Unit information: Performance Studies in 2022/23

Unit name	Performance Studies
Unit code	MUSIM0022
Credit points	60
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Academic Year (weeks 1 - 52)
Unit director	Dr. Scott
Open unit status	Not open
Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units)	None
Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units)	None
Units you may not take alongside this one	None
School/department	Department of Music
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Unit Information

The 60-credit performance unit enables students to deepen their understanding of musical performance to an advanced level. Individual vocal or instrumental lessons provide a secure technical and musical foundation for recital work in appropriate repertoire. These are further supplemented by visiting masterclasses and regular performance workshops. Candidates offer two public recitals: one in June of 25 minutes duration and the other in September (at the end of the year) of 50 minutes duration. With respect to solo performance, challenging repertoire is explored alongside appropriate stylistic considerations for its presentation (including an awareness of historically-informed styles of performance). Tuition is given by specially selected teachers, many of whom are world-class performers; further details are available at: http://www.bris.ac.uk/school-of-arts/people/group/dept/2244. Students taking the Performance pathway through the MA in Music are encouraged to take every opportunity to integrate academic and practical work and actively to seek links between their development as players or singers and the intellectual probing of music and its historical and analytical contexts.

Aims:

Principal objectives include: the enhancement of technical and interpretative skills, the further extension of solo repertoire, the acquisition of more critical attitudes to matters of performance and interpretation, and the harnessing of all these objectives within the context of a teaching environment.

Your learning on this unit

1. It is expected that students following the performance option will identify meaningful overlaps between their activities as performers and other academic aspects of their MA programme
2. Refinement of instrumental/vocal technique and interpretational/expressive skills to a professional level of competence.
3. Relation of individual practical skills and scholarly treatment of various sorts of documentary evidence for performance practices of relevant repertoire.
4. Sensitivity in the application of such evidence to specific performing situations
5. Be able to identify subtly different shades of interpretation and display sensitivity towards the consequences of their application
6. to display to a professional standard the ability to reconstruct in performance technically and musically challenging repertoire (perhaps encoded in complex notations) that have been internalised and interpreted in a thoughtful way involving both aural awareness and study of relevant historical documentary evidence
7. experience in seeing a project through from conception to planning, blueprint realisation, and execution
8. a sensitive and imaginative approach to programme building
9. a professional level of presentation in performance
10. a fruitful interaction of scholarly and practical abilities in written and oral situations

How you will learn

One-to-one vocal/instrumental lessons (16 hours, paid for by the University), individual tutorial guidance as required.

How you will be assessed

SHORT RECITAL IN JUNE (25 minutes): 30% of mark for unit. This will measure outcomes 1, 3-5, 7-10 and, in the strongest candidates, outcomes 2 and 6

MAJOR RECITAL IN SEPTEMBER (50 minutes): 70% of mark for unit. This will measure outcomes 1-10

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. MUSIM0022).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the Faculty workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. If you have self-certificated your absence from an assessment, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (this is usually in the next assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any extenuating circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.