Why study Music?
Testimony to how significant a role music has played in human experience may be collected from all corners of the world, from the biblical psalmist reaching out to the divine, to the dreamings and songlines of the Australian outback, or the Confucian quest for a 'right music' to help achieve a unity of heaven, earth and ancestors.
In the 6th century AD, Boethius identified three aspects of music: musica mundane, musica humana and musica instrumentalis - which can be expressed in simple moderns terms as what music is, what music does, and what music means.
This linking of mind, body and spirit has given the study of music a privileged place within educational systems, and invested the experience of music-making with a wealth of values and meanings. Many of these are hard to express in words, making the academic study of music a challenging and stimulating activity. Yet it is precisely because music is a highly-developed system of non-verbal, physical, intellectual and emotional communication that it holds is extraordinary position as a crossroads discipline, connecting powerfully with social and economic life.
Tertiary music studies provide a wonderful opportunity to explore music and its meanings, to develop performance skills to a high level and to investigate this important aspect of the human experience.