Music and its media

Introduction

This free course will provide an introduction to some of the main ways in which music is transmitted. There are three case studies, each of which focuses on one form of musical media during a specific historical period in a particular geographical location. You will begin by looking at a copyist of music manuscripts in the sixteenth-century Low Countries; you will then study a music publisher in early eighteenth-century London; and you will conclude by looking at a record label in twentieth-century America. In doing so you will consider how the different appearances and contents of musical media are also a reflection of their social context, the purpose they serve and what they signify to their recipients.

This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course A342 Central questions in the study of music [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .