MMus Composition

Work will concentrate not just on note-to-note generation but also on how the foreground details of pitch choice can be projected over the duration of a work. Specific techniques such as post-serial thinking, spectral composition, stochastic techniques and sieve theory will be examined. It is of module inadvisable, if not impossible, to isolate the element of pitch from other musical parameters, and thought will be given as to how aspects of register, timbre, pacing and rhythm alter our perception and treatment of raw pitch materials. The relationship between time signatures, rhythm, tempo and texture in relation to surface activity and fundamental structure will also be discussed as a means of articulating larger scale formal units and defining /shaping musical material. 

This module is divided into two parts. The first concentrates on orchestration and contemporary developments in instrumental techniques, and the second considers the nature of material in relation to the articulation of formal structures.

Taking Schoenberg's comments concerning the organisation of timbre from the end of his ‘Harmonielehre’ (1911) as a starting point, the module explores the more recent investigations into the relationship between harmony, texture and form. Areas also to be discussed will include stochastic music, spectral composition, sound realism, microtonality, arborescences and complexity. The notion of ‘material’ in relation to orchestration and notation will be studied. The module is designed to develop further an understanding of instrumental usage. Consideration of both standard and extended playing techniques of individual instruments will be included, with particular reference to those instruments encountered less often.

Guidance will be given on how to develop an original and individual approach to instrumental colour and function. Issues related to writing for the voice will also be addressed. The module will also study issues raised by the musical notations employed by composers since c. 1950 and by improvisers in different fields who have (more or less) rejected Western musical notation as a tool. The module provides opportunity for composers to experiment and engage with different types of notation in a practical setting.

To take this module you should have: the ability to read advanced notation and scores, including a basic knowledge of standard orchestral instruments and playing techniques; some knowledge of recent developments in contemporary ‘classical’ music and familiarity with the developments of 20th Century compositional thought from Webern to Boulez, Stockhausen, Ligeti, etc.

This module offers an overview of the formative debates in musicology over roughly the past three decades. Through a series of thematised readings each week, students will be introduced to a variety of issues that have permeated recent musical discourse, including gender, sexuality, race, canon, technology, performance, analysis and notation.

As well as investigating topics in art music, popular music and ethnomusicology, this module will consider other fields that have influenced musicological discourse, such as anthropology, philosophy and sociology. Throughout, students will be invited to debate the ways in which the history of music has been written: how certain music and musical cultures have entered into or been excluded from canons; how recent writing on music has attempted to redress such exclusions; and what the future of musicology might hold.

With this in mind, students will be encouraged to write essays that innovatively apply the concepts and issues explored during the module to a topic of their own devising. They will also complete two or three short reviews of a mixture of recent musicological articles and presentations given in the Music Research Series. Students should come away from this module not only with a firm understanding of the field, but also with the methods by which it has been (and is being) researched.

Contemporary music ain't what it used to be. Though always multifaceted and to some extent mongrel, the musical avant-garde is now more mixed and sprawling than ever before. And yet efforts to grasp these current tendencies within the field, as well as historical contexts, often remain stuck in bubbles of either analytical specificity or generalised postmodern speculation.

This module sets out to act as a corrective to both of these tendencies by balancing grounding analytical depth with historical and cultural breadth. Accordingly, lectures apply various analytical methods to a broad range of contemporary music both to unlock the music’s workings and to explore its position as a bridge to culture more generally speaking. The module encourages students to think about the historical development and expansion of contemporary music while using analysis to prise open broader interpretative and theoretical issues.

We focus in the first instance on post-tonal musical languages such as serialism, extended tonality and atonality. We then move on to examine proliferating styles from across the contemporary spectrum, including spectral music, sound art, noise, extreme metal, new conceptualism and improvisation.

This production-centred module provides an introduction to audiovisual composition. It covers several theoretical and practical approaches as well as video production software and techniques.

Students will learn about the history of visual music and other cultural and historical contexts for audiovisual composition. They will analyse and discuss pieces of historical significance along with modern examples.

Finally, they will produce audiovisual work using the theory and examples discussed in class to inform their compositional strategies. Production techniques taught in the module will centre on video editing and processing, but will include other aspects of production such as filming and compression for various distribution formats.

This module engages with practical and conceptual approaches to the composition of music for moving image media – film, television, games and other forms. Initial lectures will consider theories of multimedia and the aesthetics of film music, exploring the relationship of music and sound to the structure and content of film narrative. A lecture on technical issues related to synchronisation is followed by a paired sequence of lectures followed by show-and-tell workshops that will consider individual topics, with ensuing short exercises. These topics may include: dramatic scoring; music in games and new media; library music; sound design; experimental film and video; new approaches to silent film; found film and sound montage; et al.

To take this module you should have: competence in music technology programmes – Logic or Cubase or ProTools or Sibelius 5/6 or similar - sufficient to prepare mixed and mastered stereo audio files of media music cues/compositions. 

This module traces just a few of the paths, among many that might be identified, tracked and evaluated, through late twentieth- and early twenty first-century musical cultures, focusing on some key repertoires and the debates which surround them.

The Modernisms of this period, however much their creators may have insisted on an aesthetic of rejection and beginning again from first principles, have their aesthetic, and even some of their technical, origins in early twentieth-century Modernisms, whether musical or emerging from other art forms and cultural practices. While the Postmodernisms that overlapped with, as well as succeeded, them  are frequently associated with the blurring and even breakdown of previously-erected barriers between "High Art" and "Low Art", this module will attempt to assess the significance of such movements and musical phenomena as part of a continuing tradition of "serious", even "classical" musical endeavour: a tradition whose validity and success will receive consideration here.

This course explores creative and technical approaches to the design of computer music systems for interactive performance, composition and/or installations in audio and audiovisual practice. The principal software used is Max (Max/MSP/Jitter), however students are welcome to use other environments for generative and interactive processes in addition to or in the place of Max. A number of fundamental methods for real-time computer music are investigated, including digital signal processing, synthesis, gesture-following and machine learning. Various paradigms of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and audiovisual interaction are explored using a range of performer interfaces, within software environments and using external devices. Music Information Retrieval (MIR) and gestural control of electronics are introduced, while the paradigm of 'computer-as-creator' is explored as well using algorithmic and generative methods, including stochastic and artificial intelligence (AI) -related approaches. Students develop a creative project that explores the compositional and musical possibilities of working with real-time systems, leading to live workshop presentation or performance.

The course develops your knowledge and understanding of musical performance as a research technique, particularly in relation to the music of other cultures. It addresses practical, theoretical and conceptual issues concerning music performance, including the nature of musicality, processes of learning, theories of improvisation, modal theory, and the body in music performance. Theoretical understanding is developed in conjunction with practical, experiential learning. You develop a research-centred performance project by learning to perform from a repertory outside their primary music culture, or by developing expertise in a new area of performance practice. This may include learning to perform a new instrument and/or genre; developing improvisation skills; or the arrangement and performance of pieces from a particular music tradition. You present a short performance that demonstrates your developing skills.

The module combines investigation of theoretical perspectives towards musical performance (as) research with practical exploration through individual projects. It explores the diverse ways in which such practice can be informed by research and (the more challenging question) can constitute research in and of itself. A wide range of repertoires and approaches will be considered, ranging from historical performance practice issues and the challenges presented by contemporary notated scores to creative practice in the most diverse performance contexts, both physical and electronic. A central concern will be the extent to which the processes of performance should be documented, and ways in which technology can be harnessed to aid such documentation. The module will culminate in individually negotiated projects, in which elements of practice will be demonstrably related to the theoretical foundations established during the course.

The module will consist of (i) lecture/workshops with specialists across a variety of different fields (some of which may take place outside the regular timetable) and (ii) practical sessions drawing on students’ experience as performers and researchers. Each student will have the opportunity to present their project in progress at one workshop and to discuss both its practical and written elements in a one-to-one tutorial.

In addition, students will be encouraged to attend relevant research seminars, including interaction with practice-researchers from other departments in order to broaden their experience of different disciplines and approaches towards practice research. To take this module you should have experience as a performer (not necessarily at Masters level); an ability to write about performance issues in a critical and analytical manner; an ability to carry out independent research. Though the module is not restricted to any specific musical traditions, some knowledge of Western art-music repertoires and notations will be expected.

Through lectures, discussions and tutorials – including reference to core theoretical concepts in sonic art as well as current thinking concerning studio-based composition and artistic practices using sound – the module develops a theoretical framework for practice. Pivotal historical developments in the application of audio technologies in sonic art are presented, placing compositional techniques in their wider context. The issues and genres considered include: theoretical underpinnings of musique concrète, elektronische musik, futurism and fluxus; interactivity and live electronics; silence and noise; post-digital aesthetics; sampling and plunderphonics; utterance and text-sound composition; audiovision; acoustics and architecture; perception and interpretation; acoustic ecology and phonography. The factors that gave rise to these issues and genres and the artistic results are considered. This understanding provides a basis for experiment and critical evaluation through creative work and subsequent theoretical investigation. 

This module enhances your skills in a range of studio techniques and creative methods, supported by an understanding of related key concepts. These include recording, editing and mixing, field recording, spectral manipulation, sound synthesis and placement, and electroacoustic compositional methods.

The software used includes Pro Tools, Audiosculpt, and Metasynth. Special attention is given to multi-channel sound work using the EMS Multi-channel Studio and 5.1 Studio. Issues related to technology-based composition are explored, such as listening, spatialisation, transformation, site/location and context. This module includes an opportunity to collaborate with students taking theatre writing/performance modules.

To take this module you should be able to: 1. Demonstrate an understanding of the fundamentals of digital audio and studio-based production 2. Apply a good, working knowledge of a professional audio editor/mixer (eg. at least one of the following: Pro Tools, Logic, Digital Performer, Cubase) 3. Compose studio-based or electronic music that demonstartes an understanding of contemporary techniques and concerns

Everyone has philosophical ideas about music. They tend to come to the fore when we want to dismiss certain works as ‘noise’ (the ‘definition’ problem), or bypass historical context by claiming an interest in ‘the music itself’ (the ‘ontological’ problem), or assert a belief in the profundity of music, or the embodiment of emotions in music, or the parallels between music and language (these are semantic and epistemological problems). They arise too when we defend ourselves by saying that all values are relative (except, apparently, that one, which is supposed to be a universal truth), and that non-western cultures and subcultures have every right to make a claim on the notions of art and the aesthetic.

And philosophical issues also lie at the heart of the ethical decisions that arts administrators and politicians have to make about the distribution of funds in a world of scarce resources – should we allow ourselves to weep at Tosca whilst ignoring tragedy in the streets?

This module provides a gathering-point for discussion and examination of the many concepts that play a role in the ways in which we define, understand, evaluate and justify music. Its aim is to say things so clearly that we can tell when we are talking nonsense, and it does this by analysing ideas systematically in relation to the writings of important figures in the field (see the bibliography on learn.gold).