In 2002 the sociologist of music Peter Martin concluded a review of three recent books - all of which sought to intertwine social and analytical readings of disparate musical repertories - with the comment that ‘if musicologists, whether “new” or “old”, are serious about producing a social analysis of music, they had better start reading some sociology’. It was a provocative remark, coming in the wake of more than two decades of ‘new’ and ‘critical’ musicological attempts to reconnect the study of music to a variety of its social, cultural and historical contexts, frequently channeled through an explicit appeal to interdisciplinarity. And his exhortation serves as a starting point for this experimental interdisciplinary course, which will seek to develop ways to create a dialogue between musicology and the anthropology and sociology of music, culture and media. The course has been developed with funding from the Mellon Foundation, and offered as part of the Disciplinary Innovation programme at CRASSH.

There will be eight co-taught seminars covering a range of subjects that explore music's place and functions within diverse social environments.   Weekly set readings will mix historical studies with contemporary topics, sociological and musicological theory, and material on western art music with that on popular and non-western music, in order to explore gaps and continuities in literature on similar subjects approached from sometimes radically different angles. Topics to be covered include music and identity, theories of performance and practice, music and institutions, music and the state, technology and media, and music in everyday life.