2017/18 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

MUSS2721 Music in Context A

20 creditsClass Size: 80

Module manager: Dr Marian Jago
Email: m.s.jago@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable

Year running 2017/18

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 2 :The Tools of Music-Making: How do musical instruments or technologies influence musical practice? Can particular musical instrument or technology influence the way that music is composed, performed, or listened to? How have new musical instruments or technological developments changed the course of music history? Conversely, how do musicians shape the development of musical instruments or technologies? Can the innovative ways a composer or performer uses a particular instrument have an impact on how that instrument is developed subsequently? How do composers, performers, and listeners influence the way musical instruments and technologies are designed? How do non-musicians—such as crafts-people, engineers or software developers—influence musical practice through the instruments and technologies that they design? Are musicians just uncritical ‘consumers’ of ready-made instrumental and technological ‘products’, or are they actively involved in defining those instruments and technologies? Do musicians really control the kind of music that gets made, or is this determined by the instruments and technologies available? What came first: the music, or the technology to produce it? These are the kinds of questions that we’ll consider in ‘The Tools of Music-Making’. Case studies of electronic instruments, and sound recording technologies, as well as acoustic instruments, will be used to help you understand the reciprocal relationships between technology (including ‘conventional’ instruments) and musical practice. We’ll discuss key theories and concepts that can help us to make sense of these relationships. For the assessment, you’ll do a case study of an instrument or technology of your own choice, in which you assess that instrument or technology’s impact upon musical practice, and/or investigate how that instrument or technology was developed. The module will help you to understand the relationships between music and the tools that are used to create it.

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, and essay-writing skills;
- develop an awareness of contextual approaches applicable to a broad range of repertoire.

Learning outcomes
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, and essay-writing 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. Plenary lectures and associated seminars will support students in developing their skills in the literature review and essay writing. At least one class will be given over to individual tutorials.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Lectures	3	1.00	3.00
Lecture	7	2.00	14.00
Seminar	2	1.00	1.00
Tutorial	1	0.25	0.25
Private study hours			181.75
Total Contact hours			18.25
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			200.00

Private study

4 hours evaluation of notes per topic lecture: 28 hours;
6 hours reading and listening per topic lecture or seminar: 54 hours;
Essay writing: 74 hours;
Plenary lectures and Seminar preparation: 26 hours.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

- Contribution to round table discussion in seminars, and feedback.
- Tutorials.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	4800-5200 words (this element must be passed)	75.00
Literature Review	800-1000 words	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: 17/08/2017

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