Module MUSI1211: Musical Techniques

Department: Music

MUSI1211: Musical Techniques

Prerequisites

• A-level Music

Corequisites

• Readings in Musicology and EITHER Issues and Methods in Musicology OR The Analysis and Perception of Music.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• Students will gain an understanding of basic musical styles, syntax and concepts of harmony and counterpoint through a 'hands-on' study of a range of genres from the sixteenth-, seventeenty-, eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuries.

Content

• The course will be devoted to a study of techniques from the sixteenth-, seventeenth-, eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuries. During any one year some of the following disciplines will be covered: (a) Bach chorales; (b) song accompaniment (classical and early Romantic); (c) string quartet (Haydn and Mozart orcontemporaries); (d) fugal exposition; (e) trio sonata (Corelli and contemporaries); (f) sixteenth-century counterpoint (Palestrina and contemporaries); (g) chorale prelude in the style of Bach or his north-German contemporaries; (h) two-part writing for keyboard (Baroque dances)

Learning Outcomes

• Students will acquire a fundamental theoretical and practical knowledge of harmony and counterpoint and how they function within the musical styles under scrutiny.

• Students will develop a facility for and comprehension of musical styles in the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

• Students will develop fundamental skills of musical grammar and syntax, voice leading, conceptual differences between harmony and counterpoint and how they combine, and how to put principles into practice through regular exercises and feedback.

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

• Teaching will be by weekly lectures and three tutorials distributed throughout the year. Students will be asked to do weekly or fortnightly exercises to develop their technique, working on developing the principles of music writing presented in the lectures in terms of stylistic models. The module will be assessed by a two-hour written paper. The written exam is designed to develop the student's 'inner ear', i.e. the ability to be able to conceptualise the sounds and textures of what they write in terms of notation and instrumentation (without the recourse to a piano).

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Weekly (or sometimes fortnightly) 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