BMus (Hons) Music

The aim of this module is to introduce you to the styles you will encounter, the debates you will need to consider and the critical skills you will require in studying western musics of the period 1900 to the present.

While exploring musical repertoires of various kinds, from classical to popular (and beyond), the module will:

• investigate the ways this music has been thought and written about
• explore historical cultural contexts
• develop your skills in critical reasoning, conducting research and presenting written argument

You will be encouraged to think about relationships between musicians, their works, and their contexts, and to engage as they do with appropriate ideas from such disciplines as historical studies, sociology, cultural studies, ethnomusicology and musical analysis.

This module allows you to develop your understanding of 20th/21st-century compositional techniques, and to apply them in your own original creative work. Following a series of introductory exercises, a number of creative strategies are actively explored, including experimental notation, visualisation and improvisation.

The module introduces you to a number of techniques with respect to pitch (linear/harmonic), rhythm, texture, instrumentation and scoring and then goes on to consider a range of structural methods as evidenced in music from the early 20th century onwards (such as serialism, isorhythm, block form, process-based form). You are expected to implement a selected number of techniques in your own work, and evaluate the effectiveness of your approach.

This module provides an opportunity for you to become familiar with a range of music technology applications, including score processing, analog and digital recording, computer- based production and sequencing.

You will develop a basic working knowledge of software packages, acquiring core skills in computer music and furthering your understanding of its potential practical applications. You will also have opportunity to work in a recording studio, developing a knowledge of good practice in this environment, including an ability to collaborate effectively.

Term 1 focuses on Recording Techniques with tuition and practical experience in music technology theory and studio practice. This also acts as an induction to both the Electronic Music Studio (EMS) and Goldsmiths Music Studios (GMS) Term 2 include three options, focused around specific software packages & music technology practices – Notation & Music Theory (Sibelius notation software), Live Audio Processing (Ableton & Max For Live software), Digital Audio Editing (ProTools & Logic).

Skills and understanding developed in this module provide a foundation for a number of Level 2 modules available across the programmes, in studio composition, media composition and commercial recording. You work both individually and collaboratively, as appropriate.

This module helps students to develop confident and convincing musical performances in both solo and ensemble situations across a range of styles (from western art music, to jazz, musical theatre and more).

Content is delivered through lectures, seminars and coaching sessions that discuss topics such as effective individual practice, memorisation, bodywork, rehearsal techniques, and critical listening. The module is supported by one-to-one tuition with a specialist on your chosen instrument and includes weekly practical musicianship sessions that develop aural skills.

Through an examination of key works, concepts and stylistic trends this module maps the development of musical style and culture across the 20th Century, with a particular focus on repertoires and works related to art, and experimental popular, musical practices. Areas of study include the inception of Modernism and the breakdown of tonality, the resultant reaction and nationalism, the Experimental movements in Europe and America and the post-war avant-garde to Minimalism, the rise of Postmodernism and the development of hybrids and crossovers. Through listening and research the course introduces a variety of conceptual approaches and developments of musical style and technique, along with a consideration of the process of musicological research and criticism. The module builds on work done at Level 1 in Approaches to Contemporary Music, but focuses more closely on particular repertoires and works.

The module introduces the diverse musical traditions of Africa and Asia. It concentrates on traditional musical practices, although some attention also will be given to newly created styles. Geographical areas covered will include Southern Africa, West Africa, North Africa, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia (mainland and island), Oceania and East Asia. You are expected to become familiar with the sounds of the music of these areas, and to understand something of their underlying structural principles and the social and cultural contexts in which they are performed. 

Though a notoriously difficult concept to define, Romanticism had a powerful impact throughout the nineteenth century, and continues to shape music and musical culture today. It generated new conceptualisations of the composer and performer, encouraged composers to explore new musical forms and styles, shifted analytical procedures, played a part in the formation of musical canons and altered listening habits.

This course investigates the legacy of Romanticism in these areas with reference to musical genres from the Lied and the symphony to Blues and film music. It begins with an introduction to Romanticism, before historicising concepts such as genius, the work, nationalism, celebrity, the canon, self-expression, organicism and originality.

You will be encouraged to consider how these concepts were (and still are) reflected in compositional, listening, performing and critical practices. This will involve developing an understanding not only of a range of musicological arguments about Romanticism, but also those found in reception, performance, gender, film and cultural studies.

The 1956 Columbia album What is Jazz?, on which Leonard Bernstein – by that time one of America’s most famous musicians and public educators – delivers a lecture on that music’s technical and stylistic features, is where this module takes its cue.  Blue notes, vocalised instrumental tones, the transformation of song material through improvisation, all these things are illustrated by Bernstein’s guests across a variety of styles, and the programme ends with Miles Davis and John Coltrane pitching an old pop tune into a supermodern vortex of altered chords and right-angle phrasing.

This, then, was jazz, or at least that part of it that Bernstein called ‘the music itself’. But what would become of jazz later, when many of its musicians discarded those supposedly fundamental techniques, indeed refused the J-word altogether? And what is jazz when considered as a set of both musical and social practices? After all, the music has been taken by its players and listeners as sounding certain worldviews, whether hedonistic or abstruse; it has been imagined as a mode of political action, whether that meant opting out or acting up; it has provided ways of thinking about the individual and the collective, whether in critical metaphor or musical practice.

So in asking Bernstein’s question anew, this module uses musical analysis and readings to examine jazz’s developing cultural situation, from its beginnings to the present day. Central considerations are the music’s changing learning, performance and institutional contexts and prestige; its understanding as both an American and a global phenomenon; its functioning as a lens through which to envisage (and distort) ideas of race, gender and sexuality; its visual, verbal and sonic representations of attitude and style.

This thematic approach will be complemented by listening and reading tasks which, focusing on specific moments or practices and progressing chronologically, will enrich our understanding of jazz’s historical development.

This part of the module pays homage to jazz’s hallowed names and recordings, but it also encourages students to think critically about the music’s canons. That means extending them stylistically, geographically and longitudinally: arriving at the present, we will think about how some enduring jazz impulse has been seen to animate the music of artists as different as Amy Winehouse and Kendrick Lamar, Esperanza Spalding and Jamie Cullum.

This module introduces a number of perspectives on the use and function of music in narrative film. This includes an overview of practices from the so-called 'silent era' through to contemporary mainstream Hollywood cinema, and to those in world cinemas; a discussion of technological developments and how these influenced film music practice; distinctions between the deployment of dramatic scoring and pre-existing musics/songs/recordings; the position of music in film’s narrative apparatus; and the interaction between music and other elements of the ‘soundtrack’. Key concepts and theorists in film music and film sound scholarship are introduced, and case studies are drawn from a number of prescribed films, taken from across the history of cinema.

This module is a co-requisite for MEDIA COMPOSITION (TERM 2).

This module explores the music of eighteenth-century London, and major compositions within this context. As Europe’s richest and most socially advanced capital, London was home to a uniquely pioneering musical culture. Literacy, shared wealth and public access to venues made music a quasi-democratized entertainment. Within London’s entertainment industry, composers relied on the music celebrity to gain public favour. Two strands of musical taste became entwined: that of the privileged classes, whose connoisseurship was displayed particularly in their taste for Italian opera and virtuosi, and that of playhouse and public concert audiences, who identified with ‘native’ star musicians. At once both agents and product, music celebrities facilitated the cultivation of new genres, such as English oratorio, and helped to shape the ‘polite and commercial’ music that, thanks to print, emanated out from London across Europe.

Since the emergence of the printing press, the performance, dissemination and reception of music has been integrally linked to various media and industries. From the late twentieth century the internet and digital technologies have been dramatically reshaping the production, circulation and consumption of music due to the increasing shift from physical artefact (CDs, cassettes, LPs) to non-material digital distribution, with streamed access challenging the idea of owned musical artefacts.

This module examines the role of various media and industries in the music making process. It considers the historical significance of printing, recording, radio, the moving image media, digital technology and the internet. It also considers the range of different companies that have a vested interest in music making, and explores how music has become ever more significant for corporate promotion and branding. The module reflects on how these industries have provided opportunities and imposed constraints on music making. The module links a detailed focused study of how various industries and media operate to key conceptual frameworks and explanatory models drawn from cultural and social theory.

Western audiences have long been drawn to Russian music for its supposed unique qualities. With the arrival of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in the early twentieth century, this reached fever pitch, with audiences, critics and composers across Europe and the United States thoroughly besotted with the elusive ‘Russian soul’. This module explores how (and why) music was used to create powerful images of Russian nationhood, focusing on the years between the premieres of Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar (1836) and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring (1913). During this period, Russian nationalist composers and critics developed a complex dynamic with the West, seeking to prove that Russian culture was distinct from, but able to compete with existing art music traditions.

In order to investigate how certain Russian composers sought to beat the West at its own game, this module will centre on the genres of programme music, symphony, opera, art song, piano music and ballet. But it was not only in Russia that the ‘Russian soul’ was constructed. This module also looks at some of the earliest reactions to Russian music abroad, and shows how composers towards the end of the century were strongly influenced by musical forms, harmonies and genres developed in Russia. As well as gaining an overview of Russian music in this period, therefore, students will be encouraged to consider Russian music in its Western context – not just as a passive observer and absorber of Western art music traditions, but as an increasingly active player and influence on the world’s stage.

(Pre-requisite module: L1 Performance: Techniques & Repertoire)

This module closely examines particular repertoire areas and shows how to approach particular music with reference not only to performance techniques, but also musicological research, demonstrating how we can enrich and deepen musical performance by drawing on musicology, knowledge of aesthetic, style, period conventions, and historical context. The lectures, seminars, workshops and coachings are closely linked to individual specialist tuition on your chosen instrument, thus encouraging you to approach any music you perform in a holistic and informed manner.

The module begins with lectures on a variety of performance-related issues. You are given the opportunity for several (unassessed) short solo performances in tutor-led seminars when you will receive feedback both from the tutor and your peers. A mid-module assessment takes place at the beginning of term 2, comprising a 15-minute programme prepared in consultation with your specialist teacher. The choice of programme is largely free, but must include one technical element (a study, for example).

The second assessment comprises a performance of a short chamber music recital at the end of the second term. Students will be placed in chamber music groups, given repertoire, and will receive rehearsal coaching.

A more substantial solo performance is assessed at the end of the year, by means of an accompanied (where necessary) exam. You will liaise with your specialist teacher on suitable repertoire and the module leader is also available for consultation.

Students are advised that progression to Performance Styles and Contexts (L2) should only be considered by those who have been achieving marks in the 2.1 range or higher in the Performance: Techniques & Repertoire (L1)  module. Progression for those who have not achieved such marks will be at the discretion of the Director of Performance.

This module enables you to acquire fundamental skills in the use of studio equipment and software which are relevant to experimental electronic music and electroacoustic composition. These include recording techniques, sound editing and mixing, digital audio processing and use of MIDI. You will also be introduced to a range of experimental electronic/electroacoustic repertoire and associated compositional approaches. 

Indicative repertoire:

Pierre Schaeffer - Quatre études de Bruits (Four Studies in Noise) (1948)

Karlheinz Stockhausen - Gesang der Jünglinge (1956)

Steve Reich - It's Gonna Rain (1965)

Alvin Lucier - I Am Sitting In A Room (1969)

Jonathan Harvey - Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco (1980) 

This module is a co-requisite for L2 Sonic Art Practice , and a pre-requisite for L3 Phonography and Live Electronics.

Learning outcomes: 

1. Basic proficiency in the use of studio equipment and software including the mixing desk, recording media, effects processors, Apple Mac computer, ProTools and Audiosculpt.
2. Detailed knowledge of selected approaches to contemporary electroacoustic composition
3. An ability to evaluate by listening electroacoustic music, demonstrating an awareness of compositional method and structure. 

This module provides an introduction to the harmonic vocabulary of jazz and popular music. It studies: tonality, modality, chord/scale relationships, standard chord progressions and chord symbols, basic re-harmonisation. You are also instructed in the conventions of jazz and popular music notation, including the presentation of lead sheets and rhythm charts. It is taught through lectures, and individual tutorial at the end of the term. Technical support for the use of Sibelius is also provided. 

Students are strongly recommended to take this module as preparation for L2 Arranging in Jazz & Popular Music in Term 2. 

Learning outcomes: 

1. Systematic understanding of diatonic harmony
2. Systematic understanding of chord/scale relationships & modality
3. Ability to voice & voice-lead chords in up to 4 parts
4. Systematic knowledge of diatonic / non-diatonic harmonic progressions
5. Understanding of conventions of jazz and popular music notation 

This module teaches techniques of contemporary composition through a varied set of elementary and fundamental technical composition studies. The students take part in both formative as well as summative assessment working to gain a better hands-on understanding of the processes and methods involved in composition. The focuses of this module are:

• Musical Time: the constituent parts of musical time: Rhythm, Tempo, Metre, and Bar.
• Pitch: the generation of pitch structures and how they can be employed in music. Definition(s) of atonality, strategies for atonal, tonal and modal composition.
• Timbre and materials: Range of musical materials, experimental strategies
• Compositional systems and structures: from serialism to minimalism, generative systems, and systematic approaches to larger structure and form.

 This module is a co-requisite for MU52023B Composition: Creative Strategies in Term 2.

Building on the techniques and strategies learned in Techniques of Contemporary Composition, this module encourages you to experiment with a number of creative strategies for composition and sound art practice. You undertake a series of creative tasks to explore different strategies for making work such as working with found sound and musical borrowing, working with images, texts and other aural sources, and working with chance operations and performer choice. Examples of topics explored on the module include:

• Musical borrowing, found sound and quotation
• Indeterminacy and Improvisation
• Collage and Juxtaposition
• Text / Performance / Visual media

The co-requisite for this module for Level 2 Techniques in Contemporary Composition.

This module develops the awareness acquired in the module ‘Music in Film’ on music’s function in relation to other media, through practical composition work. It introduces a number of technical and creative approaches to the composition of music for media such as film, video, games, working with music technology software including Logic and Sibelius. This includes an overview of core concepts such as the role of synchronisation and illustration, awareness of genre, and how elements combine in multimedia forms, as well as of composition strategies in creating music for other media – for example, using thematic organisation, role models, orchestration/arrangement/production, and when working to tight instruction. Case studies are drawn from a number of prescribed films and works. The module is delivered through alternating lectures and group seminars/workshops, built around a set of practical exercises, from which a portfolio/showreel is to be prepared for final submission, accompanied by an explanatory and reflective essay. 

The co-requisite for this module is Level 2 Music in Film.

This module introduces a range of techniques and approaches in arranging for jazz and popular music contexts, including knowledge of instrumentation and arrangement for standard brass and reed groupings, and for different sizes of string ensemble. You will gain an understanding of conventional scoring and voicing techniques, the use of extended harmony, modes and counterpoint, thickened line and chord spreads, as well as various arranging concepts. The Sibelius notation program is used as the main music preparation tool. During this module, you will complete a portfolio of preliminary exercises, followed by a principal assignment in adding an ensemble arrangement to an extant rhythm chart. 

You are strongly recommended to take L2 Techniques in Jazz & Popular Music in preparation for this module. 

This module is a pre-requisite for the  L3 Creative Orchestration module. 

Learning outcomes: 

1. Knowledge of the instrumentation commonly used in jazz and commercial music, and the demonstration of its idiomatic use.
2. Ability to control harmony and chord voicing at an advanced level.
3. Ability to demonstrate awareness of standard arranging concepts.
4. Ability to structure and develop an arrangement around a given formal structure.
5. Ability to prepare professional materials (score and parts) suitable for a recording session. 

For many years music has been associated with different social groups and been linked to specific cultural identities defined by gender, ethnicity, class, race and sexuality. This can be seen in everything from the close connections between the emergent bourgeoisie and the canonization of absolute music in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, to the importance of blues, jazz, soul and hip hop for changing notions of black identity up the present day. This module examines how popular and classical musics have been used to affirm a sense of collective identity and as a means of asserting difference and excluding others, exploring topics such as the social construction of identity, fandom, authenticity and authorship.

This is an extended essay on a historical, cultural, analytical or performance topic in music, chosen by you with the advice and supervision of a specialist member of academic staff. Advice will be given concerning: the use and evaluation of primary and secondary literature (including musical scores), the design and organisation of the essay, bibliographic and referencing conventions, and on the issues and intellectual challenges of the topic. You are expected to develop both an individual perspective on your chosen topic and a convincing argument for your point of view, informed and supported by relevant secondary literature. 

This module allows you to devise and produce an independent, creative project that may consist of an extended single piece or short portfolio of closely-related works. The work is integrated with a research topic. It is an opportunity for composers/songwriters/sonic artists to explore in depth a particular area of interest and concern, building upon creative and/or technical interests developed in Levels 1 and 2.

You identify your own research questions related to creative and/or contextual issues, with the advice, agreement and supervision of a specialist member of academic staff. . You are encouraged to develop the project with a specific context or method presentation in mind – this could be online, a recorded artifact, or performance (e.g. a Composers' Forum or EMS Concert, an event of your own devising, or any suitable opportunity for presentation outside of Goldsmiths).

The duration of creative work is to be agreed in negotiation with the supervisor. You may submit audio or video on CD or DVD, and/or scores and/or any other material in support of your work.

At a midpoint in the process you will be expected to make an assessed blog, podcastor video on research- and work-in-progress.

Learning Outcomes
1. The ability to design and execute a substantial creative project that evidences innovation and awareness of contemporary practices.
2. Advanced musical and technical proficiency in creative work
3. The ability to assess and select from secondary literature and other media to process this intellectually.
4. The ability to analyse and contextualise the student’s own creative style and process
5. The ability to develop an individual critical perspective on an individual creative project, as well as relevant sources and contexts.

This module addresses advanced compositional techniques reflecting a wide range of approaches, including the study and analysis of a set of recent 20^th and 21^st century works.

The two parts of the module include analytical study, student presentations and practical application of the techniques studied through composition assignments in term 1, leading to a composition project writing for, and working with, professional musicians in term 2.

Learning Outcomes

1. A detailed understanding of the development of contemporary compositional techniques.
2. A thorough understanding of the relationship between material, form and structure
3. Ability to communicate effectively with professional musicians
4. Ability to prepare performance materials at a professional standard
5. Ability to write and present critically and analytically on existing contemporary repertoire, and on their own work.
   

This module assesses the history, techniques and aesthetics of musical minimalism in the context of contemporary cultural practice. The period covered ranges from its prehistory in the output of such composers as Satie, through its early maturity in the work of Young, Riley, Reich and Glass, to some of the manifestations of their heritage in the music of such younger composers as Pärt, Branca and Skempton.

Learning Outcomes

1. A detailed understanding of the main general movements in minimalist sculpture and painting in this period.
2. A detailed understanding of the main movements in musical minimalism and postminimalism in this period.
3. A systematic understanding of the compositional theories and practices of the composers discussed.
4. A systematic understanding of the processes of change (technically and aesthetically) and how historical judgements are made.
5. Ability to question historical judgements and values.
6. Ability to use primary and secondary sources discerningly.
7. Ability to use an appropriate technical methodology and vocabulary in written work.

This module explores the impact of Soviet politics on music in the years c.1917-75. It investigates the often erratic, invariably vague and ever-shifting nature of state interference, from the loose controls of the 1920s to the introduction of Socialist Realism in the 30s, from the demands for patriotic music in the war years to the reassessment of Stalinism during the Thaw.

The composers at the centre of this module will be Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Mosolov, Myaskovsky and Schnittke. Focusing on symphonies, operas, ballets, film scores, mass songs and cantatas, the module examines the ways in which these and other composers negotiated the pursuit of their artistic ideals with pressures to create music suitable for the proletariat.

In so doing, the module considers how it was that the Soviet regime produced some of the most powerful, and some of the most banal, music of the 20th century. 

The art of phonography is regarded by some as a recent phenomenon; however the recording, editing and juxtaposing of 'real world' sounds within an artistic context can be claimed to be as old as the technology such practice utilises, and likewise there are as many aesthetic approaches to working with such materials as there are composers working within this genre.

This compositional module will creatively explore the domain of field recording, including the use of recorded sounds in documentary, acoustic ecology and sound art. It will theoretically and practically tackle the salient issues and simultaneously build up the technical skills required in the practice of phonography.

Learning Outcomes

1. A detailed understanding of the techniques involved in phonography through hands on experience of a range of field recording techniques.
2. A detailed understanding of current as well as historical precedence of phonography.
3. An awareness of the salient aesthetic, political and ecological issues that underline phonographic practice.
4. An ability to record, edit and juxtapose 'real world' sound within a critical framework.
5. A critical understanding of the notion of context and site-specific practice. 

The pre-requisite for this module is Level 2 Sonic Art Techniques.

This module enables you to develop skills in music performance through practical workshops on a gamelan ensemble from the Sunda region of Indonesia called gamelan degung. As well as learning traditional gamelan styles and frameworks for variation and improvisation, you will be encouraged to develop your own musical creativity through devising innovative approaches to ensemble performance, interaction and improvisation.

Practical workshops will be complemented by lectures/seminars which will examine theoretical issues concerning music learning, performance practice and improvisation in a variety of Southeast Asian music traditions.

The lectures/seminars will particularly focus on cognitive approaches to musical competence and creativity in order to provide a theoretical and contextual framework for critical reflection on the aural methods of music learning and performance skills developed during the module. 

Learning outcomes:

1. Ability to perform a variety of instruments of the gamelan degung ensemble from Sunda, Indonesia, and gain familiarity with the musical forms, structures and improvisation techniques employed by Sundanese music
2. Developed skills in musical improvisation and creativity
3. Ability to reflect critically on oral methods of music learning and the dynamics of ensemble performance
4. Developed effective team working skills, and competence, understanding and awareness in ensemble performance commensurate with study at level 3
5. Knowledge of the performance practices and cultural contexts of a variety of Southeast Asian music traditions
6. Understanding of theoretical issues concerning music learning and performance practice, including cognitive approaches to musical competence, interaction and creativity

[Numbers on this module will be capped, and places allocated on a first come, first served basis]

This module aims to familiarise you with standard principles of orchestration and arrangement as found in various forms of late twentieth century music – concert composition and orchestral transcription, film scoring, and jazz/popular music studio arranging  - drawing from a diversity of source material.

It examines the idiomatic use of orchestral instruments and instrumental groups, standard techniques of orchestration and orchestral transcription, and offers creative resources for arrangement.

The module helps you develop the conceptual and analytical tools to ‘reverse engineer’ techniques of orchestration and arrangement in scores and recordings. Teaching takes place through lectures, workshops, tutorial groups, and through online resources, both on the VLE, and at external sites. You will be encouraged to contribute to a database of significant examplars of instrumental use, of specific techniques, and of creative arrangement.

The pre-requisite for this module is Level 2 Arranging in Jazz and Popular Music.

This module explores practical and theoretical approaches to education, with a particular focus on instrumental teaching. The module is delivered through a range of methods (lectures, seminars, fieldwork and tutorials) and includes work experience that you will undertake at a local primary school as teaching assistants to a professional instrumental tutor.

As a prerequisite for this module, students need to apply for a DBS check before the beginning of term 1.

Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module it is anticipated that you will have:

1. Developed an understanding of fundamental theoretical and pedagogical concepts and issues in relation to music education.
2. Completed work experience as a teaching assistant to professional instrumental tutors in the context of a local primary school.
3. Developed the ability to analyse and reflect on your own teaching practice and that of your colleagues in light of the theoretical and pedagogical ideas explored and as a way of developing your own teaching skills and knowledge.
4. Developed the ability to identify and investigate an area of educational interest through a critical engagement with relevant professional and academic literature.

Please note: numbers on this module will be capped, and places allocated on a first come, first served basis.

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. You will learn about the history of visual music and other cultural and historical contexts for audiovisual composition. You will analyse and discuss pieces of historical significance along with modern examples. Finally, you will produce two audiovisual works using the theory and examples discussed in class to inform your compositional strategies. Production techniques taught in the module centre on video editing and processing, but include other aspects of production such as filming and compression for various distribution formats.

Learning Outcomes

1. Creative skills and awareness in the medium of audiovisual composition
2. Proficiency in the use of relevant video equipment and software including Adobe Premiere, Logic, etc.
3. Detailed knowledge of relevant compositional techniques, as evidenced through creative practice.
4. Ability to analyse audiovisual composition using a suitable theoretical framework derived through in-class examples and discussion.

The module will address alternative, underground and fringe practice in recent music. It will employ both practical and theoretical work to develop awareness of and engagement with modes of music composition and performance that do not privilege conventional song forms or tonal, timbral, rhythmic or conceptual languages. It will unpack and interrogate terms like ‘underground’, ‘avant-garde’, ‘alternative’ ‘DIY’ and ‘independent’, which define, and frequently impede, popular discourse around these musics.

In keeping with the expansive aesthetic scope of underground and fringe musics, (whilst acknowledging the importance of distinct social, cultural and political attachments, stances and ideologies) the module will whenever possible forego generic categorisation and address a continuum of interrelated practices. For the purposes of this outline, these practices may be understood in the context of historical and contemporary ‘scenes’ or movements such as US alternative/avant rock, No Wave, Riot Grrrl, UK post-punk, industrial, IDM, outsider electronics, minimal/ambient techno, witch house, Afro/Black Atlantic futurism, Japanese noise, contemporary noise/doom/drone, Death/Black metal and dark ambient.

The principle of complementary, interdependent theoretical and practical engagement and study will be central to the structure and assessment method proposed. Lectures will introduce key repertoire and theoretical or contextual concerns, and will incorporate specific points of seminar discussion to promote active intellectual engagement with issues around these living, developing musical languages. You will be expected to complete pre-reading/listening tasks in advance of each lecture, equipping you with some prior knowledge to inform their discussion. Parallel to this series of lectures, you will be developing (in independent study time) practical work responding to the materials and concepts presented and discussed. A creative workshop session will allow you to present practical work in progress for peer and tutor feedback.

‘Manhattan’, Le Corbusier wrote in 1935, ‘is hot jazz in stone and steel’. The architect wasn’t alone in imagining both built and sounding constructions as articulating a singular design for future living, but what were these modernist ideals that you could touch as well as hear? The theorist Charles Jencks would later date the death of that dream to 1972, and the detonation of the modernist Pruitt-Igoe housing project in St Louis, Missouri – a citation that would become as ubiquitous in the cliché-happy postmodern era as that of John Zorn, the composer-improviser who traded in cut-ups and cartoons and who, in the words of Susan McClary, ‘revelled in the rubble’ of a once-proud Western cultural edifice. Futurism and referentiality, confidence and anxiety, from the solid to the fragmented and on to the airlessly virtual: now, in the twenty-first century, music of all kinds flits around the borderless internet, meshing with other media forms in endlessly mutable networks. Does the work of a composer like Jennifer Walshe – whose operas are based on video game footage, and who, in multiple personae, performs musics ranging across drone, telepathic improvisation and Irish dada sound poetry – sound a digitised post-postmodernity? This module explores notions of the modern, postmodern and post-postmodern in music of all kinds and culture more broadly, considering classic and emerging characterisations of each moment; warily though - you are encouraged to think around illiquid periodisations, and to construct nimble ideas on the creative and theoretical uses made of the new and the old, the human and the machine, the local and dematerialised, the fast and the faster, across music’s modernities.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. A developed knowledge of musical theories and practices associated with modernism, postmodernism and a putative ‘post-postmodernism’.
2. A developed ability to read musical activity in light of wider social and cultural processes, and vice versa.
3. A developed ability to carry out research.
4. A developed ability to present complex critical thinking and arguments in written form.

This module explores the creative use of real-time software for live performance and interactive installations, with a focus on analysis and theoretical contextualisation of current practice and on the development of your own projects in these areas. You will acquire and refine your programming skills in hands-on sessions designed to accommodate varying levels of programming - from those with prior experience mostly with DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations) such as ProTools or Logic, to those with advanced Max programming skills. These allow you to develop specific skills within the field of real-time digital arts practice in order to develop your own original real-time environments for performance, composition, improvisation and/or interaction for audio or audiovisual practice, while contextualising this practice in relation to notions of paradigms of interaction. 
While Max (Max/MSP/Jitter) will be the principal programming environment for this module, you are welcome to explore the use of other environments such as Supercollider, PD, and ChucK; other software may be used for assessed work with the express permission of the module coordinator. You are highly encouraged to collaborate with other students in the module for your creative projects.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. A detailed understanding of the basic principles of Max/MSP programming
2. An awareness of contemporary creative applications of Max/MSP
3. An ability to edit and adapt existing Max/MSP patches to realise individual creative goals
4. An ability to design, organise and present an improvised performance in collaboration with guest musicians
5. A detailed understanding of the practical possibilities and challenges of composition for live performers in combination with and live electronic resources.

The pre-requisite for this module is Level 2 Sonic Art Techniques.

This module deals with creativity in performance. By engaging with some of the key ideas on improvisation, which range from the highly technical to the purely spiritual, you are introduced to the concepts of spontaneous creativity. Lectures and workshops present improvisation in many forms from completely free improvisation to creativity housed within more restricted musical parameters. You can choose to focus on one style of improvisation on which to be assessed.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. Ability to improvise within given musical parameters
2. Detailed knowledge of improvisation in a range of musical genres
3. Ability to interact with other players
4. Ability to understand music events and structures aurally
5. Ability to communicate musically

This module provides an overview and critique of methods for analysing Western art music from 1750, and examines to what extent analysis might inform the understanding of performer and/or listener. By studying how theory-based analysis can illuminate meanings in music, we can see also how analytical tools are the output of specific social contexts.

The module develops analytical skills of a selected method or set of methods, and reviews concurrent criticism of these approaches. The module relates musical form and structure to performance, considering by what means an analytical approach can enrich the performer’s execution and the listener’s apprehension/participation. The exact methods and materials explored will depend on the expertise of the lecturer but typical examples might include: analyses of non-Western repertoires; reflection on the semiotics of ‘topics’ in Classical music and 18^th-century performance practice; how 19^th-century programme music resists and depends on abstract structure to generate a narrative; how different analytical approaches might shape in, different ways, the registral, temporal, and dynamic contours latent in the score.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. the understanding of contrasting methods for analysing music
2. the application of analysis to notated music
3. the illumination of how analytical knowledge strengthens abilities in listening and playing
4. the acquisition of tools to critique methods of musical analysis

The field of participatory music making (sometimes called Community Music) is a fast developing one which many musicians find rewarding as part of portfolio practice. This module introduces you to some of the most useful musical materials, concepts and leadership skills to develop and deliver participatory music programmes with a variety of groups in informal and formal settings.

The module examines some of the contexts of participatory music making – the history of the field, the ethics and ideas that underpin it, the range of places and groups that this work engages with. We will explore the type of skills and qualities that musicians need to develop to do this work and reflect on your own interests, skills and passions and how you might apply and develop these to work in this field. The concept of inclusive leadership and how to transmit ideas in inclusive and creative ways will also be covered.

A wide variety of musics and how we might apply them in participatory contexts forms the practical stream of the module – ranging from improvisation through popular styles to minimalism and graphic scores, simple warm-up games and more technological approaches.

The module is taught by tutors engaged in delivery, management, training and consultancy in the field who bring a wide experience and in-depth knowledge both to the contextual side and the creative. All sessions will involve a combination of practical music making with lectures and discussions.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Appropriate knowledge and understanding of a range of musical materials and how to apply these in workshop situations.
• An ability to identify, research, develop and transmit new musical materials for a variety of different contexts.
• An awareness of the key issues relating to successful music project delivery such as appropriate resourcing, developing a creative environment, appropriate planning and communication.
• An awareness of policies, issues and the particular contexts of participatory music making.

This module investigates the convergence of sonic and visual media in the 20th and 21st Centuries. Focusing on the relationship between artists, composers and filmmakers, the module considers a wide range of moving image media, from film, television and music video, to the interactive forms of computer games and VJing.

It investigates the ways in which music and the moving image interact with one another and how these interactions can influence our reception of, and engagement with, an audiovisual work.

Of particular interest will be artists who work across genres and transgress disciplinary boundaries. Our explorations will be informed by the most recent critical work on audiovisual media, and we will use the notions of realism, narrative, screen space, immersion and transmedia to inform our thinking about each genre. 

This module aims to provide an introduction to the study of music psychology. Lectures will focus on the perception, cognition and neural basis of musical understanding, perception of musical structure and emotions and theories about music’s evolutionary roots. The scientific methods used in research will be explored in a research participation session and in lectures.

The module will provide an introduction to music psychology. Lectures will focus on four main themes. These are (1) musical perception and cognition, (2) musical cognition and learning, (3) musical origins and emotions in music, and (4) musical creativity.

This module will introduce students to the principles, ethics and practice of participatory music. Its content gives students an understanding of the range of contexts music can be used for educational, community and therapeutic outcomes and provides them with a knowledge and understanding of workshop and other creative methodologies. In so doing, it introduces students to a range of career possibilities in participatory music and encourages professional self-reflection and personal skills analysis. This module will provide a practical overview of how music projects can be structured and delivered for the benefit of varied client groups, and may feed into the module ‘Music Workshop Skills where students can put their knowledge into practice. Indicative topics for this module will include : the history, principles and ethics of participatory music making and community music; the contexts and organizational strucutres of these musics; creative methodologies; workshop planning, safeguarding and professional development; the voice in community choirs, singing for health and vocal leadership; youth music; formal and informal pedagogy; performing with groups; disability and breaking down barriers; music as therapy.