African and an American perspective. Students will also explore the diversity of jazz styles through selected past and present musical works, and literature pertaining to the world of jazz music-making in history and society. |
| Music in Religion – MHS3701 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 7 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Purpose: To introduce students to some of the ways in which music is (and has been) used in a variety of religious traditions and enable them to explore and assess those musics with insight. |
| Opera – MHS3702 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 7 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Purpose: To enable students to explore the world of opera since the early 17th century and gain a critical understanding of musical, literary, gender, social, political and other issues presented in selected operas. |
| Music and Gender – MHS3703 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 7 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Purpose: To enable students to explore aspects of music and gender throughout history, within various cultures, musical professions and musical life as a whole. |
| Music in South Africa – MHS3704 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 7 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Purpose: To enable student to gain insight into the multi-faceted nature of South African music, especially how this music relates to cultural, political and social attitudes. |
| Sociology of Music – MHS3705 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 7 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Purpose: To engage students in a study of selected recent texts on music sociology and enable them to understand the theoretical background to contemporary thinking in the field. |
| Playing with History: the Early Music Movement and Its Impact on Recent Performing Trends – MUS4801 |
| Honours |
|
NQF level: 8 |
Credits: 24 |
| Module presented in English |
Module presented online |
| Purpose: This paper deals with an aspect of late twentieth-century and early twenty-first century musical history which has become crucially significant for performers, listeners and indeed the entire ‘art music’ industry as a whole, including the not insignificant recording industry: the unfolding of the early music movement and the effect it’s had on how we perform, listen to and perceive early music. And since the term ‘early music’ – no longer refers to the esoteric music of some bygone age – it is now taken to mean Western music up to and including the early twentieth century (Mahler, Elgar, Ravel, Bartok and so on) – it includes most of the repertoire that almost all performers and music-lovers are familiar with. ‘Early music’ is therefore no longer a specialist category in music. The purview of this paper affects all of us to a substantial degree. |
| Southern African Encounters in Music – MUS4802 |
| Honours |
|
NQF level: 8 |
Credits: 24 |
| Module presented in English |
Module presented online |
| Purpose: In this paper, you will be introduced to aspects of music in South Africa, from the point of view of critical theory. You will explore the contributions of major scholars in the field and various schools of thought marking this development extensively. You will also explore themes in southern African music studies by familiarising yourself with the literature and work of scholars in the field. This paper also includes an introduction to key debates in preservation, heritage and issues of public culture and ownership |
| Music Bibliography – MBY1501 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 5 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Purpose: To enable students to build basic, independent research skills through learning to locate, evaluate and cite source material relevant to the academic study of music. Students will also be guided in the use of such sources in their own written work. |
| Research Methodologies in Musicology – MUS4803 |
| Honours |
|
NQF level: 8 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
Module presented online |
| Purpose: One of the chief strategies of this paper will be to help you focus on recent literature dealing with issues of cultural musicology. You will need to demonstrate that you can interpret and contextualize a variety of texts. In particular, we expose you to a wider view of music other than Western art music, including those related to African and Afro-diasporic music. At the same time we look at the practical side of carrying out research, including research methods such as fieldwork, ethnography, interviews, transcription, participant observation, and so on |
| Introducing Music Studies – MHS1501 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 5 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Purpose: To enable students to understand the broad scope of music studies and some of the important issues in musicology today by thinking about music in new ways, thereby empowering them to explore diverse world of music – making in history and society, past and present, through selected musical works and case studies. |
| Exploring World Musics – MHS1502 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 5 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Purpose: To enable students to respond intelligently to notions of identity, representation, gender and cultural differences through engagement with a variety of world musics, and to ‘read’ music not specifically in notational terms but for its significance as an intrinsic part of culture and society. |
| Musical Entrepreneurship – MHS2601 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 6 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Purpose: To enable students to gain insight into entrepreneurial possibilities in music, and to understand the basic administrative, organizational, economic and ethical requirements for a professional career in music. |
| Music and Society – MHS2602 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 6 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Purpose: To introduce students to contemporary thinking on the roles that music plays in society today in a variety of musical cultures and enable them to understand and explore the effects music has had upon society and the effects that society has had upon music. |
| Music and Patronage – MHS2603 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 6 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Purpose: To enable students to understand and analyse the role of patronage as an agent that informs music in a range of cultural contexts. |
| Music in Vienna from the Late 18th Century – MHS2604 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 6 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Purpose: To enable students to explore the multi-faceted musical history of a significant urban environment through engaging with various aspects of music-making including performance, composition, publication, aesthetic theorizing, instrument manufacturing and the rise of concert societies and educational institutions for music. |
