Music and Arabic

Music and Arabic is an unusual but coherent combination at SOAS, the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, which is uniquely placed to develop both disciplines with genuine depth and cultural specificity. Music at SOAS has a distinctive focus on the musics of Asia, Africa and the Middle East, examining these rich and diverse traditions not merely as exotic additions to a Western curriculum but as sophisticated art forms with their own histories, theories and social functions. Arabic, one of the world's great languages with a literary and scholarly tradition stretching back over fifteen centuries, carries some of the most important cultural production of the Islamic world and is spoken across twenty-two countries by several hundred million people.

This four-year programme, which includes a foundation year, develops your musical understanding and your Arabic language skills alongside each other, with the possibility of direct encounter between the two disciplines through the study of Arab music within the music programme. You will engage with music theory, ethnomusicology and performance traditions from the SOAS curriculum alongside the systematic study of Arabic language, literature and culture. SOAS's extraordinary expertise in the cultures and languages of the world beyond Europe gives the combination an intellectual depth that general university programmes cannot match.

Graduates of music and Arabic from SOAS are genuinely unusual in the graduate market, with a profile relevant to roles in broadcasting and media with Arabic-language content, music journalism and criticism with expertise in world music, cultural diplomacy and international cultural organisations, NGO work in the Arab world, academic research in ethnomusicology or Middle Eastern studies, and translation and interpreting. Some graduates move into music education, arts administration or performance. Many go on to postgraduate study in music, Arabic, Middle Eastern studies or ethnomusicology, deepening their expertise and developing either a research or a professional focus.