southampton

Module overview

This module explores important historical and contemporary techniques and approaches to composition to give you a range of ways of thinking about creating, varying, transforming and organising musical materials. We will look at examples of compositional ingenuity in a range of areas (e.g. extended forms of tonality, rhythmic techniques) from across a range of musical styles (e.g. classical, pop, jazz). The concepts and techniques explored are intended as springboards for your own creative engagement and technical development. We’ll also consider the compositional process from ways of getting started to final stage proofreading and editing, and help you develop your musical notation skills. You will compose for an ensemble made up of students from the class, with works being developed during rehearsal workshops over successive weeks. Where possible, your second assignment composition will be workshopped and recorded by professional guest musicians.

Aims and Objectives

Learning Outcomes

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

present scores clearly with attention to detail and with knowledge of notationl good-practice

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

use music notation effectively to communicate your ideas
implement key technical devices and formal procedures in your own composition
compose short works for small forces

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

important aesthetic issues relating to music composition
key technical devices and formal procedures that have developed during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries

Learning and Teaching

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include:

Lectures
Group and individual tutorials
Rehearsals and workshops

Learning activities include:

Individual study
Between session listening/analysis tasks
Library-based research
On-line based research
Rehearsals and workshops

Study time
Type	Hours
Preparation for scheduled sessions	42
Wider reading or practice	42
Workshops	4
Tutorial	8
Lecture	12
Completion of assessment task	42
Total study time	150

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

Arnold Whittall (1999). Musical composition in the twentieth century: Music since the First World War. New York: Oxford University Press.

Arnold Schoenberg (1967). Fundamentals of musical composition. Faber.

David Cope (1977). New Music Composition. New York: Schirmer.

Oliver Messiaen (1956). The Technique of my musical language. Leduc.

Larry Austin (1989). Learning to compose: modes, materials and models of musical invention. Dubuque: Wm. Brown.

Assessment

Assessment strategy

For level 6 students taking this unit, expectations will be higher than those for level 5 students, and the assessment criteria will be accordingly stricter. In particular:

Assignments should demonstrate a broader degree of focus and detail; control over material; formal sophistication; and reflect a more mature response to the set compositional task.
For score based work, optimal standards are required in terms of the physical appearance of work and following the standards of good-practice musical notation.
For written work, optimal standards of presentation are required in terms of spelling, punctuation, and grammar; sophistication of vocabulary; provision of footnotes; inclusion of full bibliographic and related details; physical appearance of work, etc.

In short, level 6 students should aspire at all times to the highest possible levels of undergraduate work.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Assessment	50%
Assessment	50%

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Resubmit assessments	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.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Composition	100%

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External

Composition Workshop