Since news of Dolly Parton’s death last week, the tributes have mostly agreed on one thing: everybody loved Dolly. Marie Thompson, Senior Lecturer in Popular Music at The Open University, has written for The Conversation about something more complicated underneath that.

For too many young people, the chance to study music is vanishing. The OU bucks that trend. School band, church choir home studio, years of self-taught playing matters more than A level. Music isn't a nice to have. It's one of the most fundamental expressions of what it means to be human.

Byron Dueck received OpenARC funding for ethnographic fieldwork in Yaoundé, Cameroon, for his monograph The Portable Xylophone. Watch Byron's presentation from the OpenARC Spring Festival on our YouTube. Link in first comment.

This week's listen: Palestrina, Sicut cervus (published 1604). Like as the hart desireth the water-brooks: so longeth my soul after thee, O God. Palestrina sets the text mostly one note per syllable, so the Latin stays clear and intelligible as a direct response to the church reforms of his time.

Hiding inside choirbooks famous for Palestrina's music: a friar nobody had ever studied. The full, open-access paper "Tridentine Reform in Action: Paulo Papini at the Ospedale di Santo Spirito in Sassia" by Naomi Joy Barker is available now, published online by Cambridge University Press.

"Whenever people are in trouble, the one thing they turn to is music." Our Head of Music, Dr Naomi Barker, shares a glimpse into her research on music, medicine and religion at a 16th–18th century hospital in Rome and why it still resonates today.

This week's listen: Lully, Suite from Atys (1676). This one comes with an extra opportunity to hear it performed live by our long-term partners the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment who are performing it this Saturday as part of their Secret Garden Café Concerts.

There's still time to apply for the Margaret Wooder Studentships to cover tuition fees for MA Music. To apply, send the following to FASS-ArtsHum-Music@open.ac.uk by 30 June 2026: • Completed application form (link in bio) • CV of no more than two pages • Latest degree certificate or transcript

This week's listen: Lili Boulanger - Psalm 24 "La terre appartient à l'Éternel"(1916). Boulanger was the first woman to win the Grand Prix de Rome, France's most prestigious composition prize; a remarkable achievement at any time, let alone in 1913.

In this clip, we hear Laura Hamer speaking about Lili Boulanger; one of the first female composers to have her work firmly established in the concert repertoire. All the short presentations from the OpenARC Spring Festival (March) are now live https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCThCXE9pKt0uh8ZPGkSSVT

This is just one of the ways our Masters students get to take their practice as musicians and experience as students into your own hands. What's the deep dive you keep putting off?

This week we’re listening to Three Divertimenti by Britten The set is part of the current Cello Classics programme by our partners Scottish Chamber Orchestra, arranged for four cellos by SCO Principal Cello Philip Higham. Their full programme includes music from Vivaldi, Arensky, Sollima & Menotti

Good luck to everyone sitting their GCSE Music exam today. We're rooting for you! It's a bittersweet day. While entries are slowly recovering, GCSE Music numbers remain at historically low levels; down 25% since 2010, largely due to the EBacc squeezing the arts out of the curriculum.

Are you dreaming of studying music at Masters level but worried about the cost? The Margaret Wooder Studentships could cover your full tuition fees for our MA Music programme. ✅ Part One fees fully funded ✅ Part Two fees funded on passing Part One at merit or distinction level

This week we're inviting you to notice how music lives in time with Beethoven, Grosse Fuge, Op. 133 (1825). When it premiered, critics called it "incomprehensible". Today it's considered one of his greatest achievements.

Meet Dr Sean Williams, one of our Music faculty, who joined students and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group for a study day earlier this semester.

This week's listen: It's Only a Paper Moon, as performed by Nat King Cole. Although you might be more familiar with Ella Fitz Gerald’s rendition because it was used in the 1990s for a Galaxy chocolate advert!

OU Music, University Music Bournemouth and the Thomas Hardy Society host a study day on Words, Music & Place on 26 June. Full details available at university.open.ac.uk/arts/researc...

Closing date for the Music Department Fees-only Studentship at the Open University is 31 March 2026, 12:00. The studentship is available to students paying UK fees and intending to start their studies on 1 October 2026. See university.open.ac.uk/employment/p... FASS-Music-Enquiries@open.ac.uk

The Open University

PhD Studentships in Music Department at The Open University The Open University Music Department is offering a fees-only studentship to applicants intending to start their doctoral studies on 1 Octobe...

university.open.ac.uk

Congratulations to OU Music/Religious Studies PhD Dr Owen Coggins on his keynote at the BFE/RMA Research Students’ Conference. @bfeadmin.bsky.social @royalmusical.bsky.social @rmastudents.bsky.social

Byron Dueck@byrondueck.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Congratulations to @owencoggins.bsky.social for a great BFE keynote talk, 'Distortion, Ambiguity and Ideology in Underground Black Metal', at the 2026 BFE/RMA Research Students Conference at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. @royalmusical.bsky.social @royalbirmcons.bsky.social

OU Music's Dr Maiko Kawabata was recently interviewed on Swiss radio as part of a programme about the experiences of East Asian musicians playing in Swiss orchestras. Dr Kawabata highlighted the need to transform orchestral culture, including orchestral repertoire. www.srf.ch/audio/passag...

Antiasiatischer Rassismus: Misstöne in der Klassikszene

In der europäischen Klassikszene gibt es viele asiatische Musikerinnen und Musiker. Willkommen sind sie nicht immer: Sie haben mit rassistischen Klischees zu kämpfen, werden ausgegrenzt und diskrimini...

srf.ch

We're offering a PhD fees-only studentship for someone to begin studying with us in October 2026. Mode of study can be full-time or part-time, including distance learning. Open to any area of musicology that aligns with our expertise in the department. See fass.open.ac.uk/music/resear... #PhD

The Open University

Applicants to the Music PhD programme will have the opportunity to apply for an Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC studentship. Awards for UK residents cover all tuition fees and provide a maintenance grant a...

fass.open.ac.uk

Congratulations to PhD graduate Angelo Pinto on the publication of his book The Symphony as a Novel: Mahler's Tenth. www.lim.it/en/essay/693... @ougradsch.bsky.social #PhD

The Symphony as a Novel - LIM

Mahler’s Tenth Preface by Robert Samuels In lingua Inglese

lim.it

Our MA in Music is open for registration! This part-time, distance-learning course can be studied worldwide, and is designed to be completed over 2 years. Sign up at www.open.ac.uk/postgraduate.... The video introduces our free sample course, available @ouopenlearn.bsky.social youtu.be/YmpddzhAFiE

Introducing Music Research (Free course trailer)

YouTube video by OpenLearn from The Open University

youtu.be

Exciting to receive my author copies of my Cambridge #WomenInMusic Element 'Bandleader Mrs Mary Hamer and Her Boys: Popular Music and Dance Cultures in Interwar Liverpool' co-written with Michael Brocken! Mary Hamer was a dance band leader, pianist, and exhibition dancer (but not a relative) 🎶

Dr Ben Winters' new book Korngold in America: Music, Myth, and Hollywood is now available as an ebook from Oxford University Press; the print edition will be available from June. global.oup.com/academic/pro... #AcademicSky #Research #FilmMusic

Dr Mai Kawabata's book, East Asian Voices of Resistance Against Racism in Music, co-edited with Ken Ueno of @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social was recently published by Ethics Press. ethicspress.com/products/eas... #AcademicSky #Research #Musicology

East Asian Voices of Resistance Against Racism in Music

Title: East Asian Voices of Resistance Against Racism in Music Subject Classification:  Arts, Race and Racism, Equality Diversity Inclusion   BIC Classification: AB, JFSL, JH BISAC Classification: SOC...

ethicspress.com

Dr @rosemarygolding.bsky.social's new article 'Musical Samplers in the Museum of Musical Works: The Nature, Status, and Value of Nineteenth-Century Oxford Degree Exercises' in the Journal of the @royalmusical.bsky.social is open access at www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #AcademicSky #Research

Congratulations to OU Music's @drlaurahamer.bsky.social and Michael Brocken on the publication of Bandleader Mrs Mary Hamer and Her Boys! *Free* to download until 31 March. #AcademicSky #Research #WomenInMusic

Laura Hamer@drlaurahamer.bsky.social · 2y ago

Really pleased that my CUP #WomenInMusic Element 'Bandleader Mrs Mary Hamer and Her Boys: Popular Music and Dance Cultures in Interwar Liverpool', co-written with Michael Brocken, has just been published by @cambridgeup.bsky.social: www.cambridge.org/core/element... Open Access until 31 March!

Dr Lilian Simones recently had a chapter titled 'Advancing Excellence in Teaching: Professionalizing Vocal and Instrumental Music Education' published in The Applied Studio Model in Higher Music Education: Critical Perspectives and Opportunities, ed. Kelly A. Parkes and Ryan Daniel. #AcademicSky