Unit information: Analytical Techniques II: Musical Appreciation and Criticism in 2011/12

Unit name	Analytical Techniques II: Musical Appreciation and Criticism
Unit code	MUSI29013
Credit points	20
Level of study	I/5
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Professor. Hornby
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of Music
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This course takes the Sonata Principle as its starting point for an exploration of selected pieces of late-18th and 19th-century Germanic chamber and solo music. After the first introductory week, each class will be built around student presentations on case studies that are informed by particular analytical approaches. There will be a strong emphasis on the real-time experience of hearing music, and how elements of that experience might be captured in theoretical terms; there will also be a concentration on the rhetorical aspects of music in performance, and the implications that these have for analytical methods.

This unit aims:

• to give students an opportunity to develop the skills to make their own close readings of pieces of music, learning how to grasp and articulate a deep understanding of musical process
• to introduce students to a variety of analytical approaches, both through analyses themselves and also through secondary literature
• to give students a close understanding of the sonata principle
• to expand their knowledge of the common practice musical repertoire and to be able to comment accurately and perceptively on matters of style and structure
• to develop effective and detailed arguments, both aurally and in writing

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the module, students are expected to: (1) clearly understand the varying presentations of the sonata principle in late-18th and 19th century music of the Germanic tradition (2) Understand a variety of analytical approaches to the repertoire and the formal, harmonic and melodic understanding that underpins them (3) Be able to make their own analyses of music from this repertory, using textual commentary, diagrams, or a mixture of the two (4) Present, critique and defend arguments orally (5) Present analytical findings in writing or in diagrammatic form

Teaching Information

10x2 hour seminars

Assessment Information

Coursework (50%); final assessed exercise (50%).

An exercise will be set each week to be completed by the next class. Each student’s coursework mark will comprise an assessed 15-minute presentation (10%) plus the average of the four best marks obtained in the weekly exercises (40%). Late submissions will receive a mark of zero. All assignments must be submitted in order for credit points to be awarded. The presentation will demonstrate (1) and (3) through (4). The coursework will demonstrate (1) and (3) through (5)

Towards the end of the teaching block students will begin final projects, in consultation with the lecturer. These will be previewed in class for feedback in (unassessed) presentations in the final teaching week, with the final project to be submitted at the end of the semester. Final projects in prose form at Level H will be 3,000 words long; those using a substantial amount of diagrammatic material should be 2,000 words long. At Level I, the final projects in prose form will be 2500 words long; those using a substantial amount of diagrammatic material will be 1750 words long. At both levels, students must consult with the unit director to decide which of these formats the final project should have. The final project will demonstrate the knowledge of (1), (3) and (5) built cumulatively throughout the module, but will additionally demonstrate (2) and, at Level H, (6) and (7) as well.

Reading and References

Cone, Edward T., Music: A View from Delft (1989) ML60 CON Cook, Nicholas, A Guide to Musical Analysis (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987). MT6 COO Cook, Nicholas, Music, Imagination and Culture (Oxford, 1990) ML3845 COO Dunsby, Jonathan and Arnold Whittall, Music Analysis in Theory and Practice (London: Faber, 1988) MT6 DUN William Cole, The Form of Music (Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, 1997).