Course Catalogue

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This course is designed to give students a critical introduction to musical responses to modernity in the 20th and 21st centuries through a mixture of listening, historical readings, analytical investigations, and aesthetic reflection.

1x1hr lecture; 1x1hr tutorial per week over 10 weeks as scheduled on MyCampus. This is one of the Honours options in Music and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are available on MyCampus.

Available to all students fulfilling requirements for Honours entry into Music, and by arrangement to visiting students or students of other Honours programmes who qualify under the University's 25% regulation.

Aspects of Modernity, MUSIC4003

None

Critical commentary (2000 words) - 40%

Seminar presentation of 15 minutes accompanied by a script - 60%

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. For non-Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below. 

This course will provide the opportunity to:

• introduce honours students to key developments in the historical context and compositional languages of 20th- and 21st-century music

• foster a critical hearing and analysis of modern music from various historical contexts, through a balance of contextual, technical, aesthetic and ideological considerations.

• encourage reflection about the definition of 'modernity' as a term with both chronological and aesthetic implications for the history of music since 1900.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

• analyse selected major works of modern music, relating local details to issues of form and temporal unfolding, and incorporating reflection about expressive effects, inter-artistic relationships, and/or ideological implications.

• deliver a presentation that efficiently contextualizes and illustrates the distinct musical properties of a selected modernist composition.

• engage in informed debate about the contextual, technical, aesthetic and ideological issues raised by and through 20th- and 21st-century modern music.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.