MODULES FOR INCOMING EXCHANGE STUDENTS 2020/2021 - College of Arts and Law School of Languages, Cultures, Art History and Music Department of ...
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College of Arts and Law
School of Languages, Cultures, Art History and Music
Department of Music
MODULES FOR
INCOMING EXCHANGE STUDENTS
2020/2021Contents
Compulsory module .......................................................................................................................................... 4
25657 LI Critical Musicology .......................................................................................................................... 5
25658 LI Analysis of Music............................................................................................................................. 5
Semester 1 modules .......................................................................................................................................... 6
18645 LI American Experimental Music ........................................................................................................ 7
27206 LI Introduction to Jazz Styles: 1920 to 1980 ....................................................................................... 8
25273 LI The Singers’ Survival Guide: the effects of commercial opera on singing culture in the Later
Baroque Period .............................................................................................................................................. 9
31930 LI Wagner.......................................................................................................................................... 10
30833 LI Gustav Mahler: The Philosophy of Music ..................................................................................... 11
28580 LI Music and Globalisation................................................................................................................ 13
29016 LI The Broadway Musicals from Show Boat to Sondheim ................................................................ 14
Semester 2 modules ........................................................................................................................................ 15
29058 LI Music Festivals .............................................................................................................................. 16
27210 LI Studies in Performance Practice ................................................................................................... 17
24279 LI The Sixties ..................................................................................................................................... 18
31918 LI Music Cognition ............................................................................................................................ 19
25131 LI Stravinsky ...................................................................................................................................... 20
Modules that run in both semesters (10 credits in each semester) .............................................................. 22
31578 LI Solo Performance I & 31580 LI Solo Performance II ..................................................................... 24
23
Compulsory module 4
25657 LI Critical Musicology
Credits: 20 Semester 1
This module is also available to Exchange students.
Module Description:
This module introduces basic critical methodologies, concepts and vocabularies employed in current
academic work in the fields of historical musicology and ethnomusicology. Students concurrently develop
effective research and writing skills applicable to their future careers as musicians and scholars.
Assessment:
Two 1,500 word essays (40% each);
Weekly responses of 50–100 words answering questions related to set readings (20%)
Module Convenor: Alexander Cannon
25658 LI Analysis of Music
Credits: 20 Semester 2
This module is also available to Exchange students.
Module Description:
This module introduces basic analytical concepts and skills for the understanding of Western art music
from the Renaissance to the twenty-first century. Topics may include mode, word-painting, fugue, the
schemata of the galant style, syntax in the Classical style, sonata form, Romantic harmony and tonality,
the Romantic fragment, Wagner’s form and harmony, , pitch-class collections and sets, twelve-note
technique, and harmony and form in popular music.
Assessment:
Two 2 hour examinations, 50% each
Module Convenor: Matthew Riley
5Semester 1 modules 6
18645 LI American Experimental Music
Credits: 20 Semester 1
Year 2 students will be given priority when allocating places on this module
This module is also available to Exchange students.
Module Description:
This course will look at the history of what has become known as the American Experimental tradition
(and its numerous offshoots), from its early proponents such as Ives and Cowell, through the works of
Cage and the New York School, and beyond to the present day. Topics will include Americana in
experimentalism, the influence of non-Western musics, minimalism and post-minimalism, Fluxus, and
electronic music. The course will examine both the philosophical attitudes of the composers involved and
technical aspects of the music. Lectures will be supplemented by in-class experiments and performances.
Assessment:
EITHER 100% Essay of 5000 words
OR 100% Technical Assignment (e.g. composition, performance, installation etc.) equivalent to an
essay of max 5000 words, to be agreed with the course leader
OR 50% Essay of 2500 words and 50% Technical Assignment (e.g. composition, performance,
installation etc.) equivalent to an essay of max 2500 words, to be agreed with the course leader
Module Convenor: Scott Wilson
727206 LI Introduction to Jazz Styles: 1920 to 1980
Credits: 20 Semester 1
Year 2 students will be given priority when allocating places on this module
This module is also available to Exchange students.
Module Description:
This module will focus on selected jazz styles which fit approximately into the sixty years between 1920
and 1980. Taking a broadly chronological approach, the module will cover a range of styles, such as:
ragtime, New Orleans styled jazz, swing, bop, modal jazz, free (and avante-garde) jazz, and jazz fusion.
This survey will, of course, acknowledge that these styles were influenced by historical, cultural and
geographical factors, but the main focus of the module will be on the details of style. Each style will
therefore be investigated primarily through musical parameters such as, harmony, melody and rhythm, as
well as investigating structural tendencies, improvisational approaches and instrumental roles in the
repertoire. Similarly, various influential figures such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker,
Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Cecil Taylor will be discussed mainly with regard to their contributions to
jazz styles.
Assessment:
50% Essay (2000 words)
50% Original Jazz Arrangement (2000 words)
Module Convenor: Ben Curry
825273 LI The Singers’ Survival Guide: the effects of commercial opera on
singing culture in the Later Baroque Period
Credits: 20 Semester 1
This module is also available to Exchange students.
Module Description:
By the mid-seventeenth century the development of an opera repertoire for a certain type of paying
public was well under way. Yet, while this certainly changed the cultural landscape of secular vocal music
from that point forward, it did not eradicate the popular interest and development of vocal music for
private chamber settings, including sacred themed music for private use and making. Studying other vocal
genres and the venues in which they were performed side by side with opera at this crucial moment in
operatic history presents us with a more complete picture of singing culture from 1650-1750s. In order to
become a success in this climate, singers not only needed to be musically but also politically savvy. This
module will explore the political and social systems which these singers needed to negotiate and exploit in
order to maintain their popularity and social status. We will also focus on the social and cultural issues
which shaped the musical development of the different repertories in which they were expected to
participate. Musical features of these genres will be studied side by side with the patrons, singers, and
composers of these repertoires and will be interpreted through issues of gender, class / social status,
reception, the musical canon and the conception of the early modern body.
Assessment:
45% Essay: 2000 words
45% Exam: includes timed essays and listening identification (1 hour 40 mins)
10% Weekly questions and three sentence summaries (500 words)
Module Convenor: Amy Brosius
931930 LI Wagner
Credits: 20 Semester 1
This module is also available to Exchange students.
Module Description:
This module addresses one of the most controversial figures in nineteenth-century European culture,
Richard Wagner (1813-1883). It serves as an introduction to some of his most prominent works, including
selections from the ‘Romantic’ operas, the Ring Cycle, Tristan und Isolde, and Parsifal. These works will be
investigated in terms of analysis, aesthetics, and (socio-)politics, in order to grasp Wagner’s music-
dramatic techniques and their significance.
Following the themes of recent research, the module will also consider Wagner more broadly as a thinker,
writer, and cultural agent. Using his essays and his reception, we will examine the role of antisemitism in
his work, issues of gender and sexuality, and his status as a modern entrepreneur. This will lead us to a
closing consideration of the phenomena of Wagnerism and anti-Wagnerism across Europe, and his
looming presence in twentieth-century culture and politics.
Assessment:
2 x 2000-word essays (50% each).
Module Convenor: Nicholas Attfield
1030833 LI Gustav Mahler: The Philosophy of Music
Credits: 20 Semester 1
Final year students will be given priority when allocating places on this module
This module is also available to Exchange students.
Module Description:
Today the symphonies of Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) stand at the heart of the concert repertory. They
have generated an enormous amount of musicological commentary. But the most acute study of this
music is arguably one of the earliest: the short book, Mahler: A Musical Physiognomy, published by the
German philosopher Theodor W. Adorno in 1960, at a time when Mahler’s music was much less familiar.
For all its brilliant insight, Adorno’s book is not an easy read. So the aim here is twofold. Students who
take this module will gain a comprehensive knowledge of Mahler’s symphonies, not just in terms of their
formal construction, but also with regard to their intellectual content, itself often philosophical (Mahler
was an avid reader of both Schopenhauer and Nietzsche). At the same time, they will learn how to read
the work of the twentieth century’s most celebrated philosopher of music, whose book on Mahler is one
of his finest achievements.
Assessment:
Two essays (2500 words, 50% each).
Module Convenor: Ben Earle
1112
28580 LI Music and Globalisation
Credits: 20 Semester 1
Final year students will be given priority when allocating places on this module
This module is also available to Exchange students.
Module Description:
This module provides an overview of globalization and mobility as fields of study, as well as an in-depth
exploration of their entanglement with music. Whether through travel, trade, migration, or
telecommunication, music moves through circuits that connect the local and the global. Together, we will
encounter a series of conceptual frameworks and concrete case-studies that foreground the role of
movement in musical life. This module will consider how people experience music on the move, why
some musical actors are more mobile than others, and the impact of accelerating global flows. In-class
discussions will address such topics as: how travel and migration shape music-making and musical senses
of place; how systems of mobility enable or constrain musical agency; the expansion of multinational
media conglomerates; the impact of travel and tourism on local music scenes; the influence of recording
and telecommunications technologies upon musical production, distribution, and consumption.
Assessment:
50% Research Project (2500 words)
40% Essay (1250 words)
10% Ten Weekly Reading Responses (100 words each)
Module Convenor: Luis Manuel-Garcia
1329016 LI The Broadway Musicals from Show Boat to Sondheim
Credits: 20 Semester 1
Final year students will be given priority when allocating places on this module
This module is also available to Exchange students.
Module Description:
This module comprises a survey of the musical theatre, placing the genre in its cultural context alongside
close analytical study of scores and libretti. The works of composers and lyricists including Kern,
Hammerstein, Gershwin, Rodgers, Hart, Porter, Bernstein and Sondheim will be examined. Although
concentrating on American output of the 20th century, predecessors of the genre such as operetta and US
theatre forms, and the contribution of the West End, will also be considered.
Assessment:
50% Essay 1 (2500 words)
50% Essay 2 (2500 words)
Module Convenor: Paul Rodmell
14Semester 2 modules 15
29058 LI Music Festivals
Credits: 20 Semester 2
Year 2 students will be given priority when allocating places on this module
This module is also available to Exchange students.
Module Description:
This module provides an in-depth examination of music festivals as a cultural phenomenon. Students will
discover and discuss the historical origins, social contexts, cultural significance, and practical functioning
of music festivals. Students will be introduced to key concepts and critical perspectives in the study of
music festivals through assigned readings and in-class discussion. Assessments will be geared towards
applying the insights gained from these materials to the analysis and evaluation of real-world music
festivals. Topics and cases to be examined will include a wide range of genres (folk, classical, early music,
world music, electronic, rock), scales, venues, and historical periods.
Assessment:
1500 word essay (30%),
2500 -word research project (50%),
10 weekly reading responses - 1000 words in total (20%).
Module Convenor: Luis-Manuel Garcia
1627210 LI Studies in Performance Practice
Credits: 20 Semester 2
Year 2 students will be given priority when allocating places on this module
This module is also available to Exchange students.
Module Description:
This module combines the disciplines of musicology and performance, introducing students to the main
topics in performance practice of Western Music. Case studies are chosen from the Early Modern,
Baroque and Classical periods. Topics may include organology, rhythm and tempo, articulation, pitch and
temperaments, notation, the history of recorded performance, manuscript and printed musical sources,
issues surround existing editions and editorial practices, and debates around ‘authenticity’ in
performance. These will be explored through case studies of individual works, discussions of
performances and recordings, readings of contemporary treatises, critical evaluation of the secondary
literature on Performance Practice, and workshops with CEMPR vocal and instrumental tutors.
Assessment:
1 x Assessed translation project (100%)
Either
50% Essay I (2000 words)
50% Essay II (2000 words)
or
50% Essay (2000 words)
50% Performance, which can comprise either: 40% for a 12-minute performance, plus 10% for a 500
word supporting programme note on issues arising from the performance;
or 40% participation in the concert by the Early Modern Vocal Ensemble or Chamber Orchestra (a
baroque/ classical orchestra), plus 10% part test
or
50% Essay (2000 words)
50% Edition with 1000 word commentary on issues arising from the editorial process
Module Convenor: Andrew Kirkman
1724279 LI The Sixties
Credits: 20 Semester 2
Year 2 students will be given priority when allocating places on this module
This module is also available to Exchange students.
Module Description:
People are still talking about the legacy of the 1960s. For some, this was a golden age, the greatest decade
in living memory, a time of political people-power, free expression, and free love; for others it was a pit of
ill discipline and moral degradation. One thing is sure: ripples of the era’s influence continue to this day.
Equally certainly, however one views the ’60s, everyone agrees that music played a major role in encoding
and transmitting its cultural message. Using close readings, along with musical and video examples, this
module will explore the music at the ‘sharp end’ of ’60s culture: the music that embodied its various
messages and, for better or worse, immortalized them. On that account the emphasis is inevitably on folk
and popular music, though we will also address concert music and jazz. By the end we will all at least have
carefully considered, if not perhaps answered, the question as to whether there is such a thing as
quintessentially ‘sixties music,’ and what, if anything, binds together its various manifestations.
Assessment:
1 3000-word research project (50%),
9 weekly short assignments (20%)
2 in-class group presentations (30%)
Module Convenor: Andrew Kirkman
1831918 LI Music Cognition
Credits: 20 Semester 2
Final year students will be given priority when allocating places on this module
This module is also available to Exchange students.
Module Description:
In this module, students will be introduced to topics in Music Cognition. The classes may cover topics such
as psychoacoustics, rhythm, meter and pitch perception, music and memory, music and language, music
and social interaction, music and the brain, and the psychology of music performance. The module may
also include a practical workshop-style ‘mock experiment’ in which students will be supervised in
designing a simple study, collecting empirical data and analysing the results using simple statistical
analysis. The taught topics and practical experiments will be discussed in such a way as to provide
students with the tools to critically assess scientific approaches to music, with their respective limitations
and ethical considerations.
Assessment:
20% Student Group Presentations (20 min presentation and 20 min discussion per group, marked as a
group)
30% Empirical Study Report (2000 words)
50% Independent Essay (2000 words).
Module Convenor: Maria Witek
1925131 LI Stravinsky
Credits: 20 Semester 2
Final year students will be given priority when allocating places on this module
This module is also available to Exchange students.
Module Description:
Stravinsky is, arguably, the most significant composer of the 20th century. This module will examine the
various stylistic manners of Stravinsky’s career, while also considering whether his music has an overriding
aesthetic. In so doing we will discuss different writings upon the composer by himself and others, and
closely examine a number of the composer’s works.
Assessment:
40% Essay: 2000 words
60% Exam: 2 hours
Module Convenor: Michael Zev Gordon
2021
Modules that run in both semesters
(10 credits in each semester)
2223
31578 LI Solo Performance I & 31580 LI Solo Performance II
Credits: 10 + 10 Semester 1 & 2
Pre-requisite: BMus students: Successful completion of LC Solo Performance I and II
Others: pass in the Aural Test component of LC Solo Performance II
This module is also available to Exchange students.
Module Description:
LI Solo Performance I (Sem 1)
Students receive practical musical tuition during the teaching weeks of the year. This total of 10
hours’ tuition may be divided between two studies (instrumental or vocal; 1st study 6 hours, 2nd
study 4 hours) or may all be taken on one study (10 hours). The aim is to make as much musical
progress in technical and interpretative terms as possible, and to provide a basis for further
specialisation in performance at Level 3. Lessons are given by tutors at the Birmingham
Conservatoire, and by tutors employed by the Department of Music, some via CEMPR.
The module focuses on developing the skills and techniques needed by a solo performer
(instrumentalist or singer) to perform successfully music at a standard approaching that of the
DipABRSM (1st study) and ABRSM Grade 7/8 (2nd study). This will include developing technical
skills.
For 1st study performers specific technical skills will be assessed via the Core Skills Exam. The entire
technical skills exam will last 10 minutes in total and will consist of two or three components
depending upon musical tradition and instrument. Western tradition instrumentalists will be tested
on 1) scales and arpeggios and 2) sight reading. Western tradition vocalists will be tested on 1)
sight singing and 2) unaccompanied singing in a foreign language. Vocalists and instrumentalists of
Early Western, non-Western, and Jazz traditions will be tested on two or three technical areas
determined at the beginning of the Autumn term by the instrumental/vocal tutor and Director of
Performance that are appropriate to each specific study.
LI Solo Performance II (Sem 2)
Students receive practical musical tuition during the teaching weeks of the year. This total of 10
hours’ tuition may be divided between two studies (instrumental or vocal; 1st study 6 hours, 2nd
study 4 hours) or may all be taken on one study (10 hours). The aim is to make as much technical
24and musical progress as possible and to provide a basis for further specialisation in performance at
Level 3. Lessons are given by tutors at the Birmingham Conservatoire, and by tutors employed by
the Department of Music, some via CEMPR. An accompanist is available for students for two hours
in total, including both rehearsal and recital time
Assessment:
LI Solo Performance I (Sem 1)
100%: Core Skills Examination, 10 minutes
LI Solo Performance II (Sem 2)
100% By performance during the main examination period (12’-15’)
Module Convenor: Ceri Owen
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