Module MUSI40730: Issues in Performance Practice

Department: Music

MUSI40730: Issues in Performance Practice

Prerequisites

• None.

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To increase awareness and understanding of the topics and issues in Performance Practice and in the wider context of music-making in today’s music industry.

Content

• Performance practice: to investigate historically and culturally informed performance practices.
• Notations: to develop understanding of varied notational practices.
• Critical listening: to develop abilities to understanding relevant issues in performance through listening.
• Cultural theories: to introduce theories relevant to all performing and other arts in different periods.

Learning Outcomes

• Students will gain an understanding of:
• (a) the discipline of performance and how it relates to other disciplines in music.
• (b) an insight into the culture of musical performance.

• (c) Evaluate musicological scholarship and historical/textual evidence.
• (d) Deploy critical and analytical methodologies with confidence.
• (e) Undertake the interpretation of musical works in a scholarly manner.
• (f) Convey, both orally and in writing, a logical explanation of interpretative strategies adopted in performance.
• (g) Demonstrate a coherent knowledge of musicological scholarship pertinent to the interpretation and performance of musical works.
• (h) Deepen their knowledge of scholarly editorial methodologies and practices.

• (i) Demonstrate an enhanced capacity for self-directed study and research, including the capacity to organise his/her own time effectively.
• (j) Show initiative in learning to find souces of information.
• (k) Solve interpretative difficulties by applying relevant analytical insights.
• (l) Analyse and evaluate relevant musicological literature.
• (m) Develop a range of communication skills to communicate theoretical and musical insights in an oral and written form.

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

• The student will attend weekly classes in which chosen topics are discussed. The classes alternate between lectures and seminars (see learning outcomes a-h). The student will be given a reading list on each topic to direct seminar presentations (c, g-l). Seminars are student-led and practical performance will also be part of the seminars (f, g, l, m). This part of work will be as the result on independent study - both research and individual practice (i). Presentations will receive peer and tutor feedback. The two summative assignments are combinations of written, recorded and notated materials - the proportion of the elements will be decided in consultation with the tutor.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Weekly exercises.

■ 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