Module MUSI3071: COMPOSITION

Department: MUSIC

MUSI3071: COMPOSITION

Prerequisites

• Studies in Composition (MUSI2311), AND/OR, for students wishing to create electroacoustic compositions, Electroacoustic Studies (MUSI2331).

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• Folio of Compositions (MUSI3312).

Aims

• To provide an opportunity for students to express their creativity through musical composition, using compositional techniques to facilitate a competent and individual compositional voice.
• In so doing they will need to demonstrate that they are receptive to the work of other creative artists and yet have the confidence and authority to develop their own ideas within the chosen medium, instrumental and/or electracoustic.

Content

• The production of compositions that may include electracoustic composition or compositions, or consist wholly of an electroacoustic composition or compositions, of about ten to twelve minutes in overall duration.
• The format and content of the folio is agreed with the course tutor, subject to the approval of the course director.
• In the case of instrumental works at least one work should be recorded in a compositional workshop under conditions that are supervised by the Department, and these recordings are routinely made available to the examiners as supporting materials.
• Works consisting wholly or in part of elecrtroacoustic material must be submitted in a recorded format.
• Short analytical commentaries (300-500 words) for each work submitted should be included as a means of introduction to the candidate's sound world, technique and musical language.
• The compositions must be submitted by the first Friday of the Easter Term (teaching week 20).

Learning Outcomes

• Students will become familiar with a range of techniques that are available for the creation of new music, and be able to demonstrate how these may be used creatively and effectively to establish the foundations for a compositional repertory of their own.

• In so doing they will acquire the skills necessary to compose with maturity, authority and some originality.
• They will prepare the ground for compositional studies at a more advanced level and also via workshops and/or other presentational environments both formal and informal, engage directly the practicalities of creative communication via the medium of music composition.
• These experiences will build directly on the aesthetic considerations and compositional techniques they have encountered in their studies at Levels 1 and 2.

• Compositional techniques used in an appropriate way to articulate each student's musical ideas.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• The tutorials will enable the students to express their own creativity and develop their own compositional voice in response to a range of ideas associated with the development of new music.
• Through tutorials they will acquire additional skills to those obtained at lower levels of study and learn how to articulate their musical ideas clearly and authoritatively, preparing score and parts and/or electroacoustic materials to a professional standard.
• Opportunities will arise for works or extracts thereof to be performed in the context of workshops and/or equivalent auditory environments such as listening sessions.
• These experiences will facilitate suitably critical, evaluate and reflective appraisals of what has been achieved and provide important guidance as to how such creative outputs may be improved both technically and musically.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Individual comments on materials (text, notation, structure etc.) submitted by students for tutorial sessions.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University