There is a lively musical community at Christ’s. The College Music Society is one of the most active in Cambridge and the Choir is among the best of the  mixed choirs. Between them, they involve a significant proportion of the College, with Music Tripos students taking a prominent leading role in both.

College Director of Music: Professor David Rowland

Fellows in Music
Professor David Rowland, Director of Studies
Dr David Trippett

University Website: www.mus.cam.ac.uk

Music at Cambridge

The musical life of Cambridge is extremely lively and varied and involves a very large number of students – those reading the Music Tripos and many more who read other subjects. Whatever your musical interests you are sure to find someone else who shares them. There are also superb facilities for performing and studying music, including the University’s chapels and concert halls as well as its various libraries, which house collections of recordings, scores and books covering anything a musician might need. In short, if you are a music student at Cambridge you will be immersed in a range of musical cultures that will enable you to explore the subject as widely as is possible, both practically and academically.

The University Course

The three-year course is designed to enable you to specialise increasingly, according to your strengths and interests.

In the first year there is an equal balance of practically-based and analytical/historical papers. Half of your time will be spent practising basic compostion skills, with some aural and keyboard harmony. The other half will be spent on music analysis and a range of historical subjects.

There is more choice in the second year. If you wish to study a higher proportion of essay-based subjects you may do so while concentrating less on composition; and there is no compulsory aural or keyboard harmony in this year. Alternatively, if you wish to concentrate more on practically-based subjects you may do so. Coursework also features in the second year, in a variety of forms, and there is an opportunity for you to perform on your chosen instrument (or voice) if you wish.

The third year extends the kind of options, enabling you to pursue those aspects of the subject that particularly appeal to you.

Click here for  full details of the University’s Music Course.

After your degree

Being a music student at Cambridge equips you for a wide variety of careers. A number of students who have recently studied at Christ’s have entered the music profession as performers, teachers, or administrators; but others have used their degrees as springboards into very different careers such as law, accountancy and management. Such a wide range of career destinations is possible because of the skills that a music degree helps you to acquire – not just music-specific skills, but other more general skills to do with critical evaluation and analysis, communication and teamworking. Whatever career choice you make while at Cambridge it is usually possible to proceed to another qualification that will equip you with the specific tools you need. Indeed, many students who choose to pursue music careers find that their music degree at Cambridge provides them with an excellent general grounding in the subject on which they subsequently build with, for example, a postgraduate performing qualification.

Music at Christ’s

There is a lively musical community at Christ’s. The College Music Society is one of the most active in Cambridge and the Choir is among the best of the mixed choirs. Between them, they  involve a significant proportion of the College members with students reading Music taking a prominent, leading role.

Among the academic staff, Professor David Rowland is Director of Studies.
He is known as a performer on the organ, harpsichord and early piano, and also as a conductor. He writes on issues relating to performance history, as well as music and commerce in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Preparation

Because the course is so varied it is not sensible to stipulate any particular activities, books, or performances that would form essential preparation. Musicians arrive for interview with a very wide range of skills and interests. If you see yourself primarily as a performer it is important that you begin to engage with the context of the works that you play – the historical context in which they were composed, the discipline of analysis that will enable you to understand their structure and content better, or the performance history associated with them. If your musical interest is primarily academic (which is more unusual) you will need to gain some basic composition skills in traditional areas – the harmonisation of Bach chorales, the completion of two-part keyboard pieces, or the completion of string quartet extracts make good starting points.

Whatever your particular interests and skills, it is important that you learn to study independently; you will benefit most from the course in Cambridge if you are able to pursue your own lines of enquiry and interests.

The document ‘Reading Music at Cambridge: notes of guidance’ offers further guidance.

Whether through the glorious choral music of the Chapel Choir, orchestral, vocal and chamber performances, or less serious activities, music has always been the heart of Christ's College.

Music Society Garden Party