MUSA234-17S2 (C) Semester Two 2017

Contemporary Music

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 17 July 2017
End Date: Sunday, 19 November 2017
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Friday, 28 July 2017
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Friday, 13 October 2017

Description

An exploration of various 20th and 21st century Western art music styles and techniques. The course includes score analysis and aural recognition, and covers technological developments, political and social upheavals and the effects of these on composers and their output.

MUSA234 provides students with an overview of the trends and developments in western art music from 1945 to the present day. It situates the music itself and the various 'schools' of composition within the wider socio-cultural and intellectual framework of the era.

COURSE CONTENT:

Lectures will cover the following topics:
Week 1:    Order and chance:  Two banks - same river
Week 2:    Raising the bar:  The role of the performer in advancing post-war composition
Week 3:    "Zero Hour" and resistance:  Electronic music and Musique Concrète
Week 4:    Texture, timbre, and loops
Week 5:    The percussion/rhythm explosion
Week 6:    Almost noise, almost repetition
Week 7:    "Nothing is true; everything is permitted": The Cage of Freedom?
Week 8:    Two-way streets?: The influence of popular musics on art-music composition - and vice-versa
Week 9:    Going to extremes
Week 10:  Minimalims/Post-minimalism
Week 11:  Fluidity and Flexibility:  some active composers today
Week 12:  Writing Histories:  what the textbooks do and don't tell us.

Learning Outcomes

Students who pass this course will be able to:
*  Describe specific developments in western art music from 1945 to the present day.
*  Discuss key trends, movements, and 'schools' in postwar composition.
*  Discuss the relationship between socio-cultural change and music in this period.
*  Discuss the relationship between technological change and music in this period.
*  Analyse post-tonal music.
*  Demonstrate skills in using library and information resources related to musicology, including library databases, bibliographic tools, and electronic resources.
*  Demonstrate high-level oral and written communication skills.

Prerequisites

Either MUSA100 or MUSA101 and MUSA131

Restrictions

Course Coordinator / Lecturer

James Gardner

Lecturers

Justin DeHart and Mark Menzies

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage 
Essay 1 24 Aug 2017 20%
Imaginary Interview or Blog 21 Sep 2017 20%
Essay 2 12 Oct 2017 25%
Contribution to Class Discussion 10%
Listening Test 18 Oct 2017 25%


ESSAY 1:  2,000 words on a topic covered during weeks 1–4 of the course
[You will submit a draft of your essay by 4.00 pm, Thursday, 10 August [Week 4].  The draft will be marked and you will be sent feedback in week 5 on which you will base your revisions for the final submission.]

IMAGINARY INTERVIEW OR BLOG
Either:  (a) An imaginary interview with a composer/performer on a prescribed date.  Prescribed people and dates will be given during the course.

Or:  (b) An imaginary blog post by a key figure in postwar art music in the wake of a significant event.  A selection of scenarios will be given during the course.

In either case, while the interview ore blog post itself is imagined, the facts and ideas in your assignment must be true-to-life and free from anachronisms.  Your assignment should be fully referenced in either APA or MHRA style.

ESSAY 2:  2,500 words on a topic covered during weeks 5–10 of the course

CONTRIBUTION TO CLASS DISCUSSION:  The Wednesday tutorials (1–1.50 pm) will focus on class discussion of the weekly topics, including assigned readings and listening.  Students will be assessed on the quality of their contribution to these discussions.

LISTENING TEST:  Students will be expected to aurally identify excerpts of works covered in the course, and to provide details and answer questions related to these works and associated topics.

Textbooks / Resources

Required Texts

Paul Griffiths; Modern Music and After: Directions since 1945 ; 3rd; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010 (Available for 3-hour loan in the self-loan area on level 2 of the library at ML 197 .G76 2010. Available as an e-book in the library here: http://ebookcentral.proquest.com.ezproxy.canterbury.ac.nz/lib/canterbury/detail.action?docID=716676).

Rutherford-Johnson, Tim; Music after the fall : modern composition and culture since 1989 ; (Available for 3-hour loan in the self-loan area on level 2 of the library at ML 197 .R94 2017).

Recommended Reading

Cox, Christoph,1965- , Cox, Christoph, Warner, Daniel; Audio culture : readings in modern music ; (Available for 3-hour loan in the self-loan area on level 2 of the library at ML 197 .A85 2013).

Ford, Andrew,1957-; Illegal harmonies : music in the modern age ; 3rd ed; Black Inc, 2011 (Available for 3-hour loan in the self-loan area on level 2 of the library at ML 197 .F67 2011).

Holmes, Thom. , Pender, Terence M; Electronic and experimental music : technology, music, and culture ; 4th ed; Routledge, 2012 (Available for 3-hour loan in the self-loan area on level 2 of the library at ML 1380 .H64 2012).

Ross, Alex,1968-; The rest is noise : listening to the twentieth century ; 1st ed; Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007 (Available for 3-hour loan in the self-loan area on level 2 of the library at ML 197 .R823 2007).

**********
HARD COPIES OF BOTH OF THE TWO REQUIRED TEXTS ABOVE are available from the University Bookshop.  Music After The Fall has an associated Spotify playlist here:  https://play.spotify.com/user/timrj/playlist/7JBwqVosgh4g96LwsRZF7M
Additional readings will be provided in the course.

Notes

Use of Technology

This course assumes that you have sufficient information and technology skills to confidently use a computer to access material for your course.  Your written work will be handwritten and submitted in class time.

You will be required to access our learning management system – LEARN – and to become familiar with its tools.  LEARN provides easily-accessible information about the course and assessments, topics and deadlines, and supports the learning you will gain from attending all lectures and tutorials.  For help using LEARN, refer to: http://learn.canterbury.ac.nz/course/view.php?id=2157

Additional Course Outline Information

Assessment and grading system

The following shows how to translate grades to numerical scores:

A+  90–100;    A   85–89;    A-  80–84;    B+   75–79;    B 70–74;    B-   65–69;     C+  60–64;     C  55–59;     C- 50–54;     D  40–49;   E  0–39
In a course at 100- or 200-level examiners may grant restricted credit (R) which will be equivalent to a pass for all purposes except as a prerequisite.

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $817.00

International fee $3,525.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see Humanities .

All MUSA234 Occurrences

  • MUSA234-17S2 (C) Semester Two 2017