Free Interview Resources
Free practice questions, preparation advice, and expert insights for Music interviews at Oxford.
Real Music interview questions in the style Oxford asks. Try answering each one aloud before you reveal the hint.
Analyse the score extract in any way you have been taught, taking account of harmony, form, texture, motivic development and expression.
Close-Reading & Passage Analysis
Summarise the article and draw attention to any points in it that you want to discuss.
Close-Reading & Passage Analysis
After listening to or looking at a short unfamiliar piece of music, what are your thoughts about it?
Close-Reading & Passage Analysis
From whose perspective is this article written – what effect does this have?
Close-Reading & Passage Analysis
When do you think this article was written?
Close-Reading & Passage Analysis
Tutorial-style interviews with subject-specific problems, often involving unfamiliar material.
Oxford interviews typically take place at the college you applied to. You will usually have two or three interviews of around 20-30 minutes each, sometimes at different colleges if you are pooled. The atmosphere is meant to resemble a tutorial: the interviewer gives you a problem and watches how you reason through it.
Interview Invitation
Late Nov
Arrival to Interview
Early Dec
Technical Question
Mid Dec
Decision
Early Jan
Interview Invitation
Late Nov
Arrival to Interview
Early Dec
Technical Question
Mid Dec
Decision
Early Jan
Draw comparisons between the Schubert quartet extract and the song or poem on which it is based, especially their structures and how they reflect the poem's meaning.
Writing about music is like dancing about architecture. Discuss.
Is an awareness of context necessary to appreciate a composer's works?
Can the listener and their attitude change the music they hear?
Is music a language?
Why has music developed the way it has?
How is music related to free will?
Is music an art incomparable to history in that history cannot be performed?
How did Wagner's operas influence the history of Western music?
How had the piano developed by the time of Beethoven?
How are Vivaldi's ritornellos different to Bach's ritornellos?
Consider Girls Aloud and football anthems with reference to functionality of music.
Is there anything in the music that suggests a Romantic relationship between Death and the Maiden?
If you could invent a new musical instrument, what kind of sound would it make?
If you were sent to a desert island to study composition, which three composers' works would you take with you and why?
What periods of music are you interested in and why?
Which venue do you most like to play in acoustically?
What would your desert island disc be?
Why do you think the jazz tradition branched off from popular music?
12+ weeks
8-12 weeks
4-6 weeks
1-2 weeks
the week of
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Explains the BA Music admissions process in a faculty-produced format, though applicants should verify any dates against current pages.
Useful overview of BA Music and the wider Faculty environment.
Introduces the curriculum direction and breadth; verify current option names against the official course page.
Oxford's supercurricular hub links this as a Music research video; useful for seeing music research presented beyond school specifications.
Student perspective on interview preparation; use as supplementary advice rather than official policy.
All videos are the property of their respective creators.
Further Reading
by Nicholas Cook
Oxford lists this as suggested Music reading; it helps applicants ask broad questions about what music is and how it is studied.
by J. P. E. Harper-Scott and Jim Samson
Oxford lists this as suggested Music reading; useful for seeing how university music study branches across methods.
by Tia DeNora
Oxford lists this as suggested Music reading; especially useful for questions about listening, identity and music's social functions.
by University of Oxford
Canonical admissions, structure, submission and course-statistics source.
by Faculty of Music, University of Oxford
Adds subject-specific context on course breadth, application process and interview criteria.
by BBC Music Magazine / Our Media
Oxford lists it as a suggested Music resource for podcasts, reviews and artist interviews.
by MusicMap
Oxford lists it as a suggested Music resource; useful for exploring relationships among genres.
by University of Oxford
Supports instrument-history and performance-practice curiosity, both relevant to Oxford Music's facilities and teaching.