History with Music Studies

History with music studies is an enriching combination that draws on two disciplines concerned with how human beings make meaning across time. History investigates the past through documents, artefacts, and the interpretive frameworks historians develop to make sense of them. Music studies engages with the sounds, structures, and cultural contexts of musical expression, from medieval polyphony to contemporary composition, from oral folk traditions to the global popular music industry.

Together, they offer a degree that develops intellectual range and depth simultaneously.

This four-year full-time programme at the University of Aberdeen includes a year abroad, taking your studies into an international academic context. Aberdeen is a Scottish university with a long tradition in the humanities and strong music facilities, and the programme benefits from both. You will study historical periods, regions, and themes across a broad sweep of time, developing the skills of source analysis, historical argument, and extended writing that define the discipline.

The music studies strand develops your understanding of music theory, history, and analysis, giving you the tools to engage with musical works and traditions seriously and critically. The year abroad may take you to institutions with different historical or musical specialisms, broadening your intellectual range.

Graduates from this programme pursue careers in education, journalism, the arts and cultural sector, heritage and archives, broadcasting, arts administration, publishing, and the civil service. The combination of analytical skills, historical thinking, and cultural knowledge is valued across a wide range of professional contexts. Many graduates also go on to postgraduate study in history, musicology, music education, or heritage studies.

Teaching in schools is a popular route, and the combination of two humanities disciplines provides a strong basis for secondary school history or music teaching following a PGCE.