Music students

Wolflinge

Am curious to see if many people using this forum are studying music at third level? I've often wondered about the different emphasis Irish universities put the 'experimental' or the new. I study music in UCC where there's a really nurturing attitude towards the experimental. I decided to approach my external tuition as an opportunity to gain more practice in circuit bending and instrument building. The department were excited and told me that had never been considered by a student before. Are there other music students here? Do you ever feel the tear inside when considering yourself a practitioner first and as a writer/analyst second? I have this crisis about balancing the two all the time.

Vicky

rcaz

I'm a first year arts student in NUIM, doing music through arts 'cause I wasn't accepted to the BMus course. In first year, we do the bare minimum of music (this semester we only have 2 hours per week). I'm actually pretty disappointed, as I had heard from so many people that the music department in Maynooth was one of the best, but for the BA students, first year is pretty boring so far. We've done 18th and 19th century history and theory modules, and we're starting 20th century history module (which is great). The theory we learned was all very basic tonal stuff. So far, I've gone to one extra music lecture (a composition lecture for the BMus students) and I plan to go to more - there seems to be an emphasis on being an 'up to date' composer by the end of the course - and the composer's society seems to have very few 'traditional' mentalities attached to it.

As for practitioner vs. writer/analyst, I'm only really interested in practicing - specifically composition (I'm not classically trained, so I can't perform well enough for proper performance to be viable). I think it's good to know how to analyse and write about music, though.

Elevator

http://www.mrspring.info/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=1974

hope this is any use to you