English Literature and Music

English literature and music is a pairing that invites you to study two of the most expressive and culturally significant of the arts. Literature gives you the tools to read with depth and precision, to engage with the history of written culture from the medieval to the contemporary, and to develop your own voice as a thinker and writer. Music adds the study of sound, structure, and performance, examining both the technical craft of composition and analysis and the broader cultural meanings that music carries in different contexts and traditions.

The two disciplines share a concern with form, interpretation, and the ways in which creative works speak to and shape human experience.

At Bangor University, this three-year full-time programme includes a foundation year for those who benefit from additional academic preparation, a sandwich placement year, a year abroad, and work placement opportunities, giving it a wide range of structural features that extend the core degree considerably. The foundation year builds the knowledge and skills needed to engage confidently with degree-level material in both subjects. The placement year and work placements connect your studies to professional contexts in the arts, education, publishing, and beyond, while the year abroad broadens your perspective and experience.

You will engage with canonical and contemporary literature, study music theory, harmony, analysis and performance, and develop critical and analytical writing skills across both subjects.

Bangor's setting in north Wales offers a distinctive cultural environment alongside the full resources of a university with long traditions in both music and the humanities. You will build a portfolio of analytical, creative, and communicative skills across the two disciplines.

Graduates from English literature and music programmes pursue careers in education, arts administration, music, publishing, journalism, the cultural industries, and a range of other fields where creative and analytical thinking are valued. Postgraduate study in either literature, musicology, or a specialist creative discipline is also a natural continuation for those who wish to go deeper.