School of Music Study Abroad Modules
Quick Jump to
Autumn
Spring
For more information visit the School of Music website.
Autumn and Spring (Level One)
Practical Musicianship I MU1314
Semester: Autumn and Spring
Length: Two Semesters
Level: 1
Credits: 10
The module content Variable according to the principal study instrument and the standard of each student. In general the module provides instruction in instrumental/vocal performance and enables students to develop the practical study of their chosen instrument or voice (through regular lessons) to a performance standard appropriate for a first-year ‘closed’ recital.
Teaching Methods:
Instrumental or Vocal Lessons
Assessments
Closed recital: 70%
Core attendance: 10%
Practical Contribution Portfolio: 20%
Semester: Autumn and Spring
Length: Two Semesters
Level: 1
Credits: 10
The module aims to familiarize students with key genres of Western sacred and secular art music. The syllabus covers a selection of musical genres such as mass, concerto, opera, symphony and lied during the period from the Renaissance to the mid-20th century, defined according to both musical form and social context. Each genre is illustrated by a principal set work, with students encouraged to explore additional case studies through task sheets and short seminar presentations, thus developing an awareness of stylistic mutation within the history of the genre. Students are required to review two live performances in the course of the academic year, demonstrating their awareness of appropriate performance style in the genres concerned.
Teaching Methods:
Seminars
Workshops
Assessment:
Coursework: 50%
Examination: 50%
Repertoire Studies MU1317
Semester: Autumn and Spring
Length: Two Semesters
Level: 1
Credits: 20
The module aims to familiarize students with key genres of Western sacred and secular art music. The syllabus covers a selection of musical genres such as mass, concerto, opera, symphony and lied during the period from the Renaissance to the mid-20th century, defined according to both musical form and social context. Each genre is illustrated by a principal set work, with students encouraged to explore additional case studies through task sheets and short seminar presentations, thus developing an awareness of stylistic mutation within the history of the genre. Students are required to review two live performances in the course of the academic year, demonstrating their awareness of appropriate performance style in the genres concerned.
Teaching Methods:
Seminars
Workshops
Assessment:
Coursework: 50%
Examination: 50%
Autumn and Spring (Level Two)
Semester: Autumn and Spring
Length: Two Semesters
Level: 2
Credits: 20
This module enables students to develop appropriate techniques in order to compose to a professional standard and familiarises students with a range of compositional procedures and with the compositional possibilities of instruments and ensembles by attending performances of new and recent repertoire. Four assignments are supervised weekly in 40-minute group tutorials for 4 or 5 students, with the following schedule: wks 1–5 – composition of an extended piece for a solo, woodwind instrument; wks 6–10 – a piece for two pianos; wks 11–15– a piece of chamber music; wks 16–20 – an unaccompanied choral piece. Students compose in an idiom or idioms of their choice; the tutorials allow for discussion of numerous different stylistic approaches to common assignments.
Teaching Methods:
Tutorials
Seminars
Assessment:
Coursework: 100%
Practical Musicianship II MU2353
Semester: Autumn and Spring
Length: Two Semesters
Level: 2
Credits: 10
The module structure Varies according to the principal study instrument and the standard of each student. Generally, the module provides instruction in instrumental/vocal performance; develops keyboard and aural skills, and other aspects of general musicianship. The module enables students to develop the practical study of their chosen instrument or voice to a performance standard appropriate for a second-year ‘closed’ recital; and cultivates in students the ability to demonstrate in performance (vocal or instrumental) both proficiency of technique and an understanding of musical style and interpretation appropriate to their instrument or voice.
Teaching Methods:
Instrumental or Vocal Lessons
Assessment:
Coursework: 100%
Practical Musicianship II MU2355
Semester: Autumn and Spring
Length: Two Semesters
Level: 2
Credits: 20
The module structure Varies according to the principal study instrument and the standard of each student. Generally, the module provides instruction in instrumental/vocal performance; develops keyboard and aural skills, and other aspects of general musicianship. The module enables students to develop the practical study of their chosen instrument or voice to a performance standard appropriate for a second-year ‘closed’ recital; and cultivates in students the ability to demonstrate in performance (vocal or instrumental) both proficiency of technique and an understanding of musical style and interpretation appropriate to their instrument or voice.
Teaching Methods:
Instrumental or Vocal Lessons
Assessment:
Coursework: 100%
Autumn and Spring (Level Three)
Semester: Autumn and Spring
Length: Two Semesters
Level: 3
Credits: 20
This module introduces students to the fundamental terminology and principles of fugue with the aim of encouraging an awareness of fugal style through the study of 18th-century keyboard examples including JS Bach’s 48 Preludes and Fugues and the work of other relevant composers. The module trains students in the writing of separate sections of fugal structures and in the writing of complete fugues.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Assessment:
Coursework: 100%
Semester: Autumn and Spring
Length: Two Semesters
Level: 3
Credits: 30
This module enables students to give extended focus to an approved musical topic in the writing of a 10,000 word dissertation. While syllabus content varies according to the individual’s choice of topics, the fortnightly seminars cover such generic matters as locating source material (using bibliographies and reference guides), the planning and structure of a dissertation, writing an abstract, referencing and bibliography, and layout and presentation.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Seminars
Workshops
Assessment:
Coursework: 100%
Semester: Autumn and Spring
Length: Two Semesters
Level: 3
Credits: 30
This module provides the means for students to develop and extend their compositional techniques. Students are free to compose in any idiom or idioms of their choice. They produce a portfolio comprising a selection of works in different genres. This includes a set-piece. During the weekly tutorials, in which the student’s work is individually supervised, he/she is referred to specific works to study. The choice of works varies from student to student.
Teaching Methods:
Seminars
One-on-One Meetings
Assessment:
Coursework: 100%
Semester: Autumn and Spring
Length: Two Semesters
Level: 3
Credits: 30
This module enables students to develop the practical study of their chosen instrument or voice (through regular lessons) to a performance standard appropriate for a final-year public recital. The module also enables students to develop the necessary proficiency in technique and understanding of style and interpretation appropriate to his/her chosen instrument/voice and to develop in students an understanding of musical style and interpretation appropriate to a wider range of repertory. The module gives students the opportunity for the regular practice of performance in weekly seminars (to include master classes by visiting performers) and introduce them to a range of performance issues; and develops in students, through individual and group tuition, a variety of general practical musical and inter-personal skills. Students will agree their choice of programme with their instrumental/vocal teacher and have the opportunity for additional consultation (on programme selection) with the Module Coordinator.
Teaching Methods:
Assessment:
Coursework: 100%
Project in Music Analysis MU3343
Semester: Autumn and Spring
Length: Two Semesters
Level: 3
Credits: 30
This module enables students to give extended focus to a work (or works) of music in the preparation of a substantial analytical project (6000 words plus supporting material) with the aim of fostering independent learning and, in particular, a self-critical attitude to the theory, methodology and practice of music analysis. The module develops further the skills and critical powers needed to pursue music analysis at advanced level, including the ability to represent their findings clearly and substantiate them convincingly, using score annotation, graphic
representation, prose writing or a combination of these methods. While the syllabus content varies according to the individual’s choice of topic, the fortnightly seminars cover such matters as selecting and refining an appropriate methodology, evaluating (and drawing conclusions from) published analyses, and structuring an analytical commentary, as well as general layout and presentation skills.
Teaching Methods:
Seminars
One-on-One Meetings
Assessment:
Coursework: 100%
Practical Musicianship IV (Performance) MU3344
Semester: Autumn and Spring
Length: Two Semesters
Level: 3
Credits: 20
This module provides instruction in instrumental/vocal performance and enable students to develop the practical study of their chosen instrument or voice (through regular lessons) to a performance standard appropriate for a third-year closed recital. The module cultivates in students the ability to demonstrate in performance (vocal or instrumental) the proficiency of technique , an understanding of musical style and interpretation appropriate to their instrument or voice; and the professional standards of presentation.
Teaching Methods:
Instrumental or Vocal Lessons
Assessment:
Coursework: 100%
Semester: Autumn and Spring
Length: Two Semesters
Level: 3
Credits: 20
This module provides the means for students to develop and extend their compositional techniques and encourages further creativity and imagination at a more advanced level. Students are free to compose in any (contemporary) idiom or idioms of their choice. They produce a portfolio comprising a selection of works in different genres. During the weekly tutorials, in which the student’s work is individually supervised, the student is referred to specific works/texts for study and listening, these being determined on an individual basis.
Teaching Methods:
Seminars
Workshops
One-on-One Meetings
Assessment:
Coursework: 100%
Project in Ethnomusicology MU3346
Semester: Autumn and Spring
Length: Two Semesters
Level: 3
Credits: 30
This module enables students to give focus to field research in preparation for the submission of a substantial project in ethnomusicology (10,000 words including supporting material). The module develops essential research skills in ethnomusicology, grounding theory in practice by adapting ethnomusicological methods to the study of music in a specific context. Students will learn key skills necessary for conducting fieldwork, techniques that involve the presentation and the representation of ethnomusicological materials. Students will also undertake a small field project demonstrating in practice the application of the techniques and methods learned.
Teaching Methods:
Seminars
One-on-One Meetings
Assessment:
Coursework: 100%
Autumn (Level One)
Semester: Autumn
Length: One Semester
Level: 1
Credits: 10
The module introduces students to the wide variety of harmonic practices available to composers today by studying some leading C20th examples including the Impressionists and Neo-Classicism. The module also helps students to develop a neat script for score presentation by introducing computer notation software (including the Sibelius package). The module comprises study of some early C20th techniques and their application in small-scale pieces: e.g. melodic construction and extension,harmonic construction, Writing for piano, writing for voice and voices, techniques involved in writing a song.
Teaching Methods:
Classes
Assessments
Coursework: 100%
Assessment:
Coursework: 60%
Examination: 40%
Elements of Tonal Music I MU1125
Semester: Autumn
Length: One Semester
Level: 1
Credits: 20
The module familiarizes students with standard harmonic and contrapuntal practices of the tonal common practice period (c.1700–1830). The syllabus covers melody and harmony of the tonal common practice period across a range of music of the 18th and early 19th centuries: an introduction to scale-degree and functional harmonic theories; Roman numeral notation and figured bass; modified species counterpoint and basic categories of melodic dissonance and embellishment. This knowledge is consolidated through a mixture of analytic and synthetic, notated and practical exercises.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Workshops
Seminars
Assessment:
Coursework: 60%
Examination: 40%
A History of Popular Music MU1126
Semester: Autumn
Length: One Semester
Level: 1
Credits: 10
This module provides a survey of popular music of the twentieth century. It covers many of the genres of Anglo-American popular music including blues, ‘roots’ country, rock’n’roll, 1960s folk, British ‘beat’, psychedelia, progressive rock, reggae, punk, new wave, rap and Brit-pop. In all instances the music is contextualized in its broader social and political contexts.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Assessment:
Coursework: 40%
Examination: 60%
Autumn (Level Two)
Harmonic Practice 1750–1900 MU2114
Semester: Autumn
Length: One Semester
Level: 2
Credits: 10
the module introduces students to the more advanced procedures in harmony related to 18th and 19th-century practice; and familiarises students with the basic principles of good harmonic progression in the context of teaching materials used by Bach and Mozart. The module will enable students to use harmonies appropriately in specific musical contexts. Finally the module familiarises students with the techniques of chromatic harmony and to develop their application when writing for piano and string quartet.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
One-On-One Conferences
Assessment:
Coursework: 100%
Semester: Autumn
Length: One Semester
Level: 2
Credits: 10
The module introduces students to the families and individual instruments of the classical symphony orchestra and familiarises students with the sounds, colours, registers and possible combinations of instruments in an orchestral context. The module examines Classical and early-Romantic stylistic features such as the difference in approach to writing for natural and valved brass.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Assessment:
Coursework: 100%
Russian Music up to 1914 MU2151
Semester: Autumn
Length: One Semester
Level: 2
Credits: 10
The module aims to foster an appreciation of the current scholarly and musical debates involved in the historical study of music. The module explores in detail the music and the historical and cultural contexts appropriate to the topic. The syllabus includes various topics such as: the history of Russian music between Glinka and the First World War; the music of Glinka, Musorgsky, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Balakirev, Tchaikovsky, Scriabin and others; the early music of Rachmaninov, Stravinsky and Prokofiev; the role of nationalism; the influence of the West; the evolution of a highly localised ethnic modernism; and Russian music in the context of social political turmoil.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Assessments
Coursework: 40%
Examination: 60%
Analysing 20th-Century Music MU2152
Semester: Autumn
Length: One Semester
Level: 2
Credits: 10
This module covers basic analytical approaches to twentieth-century music, including modal-tonal interaction, pitch-class set theory, serial analysis, canon and isorhythm, and the analysis of rhythmic cells and phase patterns. These are explored across a range of music, including works by Debussy, Stravinsky, Webern, Varèse, Pärt and Reich.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Seminars
Assessment:
Coursework: 100%
French Music and National Identity 1848–1902 MU2155
Semester: Autumn
Length: One Semester
Level: 2
Credits: 10
The module fosters an appreciation of the current scholarly and musical debates involved in the historical study of music and critically engages with the city of Paris and its institutions during the second half of the nineteenth century as a national and international arena for musical creation. The module explores in detail the physical, historical and cultural contexts in which music was created and performed. The syllabus includes: a study of the Parisian institutional mechanisms and musical genres which articulated French musical life and composition during the second half of the nineteenth century; investigative study of the Opéra, the Opéra-Comique and other Paris lyric theatres, churches, concert and choral societies, chamber music societies, salons, the Société nationale de musique, World Fairs; an examination of Wagner reception and Wagnerism during the period as a means to understanding the French nationalist response.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Assessment:
Coursework: 40%
Two hour examination: 60%
Music and Idea: from Enlightenment to Romanticism MU2156
Semester: Autumn
Length: One Semester
Level: 2
Credits: 10
This module will trace the development of ideas about music from the Enlightenment through to late Romanticism. The focus will be on key thinkers and key ideas from philosophy, literature and music theory, and the emergence of an aesthetics of music, presented in a broadly chronological historical context.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Assessment:
Coursework: 40%
Examination: 60%
Formal Functions in the Classical Tradition MU2157
Semester: Autumn
Length: One Semester
Level: 2
Credits: 20
The module familiarises students with standard musical forms and their functional components in tonal repertoire of the common-practice period (c1700–1830); and examines the transformation, expansion and ‘deformation’ of those types and models during the 19th and 20th centuries. The syllabus introduces standard musical forms in Western music of the high Classical period (e.g. with a particular emphasis on binary/ternary forms, rondo and sonata) and the general formal functions associated with them (e.g. statement, development, transition, retransition). It examines the legacy of 18th- and early 19th-century formal principles in later 19th- and 20th-century music, in the works of composers ranging from Mendelssohn, Chopin, Wagner and Bruckner to Berg, Sibelius, Nielsen, Prokofiev and Shostakovich.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Seminars
Workshops
Assessment:
Coursework: 60%
Examination: 40%
Style Wars in Music of the Baroque MU2158
Semester: Autumn
Length: One Semester
Level: 2
Credits: 10
No course description is available at this time, for information please contact the School of Music at: musicschool@cardiff.ac.uk
Semester: Autumn
Length: One Semester
Level: 2
Credits: 10
This module enables students to develop appropriate techniques in order to compose to a professional standard and familiarises students with a range of compositional procedures and with the compositional possibilities of instruments and ensembles by attending performances of new and recent repertoire. Four assignments are supervised weekly in 40-minute group tutorials for 4 or 5 students, with the following schedule: weeks 1–5 – composition of an extended piece for a solo, woodwind instrument; weeks 6–10 – a piece for two pianos; weeks 11–15– a piece of chamber music; weeks 16–20 – an unaccompanied choral piece. Students compose in an idiom or idioms of their choice; the tutorials allow for discussion of numerous different stylistic approaches to common assignments.
Teaching Methods:
Tutorials
Seminars
Assessment:
Coursework: 100%
Autumn (Level Three)
Semester: Autumn
Length: One Semester
Level: 3
Credits: 10
This module introduces students to a range of styles and practices in music and the other arts from 1890 to 1920; and explores the work of, among others, Debussy, Bartók, Mahler, Strauss, Schoenberg and Stravinsky. The module also considers modernism as a dialectic between an extension of Romantic ideals and aesthetic concerns and a more radical desire to break with the past through a new concern with the strange and the primitive.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Assessment:
Examination: 100%
Semester: Autumn
Length: One Semester
Level: 3
Credits: 20
This module introduces students to a range of styles and practices in music and the other arts from 1890 to 1920; and explores the work of, among others, Debussy, Bartók, Mahler, Strauss, Schoenberg and Stravinsky. The module also considers modernism as a dialectic between an extension of Romantic ideals and aesthetic concerns and a more radical desire to break with the past through a new concern with the strange and the primitive.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Assessment:
Coursework: 50%
Examination: 50%
Case Studies in Performance Practice MU3154
Semester: Autumn
Length: One Semester
Level: 3
Credits: 10
The syllabus content of this module comprises study of the most significant issues relevant to historical performance practice across a range of repertory from c.1600 to the early twentieth century. Students’ presentations involve the application to selected works of the principles and concepts explored; the outcomes of the presentations are discussed in the ensuing seminars.
Teaching Methods:
Seminars
Assessment:
Coursework: 100%
Case Studies in Performance Practice MU3158
Semester: Autumn
Length: One Semester
Level: 3
Credits: 20
The syllabus content of this module comprises study of the most significant issues relevant to historical performance practice across a range of repertory from c.1600 to the early twentieth century. Students’ presentations involve the application to selected works of the principles and concepts explored; the outcomes of the presentations are discussed in the ensuing seminars.
Teaching Methods:
Seminars
Assessment:
Coursework: 100%
Semester: Autumn
Length: One Semester
Level: 3
Credits: 10
The module aims to foster an appreciation of the current scholarly and musical debates involved in the historical study of music and explores in detail the music and the historical and cultural contexts appropriate to the topic. Module topics for 2011/2012 not yet decided.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Assessment:
Examination: 100%
Semester: Autumn
Length: One Semester
Level: 3
Credits: 20
The module aims to foster an appreciation of the current scholarly and musical debates involved in the historical study of music and explores in detail the music and the historical and cultural contexts appropriate to the topic. Module topics for 2011/2012 not yet decided.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Assessment:
Coursework: 50%
Examination: 50%
Studio Techniques II: Audio and Hard Disk Recording MU3163
Semester: Autumn
Length: One Semester
Level: 3
Credits: 20
This module familiarises students with basic microphone placement and recording and introduces students to the potential of recording live audio onto digital tape and then transferring it to computer hard-disk. The module also introduces the ‘ProTools’ hardware and software, hard-disk recording hardware and sound manipulation software.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Assessment:
Coursework: 100%
20th-Century Contrapuntal Practice MU3164
Semester: Autumn
Length: One Semester
Level: 3
Credits: 10
This module familiarises students with the contrapuntal practices of selected twentieth-century composers, normally Bartók and Webern, each occupying one half of the module.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Assessment:
Coursework: 100%
Spring (Level One)
Semester: Spring
Length: One Semester
Level: 1
Credits: 10
This module introduces the serial method through examples by the Second Viennese School and later composers and introduces students to the variety of rhythmic practices available to composers today based on leading C20th examples including Messiaen and Birtwistle, as well as influences from non-Western traditions. This module comprises study of the serial technique, rhythmic techniques, and their application in small scale pieces: writing a short piano piece using serial techniques; writing a short piece for percussion duo using Western and non-Western rhythmic techniques and patterning; and composing a final project composition for piano, percussion and a melodic instrument, employing a combination of rhythmic and serial techniques within a set form.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Seminars
Assessment:
Coursework: 100%
Semester: Spring
Length: One Semester
Level: 1
Credits: 10
The module introduces concepts relating to the production, transmission and reception of musical sounds and provides an objective basis for the understanding of pitch, loudness and timbre of musical sounds and of musical scales and harmony. The module laos demonstrates the mechanical and acoustical principles involved in sound production in the various families of orchestral instruments and in the human voice.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Assessment:
Coursework: 40%
Examination: 60%
Elements of Tonal Music II MU1227
Semester: Spring
Length: One Semester
Level: 1
Credits: 20
The syllabus covers melody and harmony of the tonal common practice period across a range of music of the 18th and early 19th centuries, with a particular emphasis on strategies of modulation and tonicization, the use of chromatic chords, textural figuration (e.g. keyboard styles) and variation. This knowledge is consolidated through a mixture of analytic and synthetic, notated and practical exercises.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Workshops
Seminars
Assessment:
Coursework: 100%
Examination: 40%
Ethnomusicology I: Music in Human Life MU1228
Semester: Spring
Length: One Semester
Level: 1
Credits: 10
Is it possible to be human without music? Is music a defining characteristic of the human condition, music-making being understood as a unique style of human behaviour. As a lifestyle, music involves distinctive types of social organisation, a humanly-organised sound system associated with specific cultural contexts. In this module, students will study the place of music in human experience from an ethnomusicological perspective, showing how different modes of music-making require different manners of explanation. In particular, they will examine the place of anthropological theory in ethnomusicology, studying geographically the emergence of different academic schools and tracing historically the development of distinctive theoretical positions, each position being studied with reference to one world music tradition.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Assessment:
Coursework: 40%
Examination: 60%
The History of Musical Instruments MU1229
Semester: Spring
Length: One Semester
Level: 1
Credits: 10
This module introduces students to the history, development and sounds of musical instruments of the western art tradition from their origins to the present day and fosters an understanding of how technological, musical, cultural and social factors have influenced instrumental construction and performance through history. The module demonstrates how the development of musical instruments intersects with changes in musical style, performance techniques, taste and expression and introduces students to the collection of reproduction historical instruments housed in the School’s Centre for Research into Historically-Informed Performance.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Workshops
Assessment:
Coursework: 40%
A longer concluding project: 60%
From Page to Stage: Dramaturgy in Real Life MU1230
Semester: Spring
Length: One Semester
Level: 1
Credits: 10
This module consists of a study in which a piece of writing becomes a libretto, then an opera or a musical. It will involve a case study examining scenes from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, and how they are translated into a musico-dramatic form in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette (1867) and Bernstein's West Side Story (1957).
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Seminars
Workshops
Assessment:
Coursework: 100%
Spring (Level Two)
Semester: Spring
Length: One Semester
Level: 2
Credits: 10
The module builds on the foundations established in MU2120 Orchestration I (knowledge of ranges and registers will be assumed). Students will study examples of effective combinations and apply principles learnt to worksheet-based exercises and practice idiomatic orchestrational techniques. Syllabus includes: work with strings, wind and brass; further additions (harp, voices and concerto soloist); new moves with Berlioz; the Romantic era (Mendelssohn and Brahms); the late Romantic (Wagner and R. Strauss); and the Twentieth Century (Stravinsky).
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Seminars
Assessment:
Coursework: 100%
Contrapuntal Practice 1750–1900 MU2224
Semester: Spring
Length: One Semester
Level: 2
Credits: 10
The module introduces students to the more advanced procedures in counterpoint, including chromaticism, according to the 18th- and 19th- century common practice. The module will enable students to derive complex counterpoint from simple harmony.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Seminars
Assessment:
Coursework: 100%
Semester: Spring
Length: One Semester
Level: 2
Credits: 10
The module provides students with the opportunity to extend their knowledge and understanding of current debates in historical performance and equip them with a sophisticated critical sense of the relationship between musical scholarship and performance. The module introduces students to the developments in instruments and the changing techniques and practices in musical performance since 1600 and to familiarise them with a range of sources relevant to historical performance.The syllabus content of this module comprises study of the most significant issues relevant to historical performance practice across a range of music from c.1600 to the early twentieth century.
Teaching methods
Lectures
Seminars
Assessment:
Coursework:
British Music in the 20th Century MU2254
Semester: Spring
Length: One Semester
Level: 2
Credits: 10
This module explores the history of British music from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day with the aims of fostering an appreciation of the current scholarly and musical debates involved in the historical study of music; and exploring in detail the music and the historical and cultural contexts appropriate to the topic. The syllabus includes: the music of Parry, Stanford and Elgar; post-war figures such as Birtwistle, Maxwell Davies, Ferneyhough and Turnage; issues of national identity; concepts of simplicity and complexity in music; musical reception; and constructions of composer identities.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Assessment:
Coursework: 40%
Examination: 60%
Opera from Handel to Weber MU2256
Semester: Spring
Length: One Semester
Level: 2
Credits: 10
This module explores the history of opera from Handel to Weber, including works by Handel, Gluck, Rameau, Mozart, Cherubini, Beethoven, Rossini and Weber. The module also examines the main national traditions in Italian, French and German opera, including opera seria, opera buffa, tragédie lyrique, opera comique and singspiel. The students will be taught on the conventions of musical style in opera and the changing relationship between text, music and performance in the repertoire.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Assessment:
Coursework: 40%
Examination: 60%
Introduction to Schenkerian Analysis MU2257
Semester: Spring
Length: One Semester
Level: 2
Credits: 10
The syllabus introduces basic Schenkerian concepts, such as tonal hierarchy and structural levels, as well as the most basic techniques of prolongation: linear progression, the use of the interrupted fundamental line, the initial ascent and arpeggiation, unfolding, reaching over and registral transfer. Practical instruction is provided in the appropriate graphic notation of these structural features. Analytical examples are drawn from the tonal repertoire of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Seminars
Assessment:
Coursework: 40%
Examination: 60%
Jazz in the Modern World MU2260
Semester: Autumn
Length: One semester
Level: 2
Credits: 10
No course description is available at this time, for information please contact the School of Music at: musicschool@cardiff.ac.uk
Ethnomusicology II: Music in Cross-Cultural Perspective MU2265
Semester: Autumn
Length: One Semester
Level: 2
Credits: 10
In this module, students will study music from a cross-cultural perspective. In particular, they will examine case studies taken from a number of world music traditions, employing ethnomusicological techniques to listen critically and to analyse practically relevant musical materials. The course aims to provide an overview of different musical traditions in Africa, America, Asia and Europe, showing how ethnomusicology helps to make sense of music in culture. As part of the module, students will be encouraged to audit practical workshops in world music performance.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Seminars
Assessment:
Coursework: 40%
Examination: 60%
Issues in Popular Music MU2267
Semester: Autumn
Length: One Semester
Level: 2
Credits: 10
This module will focus on larger issues of popular culture including, but not limited to: politics; cultures and subcultures; race; identities; scenes and locations; popular music and film; issues of authorship and authenticity. Repertoire will be drawn from Anglo-American popular music from the 1950s to the present day, as well as non-Anglophone popular musics of the US, the UK and beyond.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Assessment:
Coursework: 40%
Examination: 60%
Semester: Spring
Length: One Semester
Level: 2
Credits: 10
This module enables students to develop appropriate techniques in order to compose to a professional standard and familiarises students with a range of compositional procedures and with the compositional possibilities of instruments and ensembles by attending performances of new and recent repertoire. Four assignments are supervised weekly in 40-minute group tutorials for 4 or 5 students, with the following schedule: weeks 1–5 – composition of an extended piece for a solo, woodwind instrument; weeks 6–10 – a piece for two pianos; weeks 11–15– a piece of chamber music; weeks 16–20 – an unaccompanied choral piece. Students compose in an idiom or idioms of their choice; the tutorials allow for discussion of numerous different stylistic approaches to common assignments.
Teaching Methods:
Tutorials
Seminars
Spring (Level Three)
Semester: Spring
Length: One Semester
Level: 3
Credits: 10
The module aims to foster an appreciation of the current scholarly and musical debates involved in the historical study of music and explores in detail the music and the historical and cultural contexts appropriate to the topic. Module topics for 2011/2012 not yet decided. The module topic for 2010–11 was: Innovation and Tradition in French Music since 1920.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Assessment:
Examination: 100%
Semester: Spring
Length: One Semester
Level: 3
Credits: 20
The module aims to foster an appreciation of the current scholarly and musical debates involved in the historical study of music and explores in detail the music and the historical and cultural contexts appropriate to the topic. Module topics for 2011/2012 not yet decided. The module topic for 2010–11 was: Innovation and Tradition in French Music since 1920.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Assessment:
Coursework: 50%
Examination: 50%
Studio Techniques II: Audio and Hard Disk Recording MU3167
Semester: Spring
Length: One Semester
Level: 3
Credits: 20
This module familiarises students with basic microphone placement and recording and introduces students to the potential of recording live audio onto digital tape and then transferring it to computer hard-disk. The module also introduces the ‘ProTools’ hardware and software, hard-disk recording hardware and sound manipulation software.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Assessment:
Coursework: 100%
The Idea of Absolute Music MU3268
Semester: Spring
Length: One Semester
Level: 3
Credits: 10
No course description is available at this time, for information please contact the School of Music at: musicschool@cardiff.ac.uk
Notation and Editing of Early Music MU3270
Semester: Spring
Length: One Semester
Level: 3
Credits: 10
This module introduces students to a range of notational practice in music of the 17th to early 19th centuries and broaden their concept of its function and purpose. The module familiarises students with some of the characteristics and principal technical developments in music printing during the aforementioned period. The module aims to develop students' basic transcription skills
and provide a thorough grounding in the principles of editing music of the period from original sources, whether printed or manuscript.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Seminars
Assessment:
Coursework: 100%
Stravinsky and the Twentieth Century MU3271
Semester: Spring
Length: One Semester
Level: 3
Credits: 10
Stravinsky was one of the greatest and most influential composers of the twentieth century. This module will explore in depth the music of the composer by means of a partly historical and contextual, partly analytical approach. It will consider the impact of Stravinsky’s music in the composer’s own time and the period following his death, and will familiarise students with recent scholarly debates surrounding the composer, his music and his legacy.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Assessment:
Examination: 100%
Stravinsky and the Twentieth Century MU3272
Semester: Spring
Length: One Semester
Level: 3
Credits: 20
Stravinsky was one of the greatest and most influential composers of the twentieth century. This module will explore in depth the music of the composer by means of a partly historical and contextual, partly analytical approach. It will consider the impact of Stravinsky’s music in the composer’s own time and the period following his death, and will familiarise students with recent scholarly debates surrounding the composer, his music and his legacy.
Teaching Methods:
Lectures
Assessment:
Coursework: 50%
Examination: 50%