2024/25 Taught Postgraduate Module Catalogue

MUS5344M Performance Practices

30 creditsClass Size: 40

Module manager: Simon Baines
Email: s.g.baines@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2024/25

This module is not approved as an Elective

Module summary

This module aims to develop your familiarity with existing research and recorded performance in the field of performance practices. Potential topics may range from improvisation in jazz and non-Western traditions to historically and culturally informed performance of Western art music from the Renaissance to the present. It introduces you to musicological issues that bear on your practical approach to concerts and recording, from areas like organology and aesthetics to studies of specific elements such as tuning and temperament, tempo, vibrato and portamento.

Objectives

You will engage with a range of performance practices examining them critically through scholarly texts and recordings. Staff-led seminars will present case studies exploring relevant practices and how they are exemplified in specific performances. You will choose a sub-set of areas for further research critically examining scholarly texts and recordings and writing about your findings.

Learning outcomes
On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following learning outcomes relevant to the subject:

1. Identify and articulate characteristic features of a variety of performance practices
2. Critically evaluate recordings and scholarly literature as they relate to specific performance practices
3. Synthesize evidence from written and aural/visual sources

Skills Learning Outcome<.b>
On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following skills learning outcomes:

4. Independently find and validate written and audio/visual sources
5. Communicate insights from research effectively in writing

Syllabus

Details of the syllabus will be provided on the Minerva organisation (or equivalent) for the module.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Seminars	8	1.50	12.00
Private study hours			288.00
Total Contact hours			12.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			300.00

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Students will receive feedback on their ideas in seminars. Students will write draft critical evaluations following seminars. Two are submitted for feedback in December, two more for feedback in March; an accumulated set of six are submitted as the Portfolio for summative assessment in May.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Assignment	Portfolio. 6x 600–700-word critical evaluations	100.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Students choose six topics from the seminar series on which they write critical evaluations engaging with relevant recordings and literature.

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 23/08/2024

Disclaimer

Browse Other Catalogues

• Undergraduate module catalogue
• Taught Postgraduate module catalogue
• Undergraduate programme catalogue
• Taught Postgraduate programme catalogue

Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team.PROD