Composition (distance learning) MMus

The Practical Composition modules (1 and 2) aim to consolidate and develop advanced compositional techniques, facilitating the learning of skills required of the contemporary professional composer. Alongside an exploration of contemporary compositional ideas, a variety of 20th and 21st-century aesthetics, and sophisticated techniques, you will consider and analyse a number of case studies within which conceptual ideas and compositional practices mutually reflect and support one another; an aspect that will support your practice-as-research investigations.

You will be taught through one-to-one tutorials, seminars and workshops. The one-to-one sessions will give you the opportunity to develop your own portfolio and discuss your compositional work, techniques and ideas with one of our experts, who will support and encourage your artistic and pragmatic thinking.

You will work towards the submission of a portfolio of diverse compositional exercises that fulfil the requirements of the appropriate syllabus.

The Practical Composition modules (1 and 2) aim to consolidate and develop advanced compositional techniques, facilitating the learning of skills required of the contemporary professional composer. Alongside an exploration of contemporary compositional ideas, a variety of 20th and 21st-century aesthetics, and sophisticated techniques, you will consider and analyse a number of case studies within which conceptual ideas and compositional practices mutually reflect and support one another; an aspect that will support your practice-as-research investigations.

You will be taught through tutorials, seminars and workshops. The one-to-one sessions will give you the opportunity not only to develop your own portfolio but also to discuss your compositional work, techniques and ideas with one of our experts, who will support and encourage your artistic and pragmatic thinking.

Differently from Practical Composition 1, Practical Composition 2 will allow you to consider your final portfolio in relation to your future career, encouraging you to reflect on the possible industry routes and networking opportunities that better suit the artistic and practical nature of your compositional work.

Building upon your prior knowledge and experience of writing for orchestral instruments, this module will give you the opportunity to both further develop your orchestration and arranging skills and give you an insight into the process(es) of orchestrating according to Midi tracks and handwritten sketches.

This will allow you not only to exercise and enhance your technical abilities as an orchestrator but will also give you an insight into the technicalities of the profession; a profession in which you might be commissioned to orchestrate from handwritten or Midi sketches.

At the same time, this module will enable you to explore a variety of styles, giving you the opportunity to create pastiche works that match the aesthetics, techniques and procedures of established composers/orchestrators.

This module is designed to provide you with music programming skills in audio, MIDI recording and editing, and to lead to the electronic delivery of two contrasting assignments suitable for broadcast in the professional environment.

The academic written element underpins this work by providing students with the necessary literature surrounding musical programming in current work settings.

You will study the conventions and responsibilities of professional practice in your area of specialism including briefs, deadlines, layout, presentation, conducting, rehearsal and recording or performance. This module will give technical support to your work in original composition. It will provide key skills essential to the professional composer working in today’s music industry.

As part of this module, you will consider, discuss, and put into practice a number of pragmatic aspects related to the production of music within a studio environment/situation. This will include the production of professionally generated scores and parts, liaising with collaborators, conducting your own work for recording, and presenting your own ideas to the musicians and collaborators involved in studio work.

This module will enable you to gain the professional knowledge and skills needed by the contemporary composer/orchestrator within the current industry, allowing you to develop a concrete insight into the dynamics of studio production.

The purpose of this module is to train you in research methods and critical methodology as preparation for undertaking research and is designed to support and advance the project work produced during the rest of your study through a developed investigation of research methods.

You will define, articulate and critically reflect upon the research concerns of your own practice during this unit, thereby underpinning and enhancing your knowledge and understanding of the chosen field of study, as well as developing your ability to communicate this in a variety of ways. This will enable you to develop your writing and analytical skills.

This module will feature some composition-specific sessions dedicated to MMus Composition and MMus Composition for Film and TV students. Such dedicated sessions will concentrate on the interplay between creative practice and academic research, allowing a sophisticated exploration of practice-as-research – and more specifically of composition-as-research – as a paramount mode of practice that juxtaposes and combines creative and scholarly thinking.

This module aims to strengthen students’ practical and musical thinking through scholarly research and critical reflection. It provides the opportunity for students to deal with and convey complex ideas in systematic and independent ways, by encouraging them to formulate and propose new concepts and practices that can directly relate to their own compositional work.

Ultimately, the module invites students to consider the notion of composition-as-research, a paramount mode of practice that juxtaposes and combines creative and scholarly thinking.

The module will be delivered through a mixture of live online classes (group tuitions and one-to-one supervisions), pre-recorded video lessons, and written ancillary reading to be explored in own time, such as academic readings, insights, and practical exercises.