MU4003 - Techniques of Composition, Harmonic Analysis and Improvisation

Fortnightly seminars alternate with tutorials. The seminars may include some lecture input, student presentations, group discussions of musical scores, improvisation workshops and related exercises, feedback on work to the whole cohort. The tutorials are in smaller groups, and are designed to give help and guidance on drafts of your work.

You will learn most through your active engagement with the exercises in harmony and through pastiche composition. Sometimes, an in-course assignment will include the submission of previous work corrected in the light of feedback. This ensures that the written and oral feedback you receive on your work is absorbed and can be of some practical use. This work will be supported by analytical assignments.

There is an online textbook which will be required reading; this is readily available on the eLearning Portal.

At each seminar, you will be set harmony exercises and/or pastiche compositon to do in preparation for the following week’s tutorial. At each tutorial, you will be set reading, listening and/or analysis to do in preparation for the following week’s seminar.

You will be given considerable support by the Module Tutor within workshops and tutorials, during publicised office hours and via email. You will be constantly working with your peers in a spirit of mutual support, encouragement and collaboration. The programme leader will guide you through the requirements and expectations of your course. You will receive on-going feedback each week during the seminars which will help you prepare for the in-course assessments.

You will be given constant feedback. Feedback on analysis set for the seminar will normally be oral, and usually group feedback. Feedback on harmony exercises and composition will be individual, taking the form of annotations to your score(s).

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

Knowledge & Understanding:
1. You will understand harmonic progressions, especially cadential ones.

2. You will know and understand how figured bass and Roman numerals are used in the analysis of tonal music.
Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
3. You will be able to complete harmony exercises and compose and improvise in a stylistically convincing way.

4. You will be able to undertake a harmonic analysis of Classical and early Romantic music.

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
5. You will demonstrate a capacity for curiosity, creativity, and intellectual openness

1. Portfolio of written and recorded work, built up during the year (100%). MLOs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Feedback will be given on drafts of work. Written feedback will be in the form of annotations to the score(s). Feedback will be given during the course of the module on each piece of work that will contribute to the portfolio.

Entry to the BA (Hons) in Music

N/A

In this module, you will develop develop your understanding how how music is made by creating music in the style of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, exploring genres such as piano sonata, string quartet and lied. The course involves exercises in harmonisation, improvisation and writing your own piece. Analytical work will help you understand harmonic progressions, and you will learn different ways of describing harmony. Fortnightly seminars include lecture material, analysis of musical scores, improvisation workshops and feedback on work to the whole group. In between you meet in a smaller tutorial group where you will receive help and guidance with the exercises that you complete in harmony and composition. Your knowledge of how music is composed will be a critical part of your skillset when undertaking further musicological studies in your degree, and is essential in your work as a performer.