Module overview
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Subject Specific Practical Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- oversee and bring to conclusion an extended portfolio of original compositions of your own, and present your music in the most appropriate way
- develop your own technical skills with technologies and studios (for applied composition pathways)
- presenting your work, including notated music examples, to the highest standards of academic presentation
- use methods of note production which provide for a good degree of fluency in your chosen aesthetic
- present your work to professional standard in the format most suited to its idiom
Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- show evidence of clear musical thinking both in terms of invention of strong musical materials and their elaboration in time
- efficient use of library resources to access musical and textual materials appropriate to your study
- reading skills, and the ability to analyse music aurally and visually
- make musical ‘arguments’ that are clear as to their intended structure and expressive content
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- 20th- and 21st-century musical developments
- your own personal aesthetic through your chosen compositional genres, materials, techniques and forms
- aesthetic, technical and critical issues relating to contemporary compositional practice
- a range of techniques for the production of contemporary music pertinent to your developing compositional practice.
- current trends in composition
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- enhanced skills of time-management and self-directed study
- enhanced powers of concentration and focus
- think through extended structures and execute them, with a clear understanding of the relationship between materials and form
- the ability to integrate different media (musical, visual, literary) into a compositional project
- analyse materials of others with the goal of drawing out technical devices pertinent to the development of personal creative work
Syllabus
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
Type | Hours |
---|---|
Tutorial | 6 |
Wider reading or practice | 184 |
Completion of assessment task | 410 |
Total study time | 600 |
Resources & Reading list
General Resources
Electronic and experimental music : pioneers in technology and composition. Holmes, Thom, 2002
Formalized music : thought and mathematics in composition. Xenakis, Iannis, 1992
Modern Music and After. Griffiths, Paul, 2011
Music after the fall : modern composition and culture since 1989. Rutherford-Johnson, Tim, 2017
Assessment
Assessment strategy
Assessment Method Portfolio of Compositions. The indicative length for the creative work submitted in the portfolios is between 30 and 40 minutes in duration. In addition, the creative work should be accompanied by a 3000-word commentary that provides insight into the technical and aesthetic concerns of the work. Applied composition portfolios (film music, video games music) are likely to consist of a showreel of clips that have been scored/re-scored; a songwriting portfolio is likely to consist of an album; and a concert-music portfolio is likely to consist of a collection of pieces with recordings where possible. The Portfolio and commentary are marked as an integrated whole; the commentary bears no individual weight.Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Portfolio | 100% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Portfolio | 100% |
Repeat
An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Portfolio | 100% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External