MA in Composition for Film and Television

The summative assessment of the MA in Composing for Film and TV may be approached by two routes, either: (1) original media compositions or (2) one original media composition and a critical dissertation on an agreed media music topic.
The choice of whether to write a Dissertation lies with the student.

This is a practice-led unit which offers direct experience of the approaches used in media composition today in radio and televisual media. The sessions consider the appropriate use of the latest studio techniques with or without live resources, working to a brief, working to a budget, the variety of genre (such as the Documentary) and considerations of style in relation to the target audience. The unit brings together techniques taught in the Professional Techniques unit and also includes in situ experience of a media composer's studio and the professional cutting room (e.g. at BBC Bristol or London), and an introduction to the musical business world and approaches to self-promotion in the industry.

The unit is designed to provide a secure technical foundation in two areas necessary for media composition today, i.e. (1) technical understanding and facility in the recording / editing suite, and (2) professional standards in scoring for instrumental performance and recording. The unit is designed to bring each student into a state of full working knowledge of contemporary studio and instrumental composing. The studio component introduces the technical practicalities required for producing music and sound at a professional standard for radio, television, and film and the scoring component works similarly in instrumental composition and notation. Additionally, the opportunity is created for live workshop performance of specially composed scores from which the recording may be mixed into a project prescribed in the Media Composition unit.

The unit builds upon the technical skills and media experience established in the first semester to consider more permanent principles and values of Film and its music. This involves response to narrative techniques, genre, acting, larger-scale compositional architecture, orchestration and sound synthesis. The unit also provides tutorial support in the composer's contribution to an original film made in collaboration with the Drama department from conception to final cut and public screening. This unit also confronts predicaments and issues to be encountered by students should they go on to enter the field of professional film music composition.

The unit is designed to introduce students to different ways of looking at music for film and TV, and to the choice of different analytical tools and methods, depending on the salient features of the music in question. The unit introduces the students to characteristic examples from different periods of film music history, from early sound film to the present day, including original scores as well as compilation scores, and to appropriate theoretical frameworks (including narrative theory, semiotics, critical theory) and analytical methods to describe those score adequately. Issues discussed in the session devoted to TV music include music in fact-based programmes (news, documentaries, features), music in TV series and music in TV advertising. The unit starts with the analysis of examples in lectures and mixed lecture/seminar sessions and moves on to sessions in which the students apply what they have learned to their own analyses.

Optional units

As the foundation to the MA courses it serves, the unit seeks to develop an awareness of some of the key aesthetic and narrative conventions and issues underlying screen-based material. This is achieved by means of a series of individual and group-based practical exercises undertaken to a series of closely structured briefs. The product of these exercises is used as the basis for guided critical discussion led by the Unit Leader. An important element of the unit is the completion of group-work to deadline and within tight constraints, and the presentation and critical reflection on individual and group work.

The unit provides appropriate structures and supervision for the conceptualisation and development of independent project-based and research work appropriate to the programmes it serves. It is intended as a developmental bridge between the induction stages of the programmes and the dissertation, and as such may cover a range of technical, conceptual, theoretical or practical issues, tasks and processes.

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This unit develops knowledge of the wide-ranging options for the use of electronics in composition and performance and combines technical and aesthetic concerns, demonstrated through original compositions. The focus is on combining acoustic instrument(s) and/or voice(s) with live electronic resources, but other areas such as acousmatic composition, sound installation, and design of new performance interfaces will be studied according to student expertise and interests. The unit will also address questions of presentation, dissemination, portability and preservation for music that is dependent on rapidly-changing technical resources. Extensive foundational knowledge of studio composition is assumed, but if lacking can be made up by additional attendance in undergraduate and other graduate classes. A substantial element of individual study and compositional activity is expected, with these elements brought together in tutorial. The unit equips composers to include a substantial electronic component in their MA portfolio, and prepares them for further compositional research involving electronics.

The unit addresses the need experienced by many composers today to acquire or reinforce traditional aspects of advanced musicianship that formerly formed the basis of training and which are now often experienced as areas of insecurity. The precise content of the unit is designed to be adjustable to the perceived needs of the student, but will typically confront three of the following four categories: Late Tonal / non tonal / serial Harmony; 16th century Counterpoint; Contemporary Instrumentation; and Late Romantic Orchestration.

This unit will begin with weekly seminars on contemporary music, each one highlighting an issue for creative response in the form of a weekly exercise or compositional miniature on specified topics. Later in the semester, this will replaced by the composition of more extended movements for student ensembles as agreed with the unit director.

This unit will develop students’ understanding of the harmonic language of the 19th century, both through the analysis of representative models and the composition of songs, piano and chamber music pieces in similar styles. By way of introduction, the piano music of Schumann will be examined, but the main part of the course will be devoted to the work of Mendelssohn and Brahms. Exercises will vary between the completion of extracts and the composition of substantial songs or movements for piano or small chamber ensembles.

This unit builds on 1 Free Composition and provides a technical platform and pre-requisite for further studies in Composition. Weekly lectures will present major developments in music from Debussy to the present day, in terms of listening and close study of works by major composers (such as Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Webern, Messiaen, Bartok, Lutoslawski, Ligeti, Berio, Birtwistle, Carter, Feldman, Adams, Macmillan and aspects of popular music). Typical compositional techniques will be illustrated and followed up in weekly technical exercises covering aspects of motivic thinking, serialism and combinatoriality, advanced harmony, matrices, modes, rythmic techniques, isorythm, vocal, orchestral and chamber instrumentation and textural composition.

This unit will introduce students to the compositional techniques of the classical and early romantic periods, both through the analysis of representative movements and the composition of short pastiche exercises in these styles. It will deal, in the main, with song accompaniments in the style of Schubert, though some attention will also be given to classical string quartet writing in the style of Haydn and Mozart.

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Final Project (Summer to Sept 15th)

• Composing Music to collaborative films
• More diverse achievements in Media Composition OR Dissertation

How to Apply