Composition and 20th Century Innovations
- Course Code
- MUSC 0160
- Course Type
- Tutorials
- Subject Credit
- Course Availability
Please note that this tutorial is usually available only to music majors and minors.
This course combines an introduction to twentieth and twenty-first century compositional techniques with the opportunity to work on a portfolio of compositions. You will be introduced to a number of techniques in music from the early 20th century to the present day. Compositional skills will be developed in the context of stylistic and historical study of key repertory from 20th- and 21st-century Western art music (from the avant-garde and experimentalist to the modernist and post-modernist traditions). You will look at a range of approaches and techniques, while set works will provide technical and aesthetic models to enable you to develop a wider vocabulary of compositional techniques. The contextual issues around contemporary composition will also be addressed. You will have the opportunity to create compositions for a range of instruments or voices - from solo to chamber and orchestra. This course will encourage personal creative development but also the ability to evaluate your own compositional process. Those who do not identify as composers should not be dissauded from taking this course – it will enable those interested in performance to gain a greater appreciation of the issues relating to the performance of contemporary music and will also be relevant to those interested in music analysis.