BA Music and Drama

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A practice-based course in which students create original compositions for instrumental and vocal resources to set briefs.

MUSC10311 & MUSC10312 are pre req of MUSC20321

This course unit provides knowledge of instrumental resources (their technical features and sonic characteristics) and how these may be employed in the handling of musical parameters to articulate musical shapes.  By the end of the course students will have applied this knowledge by completing two original compositions and bringing these to a well-prepared performance standard.

 

By the end of this course-unit students should be able to:

• Apply the technical and timbral features of string instruments, wind instruments, brass instruments and piano creatively. Students will be able to use musical parameters (pitch, rhythm, timbre, register, dynamics, articulation etc.) in a sophisticated manner, and use these to articulate coherent musical shapes and temporal strategies.
• Understand the technical and sonic characteristics of instrumental resources.
• Demonstrate knowledge of the principles of their combination in scoring.
• Be knowledgeable of the craft of composing within musical parameters.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

• Analyze, evaluate and develop sonic material within aesthetic and technical contexts;
• Research existing repertoire for guidance on completing the set tasks;
• Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of different compositional strategies in bringing their own ideas to fruition;
• Plan sophisticated musical structures and solve technical and practical problems in bringing these to successful realization in performance;
• Apply standard professional musical notation and evaluate its applicability to creative objectives.

 

By the end of this course students will be able to:

• Apply knowledge of the technical and practical features of instruments creatively;
• Articulate shapes and dramatic strategies through sound;
• Supervise and direct rehearsals;
• Produce performance materials to professional standards;
• Notate musical ideas such that they can be learnt by musicians without the composer.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

• Demonstrate organizational and management skills in booking musicians, arranging rehearsals and preparing performances
• Demonstrate attention to detail through preparing and editing performance material to professional standards
• Demonstrate creative problem-solving;
• Collaborate with other students in realizing their ideas, and the ideas of others.
   

Asessment task	Weighting within unit
Original composition for solo, unaccompanied string instrument	40%
Original composition for wind or brass instrument and piano	60%

 

 

• Weekly tutorials and workshops on work in progress
• Feedback from peers in tutorials, workshops and in collaboration with performers
• Written feedback on two summative assignments
• Oral feedback on two formative assignments
• Additional one-to-one feedback (during consultation hour or by making an appointment)

 

Scores:
Harrison Birtwistle – Verses for clarinet and piano
Benjamin Britten – three Suites for solo cello
Elliott Carter – Duo for violin and piano
Ronald Catalbiano - Lines from Poetry (solo violin)
Peter Maxwell Davies - Eight Songs for a Mad King
GF Handel - Messiah
WA Mozart - Don Giovanni
Vincent Persichetti - Parables (mostly for various solo instruments)
Judith Weir - King Harald's Saga
 
Books:
Blatter, Alfred,  Instrumentation and Orchestration (New York & London: Longman, 1997).
Gould, Elaine, Behind Bars: The Definitive Guide To Music Notation (London: Faber, 2011).