Module MUSI2601: Advanced Historical Composition Techniques

Department: Music

MUSI2601: Advanced Historical Composition Techniques

Prerequisites

• MUSI1211 Musical Techniques

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To build on and develop first-year work in Historical Techniques of Composition; 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 c.1730-1920, as well as to undertake more complex and sophisticated tasks.

Content

• The topics covered may include (but will not necessarily be restricted to) the following: (a) eighteenth-century harmonic counterpoint (including invertible counterpoint); (b) advanced chromatic harmony; (c) realisation of song accompaniments for keyboard in a variety of nineteenth-century idioms; (from Schubert to Chaminade); (d) composition of short keyboard pieces or piano pieces such as mazurkas or ragtime compositions.

Learning Outcomes

• 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.

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

• 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 assessment will take the form of a portfolio of exercises, e.g. harmonisation of a given melody line, or completion of a composition on a given opening.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Regular formative exercises designed to help students to improve their compositional skills step by step.

■ 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