Course content

This course provides an introduction to practice and theory for disseminating music in various arenas, with a focus on museums and experience centres. This will include topics like securing an anchoring within cultural policy, content curation and legitimization of music in society.

Arenas for music dissemination are a living part of people's cultural everyday life, where museums such as Ringve and Rockheim have sounding installations and tours, in addition to presenting the objects themselves. Festivals and concert arenas can also attract a large audience and reach many people, and teachers in the school system and higher education convey music on a daily basis. The course attempts to provide a broad description and introduction to such arenas and to the professional decisions that are made within them, with a focus on museums and experience centres. These are decisions that require robust professional knowledge in order to be able to argue culturally politically in matters that arise, curate exhibitions and generally contribute to the legitimation of music in society.

The course aims to provide knowledge about this important area through history and contemporary practices and challenges.

Learning outcome

Knowledge:

Students who complete MUSV3139 will obtain a deepened knowledge of

• curation of exhibitions with a background in musicological theory and methods.
• key features of museums and experience centers for music today.
• the history behind today's museums and experience centers for music in Central Norway.
• dissemination arenas for music in Norway.
• the role and function of music as a cultural actor in society.

Skills:

Students who complete MUSV3139 can

• give an overview of music museums in Norway, and their main investments.
• apply music historical knowledge and musicological methods in legitimizing selections for museum exhibitions.
• formulate (both orally and in writing) their own expertise within this area in current debates.
• discuss music in terms of cultural politics with a solid foundation in research and musicological terminology.

Learning methods and activities

The teaching will consist of lectures and seminars with an emphasis on discussion and dialogue. Weekly preparation, in the form of reading and listening tasks, is therefore central. Teaching will be provided by several instructors from museums in the region throughout the semester. It is therefore important to be present in all classes, participation is therefore compulsory and requires a minimum of 80% attendance.

Compulsory assignments

• Satisfactory participation in compulsory instruction

Further on evaluation

The student must submit an individual term paper at the end of the term. The paper should have a length of approx. 4,000-6,000 words. The course supervisor will present the question for the assignment in the first half of the semester. The assignment must be delivered digitally on Inspera as a pdf file.It is not required to take approved compulsory activities again when re-attempting the exam.

Specific conditions