Music and History

Music and history are two disciplines that illuminate each other in unexpected ways. Music is a cultural artefact as much as an artistic one: it carries the imprint of the societies that produce it, reflects political and religious power, and changes in response to historical upheaval. History, in turn, is enriched by attention to musical evidence, which can tell us things about past cultures that conventional documents cannot.

Studying them together at the School of Oriental and African Studies gives this combination a distinctive quality, because SOAS is uniquely focused on the cultures of Africa, Asia and the Middle East, meaning your exploration of both subjects will consistently extend beyond the European canon.

At SOAS, this three-year full-time programme includes a foundation year, giving you an additional year to develop the academic skills and intellectual confidence you need before entering the main degree. You will engage with music from a range of world traditions, studying musical forms, histories and contexts alongside the analytical and performance skills that are central to musicological study. The history component asks you to examine the past across a wide range of geographies and periods, developing the source analysis and argumentation skills that define the discipline.

The two subjects are woven together by shared questions about culture, representation and change over time.

Critical and analytical thinking is at the heart of both disciplines. You will read and write extensively, develop your ability to construct an argument from evidence, and engage seriously with scholarship that challenges received narratives. The combination of musicological and historical training gives you an unusually broad interpretive toolkit.

Graduates move into careers in music, arts administration, education, broadcasting, journalism, archiving, heritage, international development and the cultural sector. The rigorous analytical training of a joint degree at SOAS is valued across many areas of professional life, and further postgraduate study in music, history or related fields is a well-trodden path.