Unit information: Composition in 2014/15

Unit name	Composition
Unit code	MUSI10049
Credit points	20
Level of study	C/4
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 4 (weeks 1-24)
Unit director	Dr. Kelcey Swain
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of Music
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This unit is taught over the entire year: Studio Composition in teaching block 1 and Acoustic Composition in teaching block 2 A sub-title for the Studio component (weeks 1-12) might be: Music as Sound/Music as Data. Computers and recordings let us get to grips with the raw material of music (sound) and the ways in which we codify musical materials (data) in ways that could not be imagined previously. Although the unit is called Studio Composition, it is intended to give you insights into the stuff of music whether you are a composer, analyst, musicologist or performer. The acoustic composition component (weeks 13-24) will work in parallel with other first year classes, helping students to develop their listening skills and an appreciation and awareness of many instrumental and vocal combinations, as well as many styles of music. Students will create short compositions and arrangements, developing their musical ideas and objectives, and perhaps even their own individual compositional voice.

Aims:

The acoustic composition portion of this unit aims to provide a thorough grounding in compositional techniques through detailed study of structural models in Western music from medieval times to the present. Practical guidance is given in the production and notation of scores.

The studio portion of the unit offers hands-on introduction to musical uses of computers and recording technology, including the recording, editing and transformation of sound as the raw material for musical composition and the representation of music as abstract data, as in the MIDI protocol. The unit also introduces conventions underlying notation software.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Successful completion of this unit will enable students to:

• compose short pieces on a variety of structural bases

• produce musically intelligible, neat and practicable scores

• react constructively to workshop performances of their own compositions

• react constructively and critically to performances of compositions by other students

• discuss musical objectives and make constructive use of advice and experience

• demonstrate an ability to handle and manipulate a variety of sound sources electronically in both analytical and creative contexts

• understand and apply the operation of hardware, software applications, recording techniques

Teaching Information

Weekly lecture (1 hr) and follow-up seminars.

Assessment Information

Acoustic composition:

• 20% continuous assessment i.e. contributions to workshops

• 30% submission of three best performed scores totalling c.8 mins. of music for approved ensembles

Studio composition:

• Two guided composition projects (weighted 30%: 20%).

Reading and References

• Smalley, D., "Spectromorphology: explaining sound shapes" in Organised Sound, 2(2) (1997), 107-26.

• Emmerson, S. (ed.), The Language of Electroacoustic Music. (London, 1986).

• Cope, D., Techniques of the Contemporary Composer (New York, 2000).

• Chadabe, J., Electric Sound: The Past and Promise of Electronic Music (Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1996).

• Adler, S., The Study of Orchestration 3rd. ed (New York, 2002)

• Selected CD recordings to be determined by individual project areas

• Prescribed scores, to be identified during the unit