Undergraduate Music 2019-2020

This course covers five key moments from Western music history, giving students both a clear and broad grasp of the shape of musical, cultural and intellectual history along with much more detailed studies of individual musical works.

The coverage will not be encyclopaedic and will instead seek to help students develop a sense of a musical period through more engaged explorations of a small number of key musical works. 

 In this course, basic concepts of Western tonal music such as primary triads, cadences, idiomatic chord progressions, and voice leading are taught using exercises in harmonic analysis, figured bass, and part writing. More advanced concepts such as secondary dominants and chromatically-altered chords are also introduced. In parallel to lectures and seminars, students will work with software designed to reinforce key concepts such as clefs, intervals, key signatures, and scale structures.

MU1051 is structured to develop, in tandem, students' individual instrumental/vocal and ensemble skills. Entrance to this course for non BMus students is by audition only. Students must be of ABRSM Grade 8 (or equivalent) standard or above before they can be considered for audition. Students must also be fully proficient in reading music and have a reasonable standard of music theory knowledge.

For non BMus students, auditions are arranged by the student contacting the Music Department during Induction Week. Prospective students will be asked to prepare one 5 minute piece for the audition which demonstrates their best abilities, and they will be asked to perform some sight reading. All students on the BMus Ed programme must undertake additional study in Piano Keyboard Skills. These additional study sessions will focus on the development of relevant vocational skills. First study pianists will also be required to take these additional study sessions.

Timetables will be arranged on an individual basis with instrumental / vocal tutors on commencement of the course.

This course covers five key moments from Western music history, giving students both a clear and broad grasp of the shape of musical, cultural and intellectual history along with much more detailed studies of individual musical works.

The coverage will not be encyclopaedic and will instead seek to help students develop a sense of a musical period through more engaged explorations of a small number of key musical works.

Combining key components in digital technology and musicianship, Digital Musicianship encourages music students to acquire basic digital skills that will help them explore a wide range of music making in the 21st century, through skill building in the applications of technology to the discipline of Music. This hands-on, project-based course introduces basic knowledge in digital music technology, and key issues related to the music making in the 21st century.

MU1051 is structured to develop, in tandem, students' individual instrumental/vocal and ensemble skills. Entrance to this course for non BMus students is by audition only. Students must be of ABRSM Grade 8 (or equivalent) standard or above before they can be considered for audition. Students must also be fully proficient in reading music and have a reasonable standard of music theory knowledge.

For non BMus students, auditions are arranged by the student contacting the Music Department during Induction Week. Prospective students will be asked to prepare one 5 minute piece for the audition which demonstrates their best abilities, and they will be asked to perform some sight reading. All students on the BMus Ed programme must undertake additional study in Piano Keyboard Skills. These additional study sessions will focus on the development of relevant vocational skills. First study pianists will also be required to take these additional study sessions.

Timetables will be arranged on an individual basis with instrumental / vocal tutors on commencement of the course.

Students will explore a range of elementary issues in musicology relating to some of the following: music history, theory and analysis, sociology of music, psychology of music, aesthetics, ethnomusicology, world music, early music, opera, concert music, jazz, popular music, music in film and television, musical performance, composition, music technology and the economics of the music business.

The course will consider a range of music taking into account the kinds of methodologies and discourses in which this music is discussed.

The course will be built around three areas of study:

- The history and development of Conducting
- Development of core conducting skills (gesture, vocabulary, score preparation, rehearsal planning and performance)  
- Development of knowledge and understanding of Conducting as a vocation (The business)

The course content will be delivered through workshops that will engage students in academic reading and writing, practical skill building and research skills.

This course will go into more detail on some of the ideas put forward in Introduction to Contemporary Composition (a year one course), but not exclusively. It (and its sister course Composition 2) will introduce compositional skills that are of importance to contemporary composers. These will include such styles/techniques as: modality, 12 tone technique, iso-rhythm and minimalism. Students will learn these techniques and assimilate them very quickly, being assessed on two pieces of compositional work over the half-session. Students will be required to regularly critique existing works using these techniques and this will be factored into the assessment process.

Instrumental/vocal study: students work on a one-to-one basis (10 x 1 hour lessons) with a specialist instrumental/vocal instructor and participate in workshops and master classes where appropriate. Students can elect to split their studies between two instruments and/or voice.

Ensemble: requires attendance at least one ensemble managed by the Music Department. 

As part of this course students are required to attend concerts from the Music Department Concert Series.

Students must have achieved a CGS award of C3 or higher in year 1 in order to be able to progress to this course in year 2.

Students will develop a critical awareness of form and structure in music by studying various approaches to musical analysis. The course will draw on a range of analytical methods and musical genres, such as functional harmony and classical form, pitch-class set theory, rhetoric in music, and computer-aided analysis.

This course will go into more detail on some of the ideas put forward in Introduction to Contemporary Composition (a year one course), but not exclusively. It (and its sister course Composition 1) will introduce compositional skills that are of importance to contemporary composers. These will include such styles/techniques as: total serialism, hexachordal rotation, additive rhythmic processes and neo-tonality. Students will learn these techniques and assimilate them quickly, being assessed on two pieces of short work over the half-session. Students will be required to regularly critique existing works using these techniques and this will be factored into the assessment process.

Instrumental/vocal study: students work on a one-to-one basis (10 x 1 hour lessons) with a specialist instrumental/vocal instructor and participate in workshops and master classes where appropriate. Students can elect to split their studies between two instruments and/or voice.

Ensemble: requires attendance at least one ensemble managed by the Music Department.

As part of this course students are required to attend concerts from the Music Department Concert Series. 

The course provides students with fundamental tools with which to conduct ethnomusicological fieldwork and analysis. These include a historical grounding in the subject, an introduction to field research, fieldwork methods including audio and video recording, fieldnotes, transcription and analysis, ethical considerations, and case studies of ethnomusicologists. Much of the course consists of seminars and workshops, which allow students to understand and engage with ethnomusicological concepts and theory before putting these into practice in peer-group contexts and then fieldwork. The course includes a strong practical element and fieldwork visits are made to musical events in the local community.

MU2522 The Emerging Musical Practitioner is open to, and relevant for any musician who would like to explore wider vocational options in music; whether as a composer, educator (formal or informal), musicologist or performer. This course has a particular focus on the role of Community Musician and is a pre-requisite for the BMus (Hons) Community Music programme.

This course will build on knowledge and techiques studied and assimilated in earlier composition modules in order to create substantial, original new creations. Students will be required to assimilate new techniques and work them into their own emerging musical language for the assessment procedures. Students will be required to regularly critique existing works using these techniques and this will form part of the formative assessments.​

This course introduces music students to both theories of community and to practice in community settings.  It covers key theoretical concepts used in describing and analysing communities and to methods of finding out about communities, including observation, interviews, creative engagement, community profiling and use of data.  Through self-selected placements in a range of settings students consider the role of the arts in creating and sustaining communities, and identify skills required to devise and deliver appropriate musical inputs in community settings, including ways of evaluating impact on individuals, groups and communities.  This background will support critical reflection on placement experiences in a wide range of real situations in communities. Students will pursue their own particular interests on placement but must meet requirements for breadth of experience with different age groups, needs and settings. Though finding their own placements students will develop and practice skills in professional communication skills, time management and negotiation.  The maintenance of practice logs and reflective diaries supports effective recording of experience.

Musicking and Communities 1 is a fully interactive course designed to develop students' musicianship skills whilst examining the pedagogy and resources required to transfer musicianship skills to participants in a diverse range of settings regardless of starting ability. Participatory music making, socio-cultural learning and experience of working in groups will be explored in this course.

Tango music has undergone huge changes, particularly over the past 50 years or so with composer/performers such as Astor Piazzolla bringing the music of the tango out of milonga halls and into concert halls. The course will cover social, historical and analytical aspects of the music and students will create and perform their own tango music, following an immersion in all aspects of the music.

This course develops individual instrumental/vocal and also ensemble skills.  Students work on one-to-one basis (20 x 1 hour lessons) with a specialist instrumental / vocal tutor on their principal study. Alongside instrumental and vocal lessons students are required to join one of the department's many ensembles working in weekly rehearsals towards high quality public performances. The course is assessed by a 20 minute recital, a tutor report and a performance essay. 

Students must have achieved a CGS award of B3 or higher in year 2 in order to be able to progress to this course in year 3.

This course is designed to enable students to understand and critically evaluate the factors involved in music perception and music performance from a neuroscientific perspective. 

The BMus (Hons) Community Music programme uniquely prepares students as informed and creative practitioners in the emerging field of Community Music.

The compulsory suite of course for the BMus (Hons) Community Music programme are designed to fully complement and integrate with each other, bringing together academic and practical experiences.

The student experience in each course is built around a participatory approach to learning and teaching, enabling students to fully engage with the stated learning outcomes.

Teaching incorporates: contact time with lecturers (lectures, seminars and workshops), self-direct study and practical vocational experiences.  Throughout the course students will be asked to undertake a variety of formative tasks including: self-directed research, reading and writing both descriptive and reflective, as well as practical vocational activities and online collaborations.

This course introduces many of the key developments in European art music since 1945. Beginning from the challenging situation facing composers immediately after the war, we study the emergence of the serial generation of composers in the 1940s and 50s, the importance of the annual summer festival at Darmstadt, the work of Xenakis, Ligeti, Penderecki and Berio which offered alternatives to serialism; the spectral composition which developed in France in the 1970s and 80s, the new German music of Lachenmann and Rihm, the work of independent composers, and key compositional developments in the United Kingdom.

The BMus (Hons) Community Music programme uniquely prepares students as informed and creative practitioners in the emerging field of Community Music. The compulsory suite of course for the BMus (Hons) Community Music programme are designed to fully complement and integrate with each other, bringing together academic and practical experiences. The student experience in each course is built around a participatory approach to learning and teaching, enabling students to fully engage with the stated learning outcomes. Teaching incorporates: contact time with lecturers (lectures, seminars and workshops), self-direct study and practical vocational experiences. Throughout the course students will be asked to undertake a variety of formative tasks including: self-directed research, reading and writing both descriptive and reflective, as well as practical vocational activities and online collaborations.

This course is designed to enable musicians to contribute effectively in community settings by ensuring that they understand the various organisational, legal and procedural requirements of the context.  Students will be encouraged to compare a range of different organisational structures and roles in community settings and to develop skills in collaboration and partnership working, including understanding the value base and standards in use by key professions working in communities and the resultant challenges for multidisciplinary work.  Students will reflect on their own experience in communities as part of their analysis of theory and practice of community work. Taught sessions will cover theoretical content which will be integrated with placement learning through group discussion and feedback.  In this course one self-selected placement will focus on an area of interest to the student whilst there are still opportunities to engage in placements which widen knowledge of the field.

This course explores music from a philosophical viewpoint. What is music? How does it relate to the other arts? Is music purely an aural phenomenon? Can we speak of good and bad music? Can we speak of musical progress? To what extent is music merely a product of wider societal forces? These and other questions will be considered in relation to the writings and ideas of a number of key philosophical writers.

This course will help students develop a critical awareness of the history and practice of experimental music in the 1950s to 1980s, particularly focusing on the experimental music in North America and Continental Europe. What is experimental music? What historical and aesthetica significance does experimental music in the 50s onward on a diverse range of today's music making (classical and popular music)? By conducting a wide-ranging survey of music from Cage, Feldman, Ashley, Young, Conrad and Reich, happenings by Fluxus, electronic and minimal music, the course encourages students to survey and explore various experimental ideas for their compositional project.

Art song is one of the most widespread and significant forms of chamber music, and German-language composers have been some of the most influential contributors to this genre. This course will investigate the development of the German art song from the late classical period into the early twentieth century. Issues covered may include the development of the song cycle, the changing roles of voice and piano, orchestral songs, aesthetic and literary currents, developments in tonal and post-tonal musical language, influences from and on other musical cultures, and performance practice.

This course will introduce students to learning and teaching in music education contexts.  Through reflection and practical engagement, including school-based experience, students will begin to develop a range of skills essential for teaching in the secondary school.

MU35A1 is a practice led course that is designed to give participants an academic and practical understanding of the skills required as a conductor when lead an ensemble from rehearsal to performance. Topics covered in the course include; history of conducting, understanding the role of the conductor in amateur and professional settings, rehearsal planning, score preparation and conducting technique. All sessions are either based around structured discussion or practical activities. 

This course is intended both for those interested in Renaissance music and for composition students who wish to explore the many possibilities of musical invention within a very controlled compositional environment. To acquire the basic tools of Renaissance composition, students progress through counterpoint exercises in two and three voices. Through more advanced exercises in motivic placement, canon, invertible counterpoint, and the fundamentals of improvised counterpoint, students learn to structure a complete composition, culminating in a motet for three voices. In addition, works are studied through analysis of compositions.

Students will be expected to listen to, analyse and critique a prescribed list of electroacoustic compositions as well as demonstrating how this informs their own practice in one to one composition tutorials. Bi-weekly composition seminars will allow students to discuss their own work within the context of that of pioneers and established composers in a variety of genres drawn from electroacoustic music and sound art.

This course aims to develop knowledge of music as a performing art form. We consider the ramifications of applied musical knowledge in performance practice in contemporary and historical contexts. Through case studies, a variety of approaches to study performance practice are introduced, such as early recordings, archival research, manuscript studies, computational analysis, organology, and iconography.

This course builds on the understandings of communities and community-based working practices developed in Identifying Communities and Working in Communities courses. In this course students will critically examine the purposes and impact of their activities on individuals and communities. Critical understandings of power and empowerment in communities will be central to the course and its consideration of a range of community development methodologies.

The BMus (Hons) Community Music programme uniquely prepares students as informed and creative practitioners in the emerging field of Community Music. The compulsory suite of course for the BMus (Hons) Community Music programme are designed to fully complement and integrate with each other, bringing together academic and practical experiences. The student experience in each course is built around a participatory approach to learning and teaching, enabling students to fully engage with the stated learning outcomes. Teaching incorporates: contact time with lecturers (lectures, seminars and workshops), self-direct study and practical vocational experiences. Throughout the course students will be asked to undertake a variety of formative tasks including: self-directed research, reading and writing both descriptive and reflective, as well as practical vocational activities and online collaborations.

This course is designed to provide each student the opportunity to design, negotiate, implement and evaluate their own major Community Music project in a setting of their choice.  In doing this the student will synthesise material from the academic commentaries provided in MU 401I, the understandings of community development processes developed in MU401G and the skills in musicking developed in earlier courses.

This course introduces and develops the main underpinning principles of the programme, providing a forum for analysis and discussion of education in the practical context of classroom teaching.  A range of issues common to all students as developing professionals will be reflected upon, in particular, issues which have implications for direct action in the classroom such as inclusive practice.  Through Professional Enquiry, it provides students with knowledge and understanding of policy, theory and research in the context of developing professional practice.

Within a school setting students will critically reflect on their own practice in relation to key features of an inclusive learning environment, focussing on the role of the teacher.

Through observation of classroom practice, students will develop capacities and practise skills that enable them to prepare, plan, and implement learning, teaching, assessment and evaluation of learners.

This course will entail research work which will contribute to musicological understanding (at undergraduate level). Students will research a topic of their own choice (subject to approval), demonstrating knowledge and understanding of their chosen subject matter in the form of a 10,000 word dissertation. 

The aim of this course is to allow promising student composers the opportunity to develop their own 'voice' by giving them a degree of creative freedom in what they produce. By the end of the course students are able to compose in a variety of genres, conveying a sense of structure and form in their music as well as working independently. Assessment is via a portfolio of compositions. Lasting c.20 minutes in performance.

MU4081 is structured to develop students individual instrumental/vocal skills to an advanced level.The Music Department boasts a high quality visiting tutor staff who will provide access to 20 free, 1 hour, one-to-one lessons on their principal study. Students will work towards a public 25 - 30 minute recital. Students are encouraged to seek out performance opportunities throughout the course as well as participating in masterclasses when applicable. 

In the mid-twentieth century, it seemed that opera was a dying art form, surviving at best on the back of a canon of great historical works. While its future prospects looked bleak, the composition of over 150 new operas in the period between 1978 and 2003 marked a perhaps unexpected renaissance of the genre. Students on this course will study the factors which led to the resurgence of operatic/music theatre composition in Europe. A range of key operatic/music theatre works by composers from France, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom will be considered from a number of points of view.

Seminar-based classes will provide an historical overview of electroacoustic music that utilises the voice as sound object. The theme of each seminar, focused each week around a different aspect of the voice and technology, will provide the theoretical, philosophical, and aesthetic basis for practical applications, focusing on particular cultural and aesthetic issues that concern the mediated voice in recorded sound. Running concurrently, practical, studio-based classes will provide a technical overview of software applications and of sound recording techniques, particularly looking at the way the voice is rendered, represented or transposed through the electronic medium.

This course further develops knowledge and understanding of national policies, and priorities in education relevant to inclusive education classroom practice. Students will extend their knowledge and understanding of the curriculum in Scottish schools and develop professional skills and abilities relevant to the transition to teaching. Through Professional Enquiry 2 emerging critical skills will deepen, while knowledge and understanding of the diversity and quality of educational research relevant to the development of practice will be developed.

Art song is one of the most widespread and significant forms of chamber music, and German-language composers have been some of the most influential contributors to this genre. This course will investigate the development of the German art song from the late classical period into the early twentieth century. Issues covered may include the development of the song cycle, the changing roles of voice and piano, orchestral songs, aesthetic and literary currents, developments in tonal and post-tonal musical language, influences from and on other musical cultures, and performance practice.

This course will chart the emergence of a new 'national' style in English music and the birth of the first music we can arguably call 'English' since Purcell. Students should come away from the course with a fundamental understanding of this heady period, and its importance in national musical development and cultural preception.

The student experience in each course is built around a participatory approach to learning and teaching, enabling students to fully engage with the stated learning outcomes.

Teaching incorporates: contact time with lecturers (lectures, seminars and workshops), self-direct study and practical vocational experiences.  Throughout the course students will be asked to undertake a variety of formative tasks including: self-directed research, reading and writing both descriptive and reflective, as well as practical vocational activities and online collaborations.

As part of the BMus (Hons) Education degree programme, this professional placement provides further opportunity for students to apply and develop their knowledge of issues in Scottish Education and pedagogical theory, building towards the transition into their induction year.