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MUSI2601: Advanced Historical Composition Techniques

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Type Open
Level 2
Credits 20
Availability Available in 2024/2025
Module Cap
Location Durham
Department Music

Prerequisites

  • MUSI1211 Musical Techniques

Corequisites

  • None

Excluded Combinations 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 composers 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

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.

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 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 formative exercises. The summative assessment will take the form of a portfolio of compositions such as might have been created by composers of the periods studied.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

ActivityNumberFrequencyDurationTotalMonitored
Lectures10Weekly during one term2 hours20Yes
Seminars4During the same term1 hour3Yes
Reading and Preparation177 
TOTAL200 

Summative Assessment

Component: PortfolioComponent Weighting: 100%
ElementLength / DurationElement WeightingResit Opportunity
A portfolio of compositions100Yes

Formative Assessment

Formative exercises are designed to help students to improve their compositional skills step by step.

More information

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