Module Catalogue 2025/26

Pre Requisite Comment

N/A

Co Requisite Comment

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Aims

Contemporary Music Practice 2 aims to develop individual and collaborative composition skills realised (and assessed) through the medium of live performance, in a way that most closely reflects real-world professional practice. With online digital media making contemporary music an unprecedentedly interdisciplinary field, film and moving image media are nowadays totally integrated into how music is conceived, published and promoted. The integration of film and video as part of the creative process is reflected in the semester one project and assessment where groups live-score a short video clip as part of a public performance that takes place in the last week before the Christmas vacation. This offers students the chance to work directly with music and film, offering a first experience of the broader professional environment.

Outline Of Syllabus

During semester one students will work in various collaborative settings designed to introduce key concepts in contemporary performance and expression. After two weeks students will be assigned specific groups in which they will work for the remainder of semester one in preparation for a directed and devised, assessed performance during the last week before the Christmas vacation, which takes the form of a collaborative live score for a cinematic film presentation.

Ahead of semester two, students are generally reorganised into new groups in order to prepare for the final assessments before Easter and in May, a public performance and/or public presentation of a collaborative work (possibly multimedia depending on the direction taken by a given group). This is assessed by a live performance

After the Easter vacation, students prepare individual critical reflective written submissions worth 10% of the overall mark,

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

- an enhanced knowledge of how to develop creative ideas towards staging a public event
- an increased knowledge of the creative capabilities of instrumental forces
- an increase in the range of techniques possible on the student’s instrument or voice
- an enhanced critical understanding of how to contextualize creative practice within a wider cultural framework
- a greater knowledge and critical understanding of contemporary performance and distribution platforms and how to integrate personal and collective expression into them

Intended Skill Outcomes

- greater confidence and fluency in developing musical ideas and realising them practically
- an ability to work collaboratively and creatively in a group context
- a greater understanding of how to apply musical knowledge to creative ends

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Seminars introduce and develop performance, arranging and collaboration skills; this is reinforced by group learning where students practise and improve these skills; lectures introduce vernacular (predominantly non-notated) music skills, contextualize repertoire and critical frameworks for situating practice; off-campus gig nights, which are student-run, allow students to gain experience presenting new work in a professional setting; 1:1 instrumental lessons are available to students also taking MUS2058 and allow students to work intensively on their own technical skills on their instrument or voice. Lunchtime and student concert attendance gives the performance student regular opportunities to experience and reflect on professional and peer level performances.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The first (semester 1) public performance (film soundtrack) demonstrates musical, creative and collaborative skills in a finished professional level of group performance within an audiovisual context. The group mark is the same for all members of the band, reflecting the collaborative aspect of the performance.

The second (semester 2) public performance demonstrates musical, creative and collaborative skills in a finished professional level of group performance or collective presentation of collaborative multi-media work. Students receive individual marks for this component: individual marks are arrived at through a combination of assessing a student’s contribution within the performance itself and regular observation by teaching staff during group tutorials (in rehearsal) providing a more established view of a given participant’s role and contribution.

The final, short essay (500-1000 words), provides an opportunity for students to articulate a position or insight in response to the critical frameworks explored during lectures in semester 2. The task provides a step towards the more research-oriented requirements of final-year specialisms in creative practice which demand a more substantial, critically reflexive written component.

General Notes

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