Module overview
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- key technical devices and formal procedures, including of how to negotiate medium scale form
- instrumental/vocal composition/orchestration methodologies, including contemporary and extended techniques
- aesthetic issues relating to composing music today
Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- use music notation effectively and creatively to communicate and engender interpretive potentialities for your ideas
- compose a medium-scale work for ensemble
- implement advanced technical devices and formal procedures in your own composition
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- present scores and instrumental/vocal parts clearly with attention to detail and with knowledge of professional practice
Syllabus
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
| Type | Hours |
|---|---|
| Tutorial | 4 |
| Preparation for scheduled sessions | 24 |
| Completion of assessment task | 72 |
| Wider reading or practice | 26 |
| Workshops | 12 |
| Lecture | 12 |
| Total study time | 150 |
Resources & Reading list
Textbooks
Arnold Whittall (1999). Musical composition in the twentieth century: Music since the First World War. New York: Oxford University Press.
Alfred Blatter (1997). Instrumentation and orchestration.
Edited by Christoph Cox; Daniel Warner (2017). Audio culture: readings in modern music.
Jennie Gottschalk (2016). Experimental music since 1970.
David Cope (1977). New Music Composition. New York: Schirmer.
Tim Rutherford-Johnson (2017). Music after the fall: modern composition and culture since 1989.
Larry Austin (1989). Learning to compose: modes, materials and models of musical invention. Dubuque: Wm. Brown.
Kate Molleson (2022). Sound within sound: opening our ears to the twentieth century.
Stefan Kostka (2006). Materials and techniques of twentieth-century music.
Jonathan Harvey (1999). Music and inspiration.
Oliver Messiaen (1956). The Technique of my musical language. Leduc.
David Brian Huron (2006). Sweet anticipation : music and the psychology of expectation.
Philip Ewell (2023). On music theory and making music more welcoming for everyone.
Assessment
Formative
This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.
Assessment
- Assessment Type: Formative
- Feedback: Verbal feedback in group tutorial context
- Final Assessment: No
- Group Work: No
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Assessment | 100% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Resubmit assessments | 100% |
Repeat
An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Composition | 100% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External