Vocal Composition

MUSC20362 Vocal Composition 10 Semester 2 Undergraduate Level 2 Richard Whalley Unit coordinator Music 1 FHEQ level (Framework for Higher Education Qualifications) ' Middle part of Bachelors ' European Credit Transfer & Accumulation System Rating : 5.0 A practice-based course in which students create original compositions using voice/voices for performance and recording at the end of the course. Students are introduced to the technical and timbral qualities of the different voice types, approaches to the relationship between words and music and text setting (on the small and large scale).  They then build on their knowledge gained from MUSC20321 to create original music either for a solo voice and two instruments, or for three a cappella voices. Students prepare performance materials for the realization of their ideas and organize rehearsals and workshops with other students. The course ends with a series of concerts in which all the produced work is performed and recorded. A practice-based course in which students create original compositions using voice/voices for performance and recording at the end of the course. Students are introduced to the technical and timbral qualities of the different voice types, approaches to the relationship between words and music and text setting (on the small and large scale).  They then build on their knowledge gained from MUSC20321 to create original music either for a solo voice and two instruments, or for three a cappella voices. Students prepare performance materials for the realization of their ideas and organize rehearsals and workshops with other students. The course ends with a series of concerts in which all the produced work is performed and recorded. This course unit provides knowledge of voice types (their technical features and sonic characteristics) and how these may be combined with each other and with instrumental resources to artistic ends. The student will be able to set words to music, in sympathy with their textural meaning, subtext, stress, rhythm, grouping-structure and form. By the end of the course the student will have applied this knowledge by completing an original composition setting a text in English and bringing this to a well-prepared performance.  By the end of this course students will be able to:<ul> <li>Understand the technical and sonic characteristics of vocal resources</li> <li>Combine these with each other or with instruments</li> <li>Understand the principles of text setting – meaning, stress, rhythm, grouping structure and poetic/literary form</li> <li>Demonstrate knowledge of the principles of balance and timbral combination in scoring for voices and/or instruments</li> <li>Have a sophisticated understanding of all the principal musical parameters and use these to interact with textual structures in meaningful ways.  </li></ul> By the end of this course students will be able to:<ul> <li>Analyse, evaluate and develop sonic material within aesthetic and technical contexts</li> <li>Research existing repertoire for guidance on completing the set task</li> <li>Evaluate the potential of literary texts for musical setting, and put this into practice</li> <li>Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of different compositional strategies in bringing their setting to fruition</li> <li>Plan sophisticated musical structures that interact meaningfully and coherently with literary structures and solve technical and practical problems in bringing these to successful realisation in performance;</li> <li>Apply standard professional musical notation and evaluate its applicability to creative objectives.  </li></ul> By the end of this course students will be able to:<ul> <li>Apply knowledge of the technical and practical features of the voice creatively;</li> <li>Articulate shapes and dramatic strategies through sound;</li> <li>Create musical shapes that interact with words in a coherent and meaningful way;</li> <li>Collaborate with singers and instrumentalists;</li> <li>Supervise and direct rehearsals;</li> <li>Produce performance materials to professional standards;</li> <li>Notate musical ideas such that they can be learnt by musicians without the composer.  </li></ul> By the end of this course students will be able to:<ul> <li>Demonstrate organisational and management skills in booking musicians, arranging rehearsals and preparing performances</li> <li>Demonstrate attention to detail through preparing and editing performance material to professional standards</li> <li>Demonstrate creative problem solving</li> <li>Collaborate with other students in realising their ideas, and the ideas of others</li></ul>  Analytical skills Analytical skills (surveying repertoire, analysing texts and materials for musical potential) Group/team working Team work (collaborating with musicians) Interpersonal skills (collaborating with other students and musicians) Innovation/creativity Creative problem-solving (fulfilling set task with set resources) Leadership Leadership skills (being responsible for overseeing a creative product from inception through to final performance) Project management Time management (running workshops and rehearsals) Working to fixed deadlines (composing music, and preparing performance materials in time for workshops and performances); Organisational skills (finding and booking musicians and rehearsal space); Other Editing (in preparing performance materials) 0 Other 100%  <figure class="table"><table><tbody><tr><td>Assessment Task</td><td>Formative or Summative</td><td>Weighting</td></tr><tr><td>EITHER: Original composition for voice and two instruments from different instrumental families (excluding keyboards)OR: Original Composition for three a cappella voices</td><td>Summative</td><td>100%</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>   <ul> <li> Tutorials and workshops on work in progress</li> <li> Feedback from peers in tutorials, workshops and in collaboration with performers</li> <li> Written feedback on the project</li> <li> Additional one-to-one feedback (during consultation hour or by making an appointment)</li></ul> MUSC20321 Instrumental Composition Pre-Requisite Compulsory MUSC20321 is a pre req of MUSC20362 BA(Hons) Music & Drama BA(Hons) Music & Drama Second Year Optional MusB(Hons) MusB (Hons) Music Second Year Optional MusB(Hons) (joint with RNCM) MusB(Hons) (joint with RNCM) Second Year Optional BA Film and Music BA Film and Music Second Year Optional N <ul> <li>Blatter, Alfred,  Instrumentation and Orchestration (New York & London: Longman, 1997).</li> <li>Barker, Paul, Composing for the Voice: A Guide for Composers, Singers and Teachers (New York & Abingdon, Oxon.: Routledge, 2004).</li> <li>Elliot, Martha, Singing in Style: A Guide to Vocal Performance Practice (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006).    </li> <li>Gould, Elaine, Behind Bars: The Definitive Guide To Music Notation (London: Faber, 2011).</li> <li>Manning, Jane, New Vocal Repertoire (Oxford: Clarendon, 1994)</li> <li>Miller, Richard, The Structure of Singing: System and Art in Vocal Technique (Belmont, Ca.: Schirmer, 1996).</li> <li>Potter, John, The Cambridge Companion to Singing (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).   </li> <li>Sundberg, Johan, The Science of the Singing Voice (DeKalb, Ill.: Northern Illinois University Press, 1987).</li> <li>Thomson, Virgil, Music with Words: A Composer’s View (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989).   </li></ul> Lectures 10 Practical classes & workshops 6 Supervised time in studio/wksp 8 Tutorials 4 0 72