Unit name | From Notation to Performance |
---|---|
Unit code | MUSIM0040 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | M/7 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
Unit director | Dr. Allinson |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
none |
Co-requisites |
none |
School/department | Department of Music |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
How do you get from the notes on the page to a performance? The challenges in early western repertoires are enormous: the earliest notations can only be read if you already know the melody; much early polyphony has no rhythmic notation. The baroque period is a familiar focus for considering ornamentation, improvisation and playing techniques, and the challenges continue beyond Mozart (if he would have improvised on the piano during the orchestral tuttis of his piano concertos, should we?) to our own time. The course will be structured around a series of case studies as we delve into the status of the Work concept and the place of performative creativity in different western contexts, including our own. Our focus will be on establishing what knowledge is needed to successfully translate the expectations of composers and notators into modern editions and performances.
By the end of the module, students are expected:
one 2-hour seminar per week (in some years, this may be taught jointly with MUSI30104 From Notation to Performance) concentrating on core aspects of the module. Also, one one-hour class to support the academic development of our MA students, particularly overseas ones, in an English-speaking university context.
One essay, independently devised and researched, of 4000 words (75%). This will demonstrate (1), (2), (3), (5), and (7) through (4). PLUS One individual 15-minute presentation on an independently-researched topic, distinct from that of the essay (25%). This will demonstrate learning outcomes (6) and (7) through (5)
Bernard Sherman, Inside early music (New York & Oxford, 1997)
Margaret Bent, ‘Editing Early Music: the dilemma of translation’, Early Music 22 (1994), 373-92
Taruskin, Text and Act (New York: O.U.P., 1995)
James Grier, The Critical Editing of Music (1996)
John Rink (ed.), the Practice of Performance: Studies in Musical Interpretation (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1995)
Christopher Small, Musicking: the meanings of performing and listening (Hanover: University Press of New England, c1998)