The School of Modern Languages and the School of Music aim to educate our students to become ‘global citizens’. By combining French and Music, you will gain a wealth of transferable skills and knowledge beneficial to the world of employment, making you competitive and attractive in an increasingly global workforce and opening the doors to a variety of career paths.     

France is a major actor on the European and world stage, possessing a rich and sophisticated culture. French is one of the official working languages of the European community and still a global language of culture and diplomacy. 

We offer French for both advanced students and beginners. In terms of language acquisition, this course will enable you to develop your writing, oral and aural skills through a range of learning activities, and using a variety of audio-visual materials. In your first year, in addition to your language tuition, an introduction to history and culture seeks to provide a solid foundation for more specialised studies as you progress through your course.  

Your understanding of the French language will be further developed and refined during your year abroad, when you will experience life in a French-speaking country at first hand.       

It is important to remember that studying languages is not just about the language itself. It involves exploring many aspects of a country. At Cardiff we aspire to offer a genuinely broad course including optional modules in film, literature, history of art, politics and history.

Home to the arts, Cardiff is a great location for the study of music in the UK. The city has a professional opera company, Welsh National Opera, and a professional symphony orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. The School of Music enjoys a fruitful relationship with both organisations that allows, for instance, our students to attend dress rehearsals and buy cut-price tickets for concerts. 

You are expected to have gained or shown evidence of working towards Grade 8 in one or more instruments or voice at the time of your application. You may be considered if you are not taking A-level Music but have Grade 8 Practical and Grade 7/8 Theory and are studying appropriate Humanities subjects at A-level.

As a joint honours student, you will find that often there are complementary issues and perspectives that link subjects, be they critical analysis, historical contexts or recent research. On completion of this four-year programme, you will have a high level of language proficiency, as well as a critical understanding of key aspects of French history, culture, literature, politics and contemporary society.   

Both schools involved in delivering this degree offer a challenging course of modules, supported by a friendly atmosphere and excellent staff-student relationships.

Distinctive features

The distinctive features of the course include:

• core modules that guarantee a solid base for all, but then allow you, with advice from your personal tutor, to carve out a programme that will best fit your interests and career aspirations
• research-led teaching allowing you to engage with new ideas that are helping to shape the future of music and French studies
• a pathway into this degree for beginners who do not have French A-level
• a year spent studying or working in a French-speaking country
• students of Business French may sit the internationally recognised examination of the Paris Chamber of Commerce
• fully-funded instrumental (or vocal) tuition on your principal study instrument
• the option in both subjects to write a dissertation lets you choose a topic that draws on both disciplines
• exploring music within a broad cultural context, embracing the literary, the social and the political
• opportunities for contact with active music professionals through composition workshops, performance masterclasses, the University concert series, and our careers talks