Module FOUD0027: Foundations of Music; History and Form

Department: Foundation Year (Durham)

FOUD0027: Foundations of Music; History and Form

Pre-requisites

Corequisites

Excluded Combinations

Aims

• To provide students with an overview of trends in European musical life from 1600 to 1900.
• To investigate some of the principal developments in European musical form during these dates.
• To provide students with an awareness of music from other cultures.

Content

• A chronologically sequenced selection of musical examples will show important features of medieval, Baroque, Classical and Romantic styles.
• Context will be underlined with reference to major contemporary political events and social trends.
• Important forms, including: binary, ternary, rondo, theme and variation, sonata, program music.
• Students will be given the opportunity to investigate extra-European musical styles.

Learning Outcomes

• By the end of the module students will:
• Have acquired a broad knowledge of the main trends in western music history.
• Be able to contextualise these trends within society.
• Have a broad knowledge of different musical forms.
• Have an awareness of musical styles and lore from non-western cultures.

• Skills to use the acquired knowledge to recognise different styles from both written and aural examples.
• Skills to use the acquired knowledge to distinguish simple musical forms.
• Skills to describe in writing these styles and forms.

• Communicate effectively in writing.
• The ability to situate styles in a context.

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

• Teaching will be by seminars and tutorials. These instil and reinforce the awareness of relevant issues and methodologies
• Much of the learning, understanding and consolidation will take place through the use of structured workshop activities, groupwork and discussion.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment

Weekly exercises