Composition (Practice) (804W3)

30 credits, Level 7 (Masters)

Autumn teaching

Composition develops understanding and practice of 20th century and contemporary musical methods and resources, but without stylistic restrictions, and with flexible outcomes (eg semi-notated and proportionally-notated work, graphic notation, conceptual/installation sonic work, performance art etc).

You will focus on developing an extended piece of work through alternating group seminars and workshops. In consultation with the course tutor, you will be encouraged to develop plans for an individual project early on in the course. The seminars will provide disciplinary context and insights into key techniques and examples of recent and earlier creative practice. The workshops will provide the opportunity to make presentations and to receive peer and tutor feedback. The submission will comprise a creative project (composition) in a medium agreed in advance with the tutor, and accompanied by a critical commentary.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 300 hours of work. This breaks down into about 22 hours of contact time and about 278 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2020/21. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum. We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.