This is an archived handbook for a previous year. The current undergraduate and postgraduate handbooks can be viewed using the links above.

Undergraduate Handbook 2012-2013 (archived)

Module MUSI2601: ADVANCED MUSICAL TECHNIQUES

Department: Music

MUSI2601: ADVANCED MUSICAL TECHNIQUES

Type	Level	Credits	Availability	Module Cap	Location
Open	2	20	Available in 2012/2013	None.	Durham

Pre-requisites

Corequisites

None

Excluded Combinations

None.

Aims

To build on and develop first-year work in musical techniques; to provide students with the opportunity to gain a more advanced understanding of the harmonic vocabulary, styles and compositional techniques employed by a variety of key historical figures working between 1730-1890, as well as to undertake more complex and sophisticated tasks.

Content

The range of topics covered in any one year may include (but will not necessarily be restricted to) the following: (a) eighteenth-century harmonic counterpoint (including invertible counterpoint); (b) canonic techniques; (c) advanced chromatic harmony; (d) realisation of song accompaniments for keyboard in a variety of nineteenth-century idioms; (e) motets; (f) composition of short keyboard pieces in binary, ternary or five-part forms.

Learning Outcomes

Subject-specific Knowledge

Students will acquire a more advanced theoretical and practical knowledge of harmony and counterpoint, as well as the ways in which composers employed these resources during the historical period specified. A particular focus will be placed on the systematic exploration of the resources of chromatic harmony as explored by a range of historical figures from Bach to Brahms.

Subject-specific Skills

Students will develop a more advanced understanding of musical styles and an insight into the craft of composition during the historical period in question.

Key Skills

Students will acquire a more sophisticated competence in advanced techniques employed by composers during this historical period, gaining practical experience through regular assignments in pastiche composition.

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

The teaching is delivered through weekly lectures and regular tutorials/seminars. Students will be asked to submit regular formative exercises. The summative assessments will comprise two portfolios of exercises, each weighted at 50% of the total mark.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Activity	Number	Frequency	Duration	Total Hours
Lectures	22	weekly	1 hr	22
Tutorials/Seminars	10	fornightly	30 minutes	5
Reading and Preparation				173
TOTAL				200

Summative Assessment

Component	Component Weighting	Element	Length/Duration	Element Weighting	Resit Opportunity
Portfolio 1	50%	A portfolio of exercises		100%	Yes
Portfolio 2	50%	A portfolio of exercises		100%	Yes

Formative Assessment

Regular formative exercises

Students who do not attend monitored activities shown under Teaching Methods and Learning Hours, or who fail to complete the summative or formative assessment(s) specified above, may be subject to the Academic Progress procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University.