As a student in Musicology you must be prepared to commit a lot of time to your studies when studying towards a musicology degree at Stockholm University. The musicological department has made a conscious effort to create courses which is compatible with other musicological institutions in Europe. We wish our students to be equipped to benefit from musicological exchanges within Europe, and to welcome students from other European institutions to Stockholm.

Besides being able to speak different languages, a prerequisite for inter-European exchange in the subject of musicology is knowledge of and practical ability in the elements of music theory. To be able to study musicology at universities in countries such as England, France, Germany and Italy, the student must already have a solid foundation in musicological basics. But this cannot be the case in Sweden, where music teaching and music theory is all but lacking in secondary schools, with the sole exception of those sixth form colleges offering specialist music courses, and even then the standard is not national. This creates problems for all tertiary educational music training institutions in Sweden, and particularly affects Swedish musicology. At Stockholm University we addressed this problem first in 2004 by introducing voluntary aural courses, and then by successively increasing the music theoretical content of the first term to include rudiments and theory to ABRSM Grade 5 level, elementary analysis and form, with aural training and harmony continued throughout the second term. We also decided not to demand that our students arrive with prior theoretical knowledge. This mean that one may now begin to read musicology at Stockholm University with very bad or no knowledge of rudiments and theory of music, but the student must quickly repair this handicap through commitment to theory courses for the first two terms. Our aim is that after a Bachelor’s course in Stockholm the student will be equipped to apply for and thrive in any advanced musicological course in any European University. One of the side effects of this new initiative in theoretical training is that our courses serve as an excellent preparation for other tertiary Swedish music courses. We maintain a regular dialogue with representatives from music training institutions in the Stockholm area, currently with The Royal College of Music in Stockholm (Kungl. Musikhögskolan) and University College of Opera (Operahögskolan).