MusB Music / Course details

Year of entry: 2024

Course unit details:
Solo Performance 1

Course unit fact file
Unit code MUSC10600
Credit rating 20
Unit level Level 1
Teaching period(s) Full year
Available as a free choice unit? No

Overview

Each student will undertake advanced study on their first instrument, up to public performance standard, with regular instruction from a specialist teacher and an individually tailored programme of study. Each student will attend rehearsals with an approved university ensemble or choir, thereby gaining insights into how works are prepared for public performance of a high standard. Practical studies are complemented by a set of lectures / workshops in semester 1, designed to allow students to enhance their understanding of the benefits of an informed approach to performance. Students will also be expected to attend occasional workshops/masterclasses given by visiting artists.

Aims

  • To consolidate secure technical foundation within a developing self-directed environment, such that the student is prepared to proceed to MUSC 20600 Solo Performance II if appropriate
  • To develop interpretative and critical skills in core repertoire at an appropriate level
  • To reinforce performance skills through contextual study, which increases understanding of how music works in performance and the environments in which it is performed, thus highlighting the inherent interconnections between practice and theory of performance

Knowledge and understanding

  • Demonstrate through performance a developing understanding of how music works and the contexts for which it is written
  • Show an emerging ability to assess and discuss the relationship between practice and theory of performance

Intellectual skills

  • Show through performance that they have begun to develop skills in analysing and interpreting musical materials related to performance
  • Show an emerging critical awareness of the contexts of and problems associated with these processes

Practical skills

  • Demonstrate developing advanced technical skills on one instrument or voice
  • Show evidence of increasingly sensitive artistry and musicianship, strong projection and developing personal expression

Transferable skills and personal qualities

  • Produce increasingly advanced performances with a disciplined approach to time management, self-motivation and critical self-awareness.
  • Demonstrate the confidence and interpersonal skills to work effectively in small groups, showing skills relating to teamwork, negotiation, decision-making and leadership

Employability skills

Analytical skills
Analytical Skills (surveying repertoire, analysing and showing understanding of the repertoire you are performing)
Innovation/creativity
Initiative (inventing a creative concept and putting it into motion, coming up with your own ideas, and not relying on your teacher to do the thinking for you)
Leadership
Leadership skills (being responsible for overseeing a creative product from inception through to final performance)
Project management
Time management (developing effective and efficient practising habits, setting and achieving goals, effective collaboration with other musicians as appropriate)
Other
Self-awareness (knowing your strengths and skills and having the confidence to put these across through performance) Willingness to learn (being inquisitive about such issues as repertoire and performance practice, enthusiastic and open to new ideas, making decisions, assessing progress and making changes if necessary)

Assessment methods

 

Performance 90%
Performance (January mock recital)  0%
Presentation 10%

 

Feedback methods

One-to-one tuition with instrumental / vocal teacher

Formative

Engagement in workshops

Formative

Feedback for January perforance

Formative

Written feedback for final performance

Summative

 

Recommended reading

  • Assis, Paulo de. Logic of Experimentation: Rethinking Music Performance through Artistic Research. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2018.
  • Clarke, Eric F., and Doffman, Mark. Distributed Creativity: Collaboration and Improvisation in Contemporary Music. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017.
  • Clayton, Martin, Dueck, Byron, and Leante, Laura. Experience and Meaning in Music Performance. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
  • Cook, Nicholas. Music as Creative Practice. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2018.
  • Bowen, José A., ‘Finding the Music in Musicology: Performance History and Musical Works’, in: Nicholas Cook and Mark Everist (eds.), Rethinking Music, Oxford, 1999.
  • Butt, John, Playing with History: The Historical Approach to Musical Performance (Musical Performance and Reception), Cambridge, 2002.
  • Grier, James, The Critical Editing of Music: History, Method, and Practice, Cambridge, 1996.
  • Kuijken, Barthold. The Notation Is Not the Music: Reflections on Early Music Practice and Performance. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2013.
  • Lawson, Colin and Robin Stowell, The Historical Performance of Music: An Introduction (Cambridge Handbooks to the Historical Performance of Music), Cambridge, 1999.
  • Leech-Wilkinson, Daniel, and Helen M. Prior. Music and Shape New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2017.
  • Ramnarine, Tina K. Global Perspectives on Orchestras: Collective Creativity and Social Agency New York, NY, United States of America: Oxford University Press, 2017.
  • Rink, John (ed.). Musical Performance: A Guide to Understanding. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
  • Rink, John, Gaunt, Helena, and Williamon, Aaron. Musicians in the Making: Pathways to Creative Performance New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2017.
  • Toft, Robert. With Passionate Voice: Re-Creative Singing in 16th-Century England and Italy Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
  • Woolley, Andrew, and Kitchen, John. Interpreting Historical Keyboard Music: Sources, Contexts and Performance Farnham, Surrey, England: Ashgate, 2013.

Study hours

Scheduled activity hours
Lectures 5
Project supervision 18
Independent study hours
Independent study 177

Teaching staff

Staff member Role
Alexander Gagatsis Unit coordinator

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