A week in the life of a first-year undergraduate
Hello! I’m a first-year Music student at Sidney Sussex College, and I’m going to be taking you through the different stages of my week as a Cambridge Music student on the Undergraduate course (what we call the Music Tripos). It is important to keep in mind that this is just a representation of a week in my life at Cambridge, but I hope it will give you a good idea of where you’ll be studying and some of the opportunities available to musicians. I should also emphasise that there are a huge number of musical ensembles across different genres at Cambridge; the ones that I have mentioned are mainly classically-focused because that’s what I tend to play, so don’t worry if the ensembles or music styles that you are interested in aren’t mentioned! (For detailed listings of the over 130 music societies currently running at Cambridge, have a look at the Centre for Music Performance website.)I hope to also show you some of the things you can get involved in outside of your studies, as these will become an important part of your university life here too.
Thursday:
When you're studying at Cambridge, the week starts on a Thursday so I thought this would be a good place to start. For me, every Thursday starts the same with rowing in the morning at 0700. I had never rowed before coming to Cambridge, but Cambridge is a great place to start new things. I am in one of the Novice crews at Sidney Sussex Boat Club (SSBC) and we are preparing for a race on Saturday which I am really looking forward to.
Once I’ve finished rowing, it’s time to get ready for my morning lectures. In first year, most of the lectures start either at 0900 or 0930 every day, and on a Thursday it usually starts at 0930. I walk to the Faculty of Music which is just next to Sidgwick Site - the main site for the humanities subjects - through King’s College (pictured) as this is the quickest way from Sidney Sussex but it also has lovely views.
Today’s lecture is from Paper 1 (Music in Contemporary Societies); it focuses on Islam in Southeast Asia, and lasts for roughly 90 minutes. For each lecture, we are set preliminary reading which usually consists of one or two chapters of a book that will be discussed in the lecture, as well as further reading which is usually 2 or 3 chapters from different books which go into more depth on the topics that we covered in the lecture. After this lecture, I tend to go to the Faculty Library (the Pendlebury Library) for an hour or two, to either do some essay work which I have been set by my supervisors or some of the lecture reading.
I then have my first supervision of the week at Selwyn College. Luckily, Selwyn is only a 5-minute walk from the Faculty of Music. This supervision is for Paper 2 (Western Music History: Part A – Early European Music to C. 1300) and will focus on discussing the essay I just submitted the day before on the Carolingians. Supervisions range from one-on-one classes (usually for Tonal Skills, Composition, Dissertation and other project work), to up to four students in a class (for History, Analysis, and other essay-based courses). We normally discuss work that has been submitted to the supervisor a few days before, and then discuss the new work that will be set as well as other ideas and arguments related to the topic. They are a great way to dig-deep into a subject and discuss common debates with your fellow students and the supervisor, which is always fun.
After my supervision, I tend to walk back to college for lunch with friends. Then, after lunch, I like to go to my college library for a few hours. Thursdays tend to be quite quiet for me in the afternoon as I have no supervisions or lectures, and so it is the perfect time to write essays and get my supervision work done. For example, I have an essay for Western Music History (Paper 2) on Gregorian Chant, which is due on Tuesday and should be about 1.5k words long (I am set one of these every 2 weeks). This topic is a little different to what I have studied before, but all the more interesting because of it. At some point, I try to fit in an hour of clarinet practice if I’m lucky!
At around 18:00, I head to the canteen for dinner, after which I head back to West Road Concert Hall (the Music Faculty) for a rehearsal at 19:30. This Thursday, I have CUO (Cambridge University Orchestra) which is preparing for a concert next week. Although this seems quite a late rehearsal time, the orchestra and conductors are amazing so you never feel tired! This time, the conductor is Jac van Steen and we are playing Poulenc’s Sinfonietta, Berlioz’s Carnaval Romain, and Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1 (my favourite!). The rehearsal finishes at around 22:30 so I get back to my room at 2300 and to bed, ready for the next busy day!
Friday:
Friday starts with another packed morning! I go for a run at around 07:30 and make sure I am back to leave for my lecture at 09:00 – it’s a great way to clear your mind and feel ready for the day ahead. Today, my lecture is for Paper 2 (Western Music History): it focuses on Hildegard of Bingen and lasts about an hour. I find that there is sometimes a lot of note-taking in lectures, but luckily all the lectures in the first year are recorded, so I can rewatchparts of them as revision and to tidy-up my notes.
After the lecture, I have an Aural class from 10:30 to 11:00, which is all about preparing for the aural exam at the end of the year. I find this really useful as it gives us general tips for regular practice as well as doing group sessions, which are quite fun.
I then spend a few hours in the faculty library working on more essays, before I leave for Fitzwilliam College for my General Musicianship supervision. Fitzwilliam takes about 30 minutes to walk to from the Music Faculty, but it is a really nice route through Cambridge. My General Musicianship supervision this week is on conducting and clef-reading (mainly C clefs), and is also in preparation for my end of year exam. This supervision lasts for roughly an hour, and is probably the most practical of my supervisions: this is one of the things I love about the music course - there is so much variety in what we study.
At 14:00, I head back to my college. I tend to do some clarinet practice for a few hours at this point as my neighbours don’t mind me practising during the day, although there are many practice rooms available that I could use. I then head to the college library (which is only 2 minutes away from my accommodation) for my usual essay and supervision work, as well as to catch up on the lecture reading for Monday. After this, I head to the canteen for dinner and then leave for another rehearsal for CUO at 19:30. The music at Cambridge never stops!
Saturday:
Saturdays and weekends in general at Cambridge are strange. Music and most other humanities subjects don't have lectures, so the Music Faculty and College library are often very empty, unlike during the week, when they are usually buzzing with people; but it's very important to have some rest for a bit as the week is very busy and otherwise you will burn out!
After I’ve had a bit of a lie-in, I have rowing at 11:00 which is normally just a regular outing; this Saturday, however, I have a race, which is great fun to be involved in. I am then exhausted, and so head to brunch with my friends at around 13:30 which is always really good - I can never turn down hash browns and bacon!
In the afternoons on the weekend, if I’m not in a rehearsal, it’s a ritual of mine to go to the Sidney Library and work in the computer suite, as the view from there over the college gardens is really beautiful; I find it’s a great place to study when there aren’t many people around. I continue working through the reading lists for the next essay and the next lectures. At around 16:00, I do some clarinet practice, and then relax for a bit (it is the weekend!).
For dinner, my friends and I sometimes eat out together on a Saturday, followed by a trip to the College bar.
Sunday:
It’s now Sunday, and so the essay panic is starting to kick-in. The essay that I need to submit tomorrow is on how location may affect our listening; I haven’t begun writing yet. I spend some of the morning in the college library, but then I soon have to head-off to netball for a match against St John’s. This is my first match with Sidney’s netball team, so I am really excited but also nervous as it feels like I haven’t played netball in a long time!
After the netball match, I head back to college to get ready for a rehearsal with King’s College Orchestra at 14:00. I am playing bass clarinet in Tchaikovsky’s Voyevoda, and the rehearsal is in preparation for a concert next Sunday in the hall at King’s. One of the great things about Cambridge is that there a vast number of ensembles you can get involved in, at both college and university level.
I then head back to my college library for a few hours to finish my essay. This time is quite productive as the looming deadline forces me to work efficiently. It’s a formal hall tonight, so I spend a bit of time getting ready once I am finished.
Formals are a three-course meal with wine, formal dress, and gowns, which are held up to several times a week at most colleges. They are a fun opportunity to dress up and socialise with your friends, and also to take a break from your academic studies to enjoy the fun traditions of Cambridge. Today is the Sidney Christmas formal to celebrate ‘Bridgemas’ (Cambridge Christmas on the 25th of November) which is one of the best formals of the year.
Monday:
Monday usually begins with rowing at 07:00, which is a good way to get me feeling refreshed and ready for the week ahead. My first lecture is at 09:30 on Tonal Skills (specifically string-quartet writing), and so I head back to college after rowing and begin my daily commute through King’s College to the Music Faculty. Once the first lecture is done at 10:30, I head to Sidgwick Site cafe with a few friends to get breakfast and relax a bit before the next lecture starts at 11:00, which is from the Western Music History Paper and is on Notre-Dame Polyphony.
At around 12:00, I rush to the Pendlebury Library to finalise my essay, which is due in the afternoon. I read it over and press submit, which brings some sense of relief… but this only lasts a few minutes as there is another essay due soon! I now spend around an hour preparing for this new essay which is from Paper 3 (Music Analysis), and then I go to college for lunch with friends.
This is when I return to my normal routine of going to the college library to work on my supervision essays or lecture reading for a few hours, before heading to my Music Analysis supervision at 15:00. This supervision is in college, which is really handy and, is with my Director of Studies (what we call our DoS). Today, we are discussing the theories of analyist Heinrich Schenker, and will start our own Schenkerian analysis of a piece of music which is then set as work for the next supervision.
After this, I head back to my room to do a bit of clarinet practice and then start some more supervision work. The time seems to fly by, and before I know it, it’s dinner time so I head to the canteen with friends.
I try and get some more work done after dinner, but I don’t have long as I have a rehearsal for Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, organised by Sidney Opera. I had never played in the orchestra for an opera before, so this is really exciting.
After the rehearsal finishes at 22:30, I head back to college to bed. I am pretty exhausted as it has been quite a full-on day, but it will just get busier!
Tuesday:
Today starts with an Analysis seminar at 09:30 at the Music Faculty, so I leave my accommodation at around 09:00 having had a good sleep. This seminar has around 20 people from my year, and we discuss as a group the pieces and articles that had been set to read or analyse before the seminar. I find these seminars are really useful, as you can learn a lot from other people’s insights into readings and pieces; it is also a great platform to ask questions about the work.
Once this is done, I head to the Pendlebury library for a few hours to work on my history essay before heading to Clare College for my clarinet lesson (I don’t have time to have college lunch today). Many students have instrumental lessons with teachers in London and at the Conservatoires there, but I am really lucky as my teacher comes to Cambridge as he has 3 students here so we all organise to have our lessons on the same day. This lesson lasts for around 1hr 30 mins, then I have to rush off back to West Road for a Clarinet choir rehearsal at 16:00. This is an example of an ensemble that has been set up by students, and is new for this year. We play repertoire that we choose to play: for example we are currently working on a piece called New York Counterpoint by Steve Reich, which is quite tricky but great fun.
This is then followed by a clarinet trio rehearsal at 17:30 with King’s College Music Society. We are playing two new student compositions which are for clarinet, violin and piano and then bass clarinet, violin and piano. This is another example of a student-formed ensemble: there are so many musicians in Cambridge that it is really easy to form your own chamber ensembles, as well as bigger groups.
In the evening, I have a concert with the Big Band Roulette a relatively new society, and a great way to play big band music. The way it works is you sign-up at the beginning of term and then are randomly selected for concerts that you have put your name down for (hence the name ‘Roulette’), meaning that it’s great if you are quite busy and can’t commit to something big but want to play sometimes. The concert tonight is called ‘A Very Big Band Bridgemas’ and is at Churchill college bar. I can’t wait as I love Christmas music and it will get me into the Christmas spirit!
Wednesday:
Wednesday is my busiest day in terms of contact hours. After an early run, I get to the Faculty for my 09:30 lecture, which today is for the Tonal Skills Paper, and focuses on writing in the style of Palestrina. This is followed by another lecture from the Analysis Paper, which discusses the differences between motivic analysis and Schenkerian analysis.
It’s now time for lunch, and I have organised to have this with my college family. Your college family is given to you pretty much as soon as you arrive: each College has there own way of organising this, but at Sidney there are two students from the year above who are your college parents, and another student from your year who is your college sibling. Your College ‘parents’ act as mentors to you in all things to do with Uni life and getting used to the strange world that is Cambridge, but they can also become great friends! We decided to have lunch at the Sidgwick Site cafe as we all do humanities subjects so it’s easy to get to, but is also a nice place to socialise.
I then have to rush to Fitzwilliam college for a Music in Contemporary Societies supervision at 14:00. This supervision is with my DoS and we discuss what the difference is between composition and improvisation. After this, I head back to college for another supervision at 15:30 which is via Zoom, for Tonal Skills. I am panicking slightly as even though I have completed the work for this supervision - which was to write the piano accompaniment to a Schubert lieder and complete a Palestrina exercise - I have not submitted it yet and so I am hoping I will have time before the supervision starts!
I am now exhausted after a pretty busy day, so I do some work in my room for a bit before heading to the canteen for dinner. However, the day isn’t over yet as at 20:00, I have a New Music Ensemble rehearsal for 2 hours in preparation for a concert next week. In this ensemble, I am playing Bb clarinet and Eb clarinet alongside two other clarinettists, with one of them being the principal bass clarinettist of the BBCSO (Tom Lessels) which is an amazing experience.
Finally, I head back to college and into bed, ready for the week to start all over again!