2016/17 Undergraduate Module Catalogue
MUSS3540 Contemporary Aesthetics
40 creditsClass Size: 40
Module manager: Dr Matthew Pritchard
Email: M.Pritchard1@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2016/17
Pre-requisites
| MUSS2520 | Aesthetics and Criticism |
Module replaces
MUSI3525 Contemporary Aesthetics in Theory and Practice (Minor)MUSI3545 Contemporary Aesthetics in Theory and PracticeThis module is not approved as a discovery module
Objectives
Subject specificThe module aims to give students a grounding in recent thinking in aesthetics through a representative selection of thinkers and to equip them with the skills and knowledge to bring these modes of thought to bear on a variety of contemporary musical practices. Students will be encouraged to explore areas of artistic practice which are new to them and/or to use the modes of aesthetic thought studied in the course as a springboard to examine thinkers only covered tangentially.
Generic
The module seeks to give students the tools to assimilate large quantities of complex information and to be capable of re-presenting this information in an abbreviated form. Moreover, it encourages students to develop skills in the application of ideas drawn from one field into another, learning ways in which apparently diverse areas can impact upon one another. Students will develop their abilities to carry out a long-term independent project, for which they take greater responsibility than is likely typically to have been the case in their academic work to date. The module, in short, aims to ensure that students have the tools to move from being guided to independent learners.
Learning outcomes
Subject specific
On successful completion of the module, a student should be able to…
• demonstrate an understanding of various schools of recent aesthetic thought;
• demonstrate an awareness of several tropes of recent artistic practices in music;
• make clear and cogent relationships between thought and practice;
• on a developing basis, evidence an ability to generate ‘new’ knowledge through such syntheses of aesthetic thought and artistic practice.
Generic
On successful completion of the module, a student should be able to…
• show an ability to understand and re-apply complex modes of thought;
• synthesize writing from disparate sources and positions into their own coherent text;
• demonstrate an ability to carry out a longer-term project working with increasing independence.
Syllabus
The syllabus as given is indicative rather than prescriptive; the texts studied in the first term—both those which are (broadly conceived) theoretical and those which are (equally broadly) indicative of a particular artistic or compositional aesthetic position—may be expected to change in response to the production of other contemporary significant texts on aesthetics or new statements of aesthetic position from major musical figures. Students will be encouraged to draw parallels in their own responses between these modes of thought and broader tropes of artistic discourse (including, though not limited to, the ‘popular’, cultures of jazz and improvisation, ‘world musics’, and the subcultural).
Sessions in the first semester will alternate between the introduction of a major figure in contemporary aesthetic thought and a session examining how such ways of thinking might be related to a particular artistic practice. The theory strand of the first semester will be, for the most part, staff led; the other strand will take a student-led workshop-style format.
An indicative set of sessions might, then, be:
1. Introductory session
2. Authors: Barthes & Foucault
3. Works: Taruskin & Nattiez
4. Deconstructions: Derrida & Rousseau
5. Noises: Attali & Demers
6. Genders: Butler
7. Sexualities: McClary & Cusick
8. Others: Bhabha
9. Rebels: Feld & Olaniyan
10. Plateaus: Deleuze & Guattari
11. Essays
The second semester will involve the development of individual independent projects in aesthetics. In supervisions, students will be encouraged to develop the structural practices of the previous term (the use of a particular mode of aesthetic thought to critique a particular discourse of creative practice) in independent ways. This might involve the exploration of a thinker not previously considered within aesthetics modules at either Level 2 or Level 3 or the exploration of a music (or musics) previously under-examined, using one of the models discussed. A student who is also taking composition might find it useful to use such a project as a way of reflecting upon his or her own artistic practice, in the light of current aesthetic theory.
Teaching methods
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
| Seminar | 11 | 2.00 | 22.00 |
| Tutorial | 3 | 0.50 | 1.50 |
| Private study hours | 376.50 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 23.50 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 400.00 | ||
Private study
Preparation for class seminars – 66 hoursResearch and essay writing – 295.5 hours
Preparation for tutorials - 15 hours
Opportunities for Formative Feedback
- Through student-tutor interaction and group discussions during workshop sessions in semester 1- Students’ progress will be monitored at the end of semester 1 through their performance in the 5-6000 word essay
- Through one-to-one tutorials in semester 2
Methods of assessment
Coursework
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
| Essay | At the end of semester 1 students will be required to submit a 5,000-6,000 word essay relating one of the aesthetic theories studied during the course to the creative practice of a particular composer, musical artist or group. This can be one of those studied during the course or can, with the agreement of the module coordinator, be one of the student's own choice. | 40.00 |
| Project | 5,000-6,000 word self-guided project | 60.00 |
| 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 websiteLast updated: 06/05/2016
Browse Other Catalogues
- Undergraduate module catalogue
- Taught Postgraduate module catalogue
- Undergraduate programme catalogue
- Taught Postgraduate programme catalogue
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