BMus (Hons) Popular Music

This module will provide a foundation for understanding the key creative elements common in many forms of popular music. Term one will focus on roots of popular style in Anglo-Celtic folk music stressing the importance of orality, song form, interaction/improvisation, modality, standard progressions, rhythm and the role of social processes in shaping music. Term two and three will focus on the creative concepts at the heart of 20th century popular music in the Western world: riffs, repetition in the Blues, fragmentation, recycling/sampling, lyrics and use of new technologies.

This module considers key issues in the cultural study of popular music.

We concentrate on three contextual areas in particular:

• the social and political dimensions of popular music production and reception
• the analytical approach to popular music inside the university
• significant critical traditions and tropes within broader academic and non-academic popular music discourses

In approaching these issues we make use of scholarly literature, but we also consider the different (and often competing) ways that they have been interpreted in journalistic writing and audience discourses.

Practical Popular Music Studies allows you to develop your practical skills in the broadest sense via a weekly performance class and individual vocal/ instrumental lessons. It provides instruction in all areas of practical musicianship including aural skills, transcription, sight-reading and improvisation as well as ensemble playing and performance. You will be given supporting classes in performance technology (how to use PA, Mics etc) and other issues relating to rehearsal, practice and presentation.

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 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 will extend our knowledge of popular music history across the ‘long’ 20th- century, giving us a better understanding of what happened, when, and why. Through set listening and discussion, we will think about how to recognise, analyse and verbalise the workings of different historical styles and techniques of creation and production. In lectures and through set readings, we will explore concepts – like ‘tradition’, ‘agency’, or ‘emergence’ – that will enable us to think critically about key problems in popular music history.

These problems are primarily concerned with musical creativity: how do we account for the historical appearance of new genres? How has ‘influence’ worked? How freely have individuals been able to create and innovate, and how far have they been constrained or steered by context?

However, a full appraisal of these issues will mean thinking not just about the ways music has been made, but also how it has been disseminated, listened to and talked about. Additionally, we will reflect on the processes of history writing itself, and ask questions of the pop histories that surround us in print, on TV, on the internet and in sound.

Who is included in these histories, who gets left out, and on what grounds? How much can we really learn about a period or place in social history just by listening to its music? The module will consist of lectures, in which we will examine theoretical issues, along with key historical styles and moments; and seminars, in which we will discuss and critique both music and histories constructed in various media.

Outside class, students will be expected to complete set weekly listening, reading and discussion tasks. These are designed to extend students’ knowledge and test their thinking as they develop towards their written assignments.

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.

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 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 examines in a structured and self-critical manner the ideas and assumptions that govern the ways in which we 1) define, 2) explain 3) evaluate and 4) justify music and music making in various cultures and subcultures. Its methods draw upon philosophy (concept analysis, hermeneutics, ethics, etc.), sociological and anthropological theory (the social relation of values and meanings), and recent forms of critical theory (with their destabilizing effect on traditions, meanings and the notion of ‘truth’).  These contrasting interpretations are not simply paraded, rather their conflicting claims and ideologies are tested against each other. The issues involved are not ones that are imposed on musicians but arise naturally from their attempts to find meaning and value in what they do. The aim of the module is not to give ‘answers’ but to provide standards of argumentation, to reveal exactly why these profound problems cannot easily yield to makeshift ‘solutions’, and to encourage musicians with different interests and backgrounds to appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of their own ideological positions and those of others.

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 guides you through a range of repertoire to develop enhanced stylistic awareness and both individual and group musicianship skills. By participating in a weekly ensemble class, you experience a variety of learning situations from full notation and lead sheets to working purely by ear or verbal instructions. In addition, you will be encouraged to evolve performance in the broadest sense, developing awareness of the effects of personal physicality, how to use the performance space and other issues of presentation. 

Learning outcomes: 

1. Increased instrumental/vocal competence
2. Understanding of the collective nature of popular music performance
3. Ability to work with other musicians effectively
4. Ability to organise and contribute to rehearsal process
5. Ability to respond to musical direction
6. Ability to communicate in performance both visually and musically 

This module explores the many dimensions of the songwriting craft, including standard (and non-standard) song conventions, lyric writing, strategies and sources for inspiration, sound and identity.

You will explore differences in the work of composer-songwriters and singer-songwriters, together with related issues such as the influence of commerce, authorship, and interpretation. You will be set weekly songwriting tasks, designed to help develop a variety of creative skills. You will have the opportunity to ‘show and tell’ your draft songs in workshops, and to present your work both in live and recorded formats at the end of the course.

After successfully completing this module you will gain a technical understanding of standard and extended song formats and have an enhanced understanding of approaches to lyric writing. You will also be familiar with a range of songwriting strategies and conventions and issues of authorship and interpretation.

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 

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. 

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.

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.

This module highlights a range of recording techniques and music technology, focusing on sequencing, sampling, multi-track recording, use of a mixing desk, audio and digital effects and microphones. In addition the module introduces the key aesthetic concepts which underlie contemporary production techniques and emphasises the creative importance of recording and technology in popular music. This module will also seek to enable you to explore and develop imaginative and innovative production techniques in a supportive environment, and ultimately set them upon a path to developing their own voice and identity as composer/producers. 

Learning outcomes: 

1. Systematic understanding of key music software
2. Ability to sequence and sample music
3. Systematic knowledge of basic studio recording technology
4. Understanding of the creative use of music technology in popular music
5. Understanding of the key aesthetic concepts that underlie production techniques 

Following Sonic Art Techniques, this module explores the experimental creative possibilities of the studio. Historical and current directions in computer music and sonic art are considered, including acousmatic music, phonography, text-sound composition, algorithmic composition and plunderphonics, with reference to aesthetic issues, historical and cultural contexts and most importantly compositional techniques. You will be introduced to non-real time software for analysing and transforming sound, including Audio Sculpt, Sound Hack and Metasynth. You are encouraged to develop your understanding and technical skills in the production of one substantial composition and a reflective commentary about one pivotal work by an established composer/sound artist. 

Indicative repertoire: 

John Oswald - Plunderphonics (1988)

Michel Chion - Requiem (1973)

Curtis Roads - Sonal Atoms (1998)

Francis Dhomont - Novars (1989)

John Cage - Roaratorio (1979)

John Chowning - Stria (1977)

Learning outcomes:

1. Proficiency in the use of studio equipment and software
2. Detailed knowledge of relevant compositional techniques, as evidenced in the student's creative practice.
3. Ability to analyse studio-based music, using suitable transcription methods. 

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 continues the work begun in ensemble performance, encouraging confidence and technical/creative proficiency. You are also encouraged to challenge yourself as a performer in a number of ways: studying the characteristics of an influential artist's/genre's particular creative style & relating this to your own practice; developing strategies (cognitive & concrete) relating to the key issues in the development of your personal aesthetic/creative practice. 

NB. This module is a pre-requisite for L3 Creative Performance. 

Learning outcomes: 

1. Ability to identify and analyse the detail of a performer’s or genre’s style

2. Improved aural skills 
Increased technical proficiency (in relation to personal aesthetic)
3. Increased confidence in performance situation 

4. Development of creativity through performance 

5. Development of creative strategies in relation to performance practice 

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. 

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 enables you to participate in a range of workshops and Masterclasses aimed at developing musicianship/ technique, performance presentation and creativity. You are encouraged to develop creative and experimental approaches to performance, and will conceive a large-scale musical project through the imagining and writing of a Creative Manifesto. In addition you will acquire skills in writing/arranging for and directing other musicians. End of year assessments will be held as a public showcase event. 

There is to be NO overlap between work submitted for this module and Creative Research Project. 

Learning outcomes: 

1. Professional levels of musicianship and performance ability
2. An individual creative style in performance
3. Ability to devise and manage a large-scale musical project
4. Ability to direct other musicians effectively 

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.

Learning Outcomes
1. The ability to design and execute and extended piece of academic written work or substantial creative project
2. The ability to assess and select from secondary literature and to process this intellectually.
3. Expertise in bibliographic and referencing conventions.
4. The ability to develop and defend an individual perspective on the topic and relevant secondary literature and/or creative context.

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.

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]

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.

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.

‘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.

The module explores the rise across the 20th century of autonomous artists working with a number of media (digital or otherwise), rather than specialising in or being limited to a single field, and often outside the remit of 'the academy'.

The module aims to equip students with conceptual and practical approaches to work across disciplines of their choosing in this contemporary creative landscape, reflecting their existing skills and creative interests, and hopes to foster collaboration and explorative ways of co-operative, creative working.

Areas of focus on the module include:

• DIY, punk, availablist, community, and pro-am practices
• Making art as idea or concept driven, not necessarily skill or training driven
• Making art not linked to the formal concert hall, white cube gallery, or museum context
• Making art not linked to economic factors or expensive resources
• Making art not linked to the traditional canonic lineage but exploring broader conceptions of who an artist might be, and what they might have to say

Learning Outcomes:

• Understanding of the historical and contemporary relationships between music and other media
• Understanding of the intellectual, social and creative implications and concerns of contemporary interdisciplinary work, and the ability to sensitively engage in these debates in their own practice
• Ability to conceive and realise multi-disciplinary work collaboratively
• Awareness of the existing and emerging frameworks within the creative industries for dissemination of conceived work
• Ability to effectively stage or present work to professional standards, with an understanding of the logistical and technical aspects

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 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.

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 aims to engage with theories of representation and narrative in order to understand how the popular song uses words and music to convey information about, comment upon and tell stories about the world. It will be concerned with fiction as much as realism; social intervention as much as imaginative escapism.

The module will combine theoretical reflection with detailed case studies. Although the main focus will be on songs composed over the past seventy years, it will also consider various historical legacies (particularly the lyrical and musical influence of folk ballads and the blues). The module is concerned with analysing how lyrics and music work together and students will be expected to familiarise themselves with and draw from a wide range of theoretical perspectives including discourse theory, music semiotics, musicology, literary theory and theories of realism.

Case studies will be approached via individual songs, groups of songs that comment on specific events, and specific themes/ issues. The module will be delivered via a combination of lectures, seminars and non-assessed group presentations.

Learning outcomes: 

1. A knowledge of a wide range of musical, lyrical and vocal strategies used by musicians, singers and songwriters when communicating ideas about the world.
2. An understanding of various rhetorical devices (music, verbal, literary) deployed in songs of social commentary and observation.
3. Familiarity with a range of theoretical perspectives and conceptual models that can be drawn on when analysing the popular song.
4. An understanding of the ways that performed songs work across and play with the conventional distinctions between realism and fiction.
5. An understanding of how musical and verbal meanings are shaped by varied politicised contexts of reception and interpretation. 

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 aims to provide an introduction to the study of music psychology. Lectures will focus on the perception, cognition and neural basis of musical understanding, the perception of musical structure and emotions and theories about music’s evolutionary roots. The scientific methods used in research will be explored in a lab-based class. Student evaluation will be made on the basis of a written assignment selected from a pool of questions.

This module is offered in collaboration with the Department of Psychology.

This research-led module gives you the opportunity to work on a specialised area of popular music studies with a specialist in that field. Subject area grounding will be provided throughout, but you will also be asked to engage with the latest research and thinking, and to produce written work that attempts to function at the (sub)discipline’s cutting edge. Module topics may be contemporary or historical, and may centre on musical and/or broader cultural practices. While you will require extensive knowledge of popular music repertoires and discourses developed over the programme’s first two levels, you may also be asked to drawn upon work and methodologies from a number of humanities and social sciences disciplines.

Learning Outcomes: 

1. An increased awareness of contemporary and/or historical popular musical styles and practices, and the topics and debates surrounding them.
2. An increased ability to understand and assimilate complex arguments and theoretical work made by scholars working on musical, cultural and/or historical elements of popular music.
3. An increased ability to research and present well-evidenced and convincingly argued written work.

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.