Music, sound, and the moving image
Choose a starting date
Learning modes and locations may be different depending on the course start date. Please check the location of your chosen course and read our guide to learning modes and locations to help you choose the right course for you.
- Start Date: 17 Jul 2025End Date: 24 Jul 2025Thu (Daytime): 17:00 - 20:00OnlineFull fee £89.00 Senior fee £89.00 Concession £62.00
Please note: We offer a wide variety of financial support to make courses affordable. Just visit our online Help Centre for more information on a range of topics including fees, online learning and FAQs.
What is the course about?
This course offers an overview of the way that sound and music have used in film and cinema throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. The film soundtrack is often something we take for granted, or perhaps don’t even notice as viewers some of the time, but the craft of scoring and sound-designing films is indeed often extremely subtle, complex, rich, and wildly diverse.
What will we cover?
- The Silent Age to Talkies
- The Golden Age of Hollywood
- Artists film
- The Pop Music soundtrack
- Musicals and musicians on screen.
What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...
- understand some of the key approaches composers and directors have taken in terms of thinking about the relationship between music and image.
- have gained critical listening skills applicable to cinema more broadly
- have learned about key composers in the history in the cinema.
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
This course is designed as an overview for those with a keen interest in music and cinema. Prior musical education or experience is not essential, but the course will cover and use a range of technical terms, which we will apply during in-class practical listening exercises.
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
- Sessions will comprise combinations of lecture, discussion, guided listening, and classes exercises.
- Course materials (handouts, and links to online videos) will be shared via google classroom.
- You will be encouraged to try extra reading, viewing, and listening outside class.
Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?
No.
When I've finished, what course can I do next?
To find out more about music history classes Music history courses in London and online which lists our full programme of classes ordered by term, and by day of the week. You may then click on each title to read the full course outline.
Neil Luck is a composer and researcher with a broad range of academic and practical experience in the field of classical music. He is based in London, and currently completing a PhD at the University of York. As a practising composer, his work has been presented internationally, at leading festivals and institutions including the BBC Proms and the Tate Modern. As a teacher and speaker he has given talks, classes and seminars at universities, schools, galleries, and conferences. He has also created and presented radio programmes for stations such as BBC Radio 3 and Resonance FM.
Please note: We reserve the right to change our tutors from those advertised. This happens rarely, but if it does, we are unable to refund fees due to this. Our tutors may have different teaching styles; however we guarantee a consistent quality of teaching in all our courses.
