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2008/09 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

MUSI3521 Aesthetics and Criticism: Theorising Modernism

20 creditsClass Size: 20

Module manager: Dr Michael Spencer
Email: m.spencer@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable

Year running 2008/09

Pre-requisites

MUSI2520Aesthetics and Criticism (from Plato to Nietzsche)

This module is not approved as an Elective

Objectives

On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
- demonstrate an understanding of the Modernist aesthetic, its socio-cultural context(s) and relationship to Romanticism and to Enlightenment thought;
- demonstrate an understanding of, and be able to use correctly, a number of key concepts in Modernist discourse (such as history, progress, avant-garde, experimentalist);
- summarise and critique important issues in the required reading, understood within the broader context of musical Modernism and critiques of Modernism;
- recognise how a range of Modernist composers have used theory and criticism to support their compositional decisions;
- demonstrate an awareness of musicological arguments which understand the relationship between music theory, analysis, and composition to be ideological;
- demonstrate an awareness of recent critiques of Modernist discourse which argue that it is elitist/gendered/colonialist.

Syllabus

The aims and objectives of the module are to explore the implications of aesthetic, critical and analytical strategies of musical Modernism against the background of its original socio-cultural context. A range of twentieth-century texts by composers, critics and musicologists will be studied, representing influential contributions to the development of critical and theoretical ideas about musical Modernism in the West. New and overtly challenging approaches will be introduced, extending participants' understanding of relevant issues via the shared reading of a series of influential and/or significant texts, both critical and theoretical, which are discussed in class.

Teaching methods

Delivery typeNumberLength hoursStudent hours
Seminar112.0022.00
Private study hours178.00
Total Contact hours22.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)200.00

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

This module includes 'dry-run' presentations after which the students receive feedback from both the tutor and their peers. Individual tutorials on student essays are also made available.

Methods of assessment


Coursework
Assessment typeNotes% of formal assessment
PresentationSmall group presentation of 20-25 mins plus facilitation of discussion25.00
Essay3,500 words. This component must receive a minimum mark of 40 in order to pass the module.75.00
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: 11/09/2009

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