| Unit name | Composing Live Electronics |
|---|---|
| Unit code | MUSI20126 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | I/5 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Professor. Farwell |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
normally: MUSI10059 Composition |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None |
| School/department | Department of Music |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
Electronic sound has enriched the possibilities for what composers can imagine and, with today’s affordable technologies, composers can now achieve more than ever before. This unit builds conceptual understanding and practical skills, for students who wish to add electronics to extend their acoustic composition practice, and for students who plan to do more extensive electroacoustic work.
We look at strategies for combining instruments, voices and recorded sound, from conceiving the desired sonic qualities and crafting the sounds, through to issues of synchronisation in performance and what to show in a notated score. We will investigate multiple approaches to real-time sound transformation and its musical control. ‘Flipping’ the agenda, to put live sound into the recorded medium, we go outside the studio to record material in the urban and natural world. Finally we extend our thinking about interactivity and ‘being live’ with experiments in extended- and meta-instruments and sound installation.
The unit will draw on a wide musical repertoire including current research. Students will make use both of ‘off the shelf’ tools, and discover ‘custom’ approaches through an introduction to Max software. Students will support each other, as performers and technical assistants, learning from the practical realisation of each other’s work.
The unit prepares composers for independent composition with electronics and further work in later units. Beyond composing, the techniques have application from game design to live theatre to computing.
Aims
This unit aims to equip students with skills and understanding across a range of contemporary techniques and concepts for the use of live electronics in art-music. The coverage is intended to be of value both to ‘mainly acoustic’ and ‘mainly studio’ composers, and also to creative performers who want to extend their palette.
At the end of the unit, a successful student will be able to:
Teaching will be delivered through a combination of synchronous and asynchronous sessions, including lectures and self-directed exercises.
Four pieces of coursework, ILOs 1-6. All four must be submitted for credit. The best three marks contribute to the unit mark (33.3% each).
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. MUSI20126).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
