MusM Music (Ethnomusicology)

In this course-unit students identify specific challenges in musical performance and seek to formulate solutions holistically, using both practical and intellectual perspectives. They opt to focus on either historical performance or contemporary performance, and prepare a performance programme designed to explore a particular aspect of their chosen repertory. The performance may be given on their chosen instrument, or, for MusM Composition students, may be given by an ensemble that they direct.

The research project explores the focal aspect of their performance programme, and may address issues of performance practice specific to the repertory, specific interpretative challenges posed by one or more of the chosen pieces, such as extended techniques, or a related topic as agreed with the course tutor. For MusM Composition students who direct an ensemble their coursework will comprise an arrangement of music for the ensemble as a study in instrumentation.

Students are expected to be experienced and competent performers / ensemble directors, working at postgraduate level. Evidence of suitable competence will be required prior to admission to this course-unit, and this may involve auditions.

• To enable students to experience preparing, rehearsing, and either performing or directing works related to their main study, in a historically and/or professionally informed way
•  To provide students with the opportunity to investigate a specific aspect of historical or contemporary performance (or, for MusM Composition students taking the ensemble-direction option, an exercise in musical arrangement) through a combination of practical and intellectual engagement with their chosen material
• To assess the relationships between practice and theory of performance
• To introduce students to research techniques that can be applied when writing about a defined aspect of historical or contemporary performance, or (for MusM Composition students choosing the ensemble-direction option), to introduce techniques of instrumental arrangement that can be applied in practice to the chosen repertory 

• Demonstrate advanced understanding of the intellectual contexts in which music is performed, concentrating on a specific aspect of either historical or contemporary repertory
• Show a well-developed ability to assess and discuss the relationships between practice and theory of performance

• Demonstrate the ability to apply research techniques that enable them to investigate a clearly defined aspect of their performance
• Show skills in applying theoretical understanding of issues in musical performance to practical interpretation in performance

• Demonstrate advanced technical skills on one instrument or voice, or (for MusM Composition students) in directing an ensemble
• Show sensitive and historically appropriate artistry and musicianship in performance
• Demonstrate the ability to communicate with the audience with strong projection and expression appropriate to the chosen repertory

• Produce high-quality performances with a disciplined approach to time management, self-motivation and critical self-awareness
• Show the ability to work under self-direction on a research project of their choice

Since the written assignments undertaken by students for MUSC 40072 vary widely in scope and content, it is not possible to produce a single bibliography for the course. However, for those engaged in topics related to historical performance, the following provide a good starting point:

• Brown, Clive, Classical and Romantic Performing Practice, 1750-1900, Oxford, 1999.
• Butt, John, Playing with History: The Historical Approach to Musical Performance, Musical Performance and Reception, Cambridge, 2002.
• Davies, Stephen, Musical Works and Performances: a Philosophical Exploration, Oxford, 2001.
• Haynes, Bruce, The End of Early Music: a Period Performer's History of Music for the Twenty-first Century, Oxford, 2007.
• Lawson, Colin and Robin Stowell, The Cambridge History of Musical Performance, Cambridge, 2012.
• Lawson, Colin and Robin Stowell, The Historical Performance of Music: An Introduction, Cambridge Handbooks to the Historical Performance of Music, Cambridge, 1999.
• Rink, John (ed.), Musical Performance: A Guide to Understanding, ed. John Rink, Cambridge, 2002.
• Rink, John (ed.), The Practice of Performance: Studies in Musical Interpretation, Cambridge, 2005.

For the Ensemble-direction option, open to MusM Composition students, preliminary recommended reading comprises:

• Blatter, Alfred, Instrumentation and Orchestration, New York, 1997.
• Gould, Elaine, Behind Bars: The Definitive Guide to Music Notation, London, 2011.
• Jacob, Gordon, Orchestral Technique: A Manual for Students, 3rd edn, Oxford, 1981.