Course Structure
This course begins with a shared 30-credit plenary module, you would then take another module dependent upon your specialist pathway. Semester 2 allows you to choose one 30-credit option outside of your chosen pathway alongside another 30-credit module from your specialist pathway. Semester 3 sees you working on a single 60-credit module; your Negotiated Final Project.
Semester 1
Composition, Performance and the Musical Text (Plenary)
- The written score as locus of authority
- The graphic score as provocation
- The musical text in popular music
- The aural tradition in European folk music and in non-Western Traditions
- The recording as artefact
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Composition Techniques (C)
- Forms in the 21st century
- Texture and instrumentation
- Colour and structure in composition
- Presentation of artefact
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Individual Performance (P)
- Cognitive processes in performance
- Physiological responses
- Relaxation techniques
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Critical and Theoretical Positions (CM)
- Canonisation and the Great Tradition
- Marxist perspectives on music
- Modernism and Postmodernism
- Text and Intertext
- Difference, Gender and Race
- Analysis and Meaning in Music
- The Politics of Genre
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Advanced Studio Composition and Production Techniques (IMASP)
- Dynamic Sound Editing, Design and Spatialisation
- Studio Composition and Sound-Design Strategies, including those for Mixed-Media
- An examination of the historical/cultural context for Studio-based Composition
- Recent and current repertoires for Studio-based Composition practice
- Delivery of the musical works in a form appropriate for the medium(s) chosen
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Semester 2
Applied Composition Techniques (C)
- Composition for TV and film
- Composition for games
- Composition for theatre
- Sound environments
- Project managing in the commercial world
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Group Interaction in Performance (P)
- Leadership skills
- Non-verbal communication
- Psychology of group performance
- Repertoire planning
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Subject Specific Evaluation (CM)
You will be required to evaluate a range of materials in preparation for seminar discussions
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Interactive and Emergent Music Programming Techniques (IMASP)
- Interactive Music Programming Techniques
- Emergent/Algorithmic Programming Techniques
- An examination of the historical/cultural context for computer assisted non-linear/aleatoric music/Sound Art practice.
- An examination of recent and current music repertoires for non-linear/aleatoric music/sound art practice
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Ethnomusicology Theories and Techniques (Option)
- Historical Development and key figures in Ethnomusicology
- Instrument Classification & the construction of Instruments (Hindustani, West African, Chinese, 'Are'are, etc.)
- Gender and Sexuality
- Localisation & Globalisation
- Race & Ethnicities
- Fieldwork methodologies
- Participant-Observation: History, theoretical framework & Techniques
- Transcriptions, Interviews, & Fieldwork Diaries
- Learning Procedures: Enculturation, Acculturation, Nature, Nurture; Anthropology of the body
- Music and socialisation: musical behaviour and emic and etic
- Film & phonographic recordings in ethnomusicology
- Music Space & Place
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Community Music Theories and Techniques (Option)
Students taking the module negotiate a series of proposed projects with their specialist tutor. Typically, projects will be undertaken across a range of areas including, for example, band management and promotion, musical directing and community music in its broadest sense.
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Semester 3
Negotiated Final Project