2016/17 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

MUSS2721 Music in Context A

20 creditsClass Size: 80

Module manager: Dorien Schampaert
Email: d.schampaert@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable

Year running 2016/17

Pre-requisite qualifications

Normally MUSS1030, or A-level Music, or appropriate equivalent

This module is not approved as a discovery module

Module summary

Topic 1 - Music, Culture, Politics: the 60s: This topic will look at the music, culture, politics, and art of one of the most creatively prolific eras of the last century. It will survey developments on both sides of the Atlantic, though major focus will be placed upon music, popular culture, and political developments in the United States, including the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War, and Haight-Ashbury. The module will explore Dylan's journey from folk singer to electric rocker, the Beatles' progress from beat group to psychedelic gurus, and will examine the soundtracks that accompanied the emergence of the anti-war movement, the rise of the hippies in London and San Francisco, and the evolution of a new and confident black America, and its shift from peaceful protest to riots in the streets. Music will form the essential heart of our studies but other key influences - radical poets and thinkers, Eastern gurus, Pop artists, and underground film-makers - will feature in our consideration of a decade of explosive change.Topic - The Tools of Music-Making: The purpose of this topic is to explore the relationships between musical tools and musical culture. ‘Music-making’ covers a range of activities, including composing, performing, recording, producing, making music at a computer, and so on. The ‘tools’ of music-making include all of the instruments, devices, implements, contraptions, software, and so on, that are involved in these music-making processes. The aim of this module is to explore the complex relationships between musical tools on the one hand, and music itself—musical cultures, musical practice—on the other.Do the tools a composer or performer uses influence the kind of music produced, and if so, how? Does society design musical tools according to the kinds of music that it wants to hear, or is the way music sounds defined by the tools available? What came first: the music or the instrument?This topic will introduce students to some of the critical and intellectual frameworks that can be used to address such questions, including technological determinism, social constructivism, affordance, and actor network theory (these terminologies will all be explained in the module). A range of musical scenarios and examples will be given throughout the module to help students understand how these ways of thinking can be applied.

Objectives

On completion of this module, students should be able to:
- demonstrate the broadening of their musical knowledge through study of a defined musicological area;
- apply appropriate historical, analytical, critical and comparative methodologies to the articulation and development of arguments;
- demonstrate the development of research, essay-writing and presentational skills;
- develop an awareness of contextual approaches applicable to a broad range of repertoire.

Learning outcomes
On completion of this module, students will be able to:
- demonstrate the broadening of their musical knowledge through study of a defined musicological area;
- apply appropriate historical, analytical, critical and comparative methodologies to the articulation and development of arguments;
- demonstrate the development of research, essay-writing and presentational skills;
- develop an awareness of contextual approaches applicable to a broad range of repertoire.

Syllabus

Students will study one topic chosen from a range available. Topics offered will cover a spectrum of musicological areas in different musical disciplines and contexts, including art, commercial, popular and world musics. The module may be taught via a combination of lectures, seminars and tutorials.

The class will be split for at least one of the sessions to provide a small-group seminar during which students will present and discuss their ideas for their essays both orally and via the medium of a poster or (by negotiation with the tutor) an online Wiki.

At least one class will be given over to individual tutorials.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Lecture	8	2.00	16.00
Seminar	2	1.00	1.00
Tutorial	1	0.25	0.00
Private study hours			183.00
Total Contact hours			17.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			200.00

Private study

- 4 hours evaluation of notes per lecture: 28 hours
- 6 hours reading and listening per lecture or seminar: 54 hours
- Essay writing: 74 hours
- Seminar preparation, including poster or Wiki design: 29 hours.

The essay must be passed in order to get the module credits.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

- Contribution to round table discussion in seminar, including poster or similar presentation, and feedback.
- Tutorials.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	3600-4400 words. This component must be passed in orderto gain the module credits.	75.00
Poster Presentation	Poster presentation or similar during split-class seminar, the equivalent of 1,500-2,000 words’ work. The poster presentation may be in the form of a traditional poster, for which training will be provided during the course of one of the lectures. Or, by negotiation with the tutor, it may take the form of an online Wiki using the VLE, instructions for which will be provided by the module coordinator. These presentations may be related to the topic of the essay, and students will be required to explain their ideas orally as well as through the medium of the poster/Wiki during a seminar.	25.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 21/09/2016

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