Musicology Principal Study

Unit outlines will be available through Find a unit outline two weeks before the first day of teaching for 1000-level and 5000-level units, or one week before the first day of teaching for all other units.
 

Musicology major

1. Students undertaking the BMusic (Musicology major) must complete 48 credit points of Musicology units comprising of:
(a) 6 credit points of core units;
(b) 6 credit points of electives;
(c) 18 credit points of 2000 level units*
(d) 18 credit points of 3000 level units*
*A minimum of 6 credit points must be achieved from Historical Studies, Ethnographical Studies and Analytical Studies.
2. Students undertaking BMusic (Music Education) in Musicology must complete 24 credit points of Musicology units comprising of:
(a) 12 credit points of core units;
(b) 6 credit points of Historical Studies;
(c) 6 credit points of Ethnographical Studies.

Core units

MCGY1019 Musicology Workshop 1

Credit points: 3 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Alan Maddox Session: Semester 1,Semester 2 Classes: 1 x 2hr seminar/fortnight, including attendance at Musicology Colloquium Series. Assessment: Semester research project (40%), reflective journal (40%), participation and short tasks (20%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Musicology Workshop provides a forum for discussion of musicological work, and the opportunity to gain a broad perspective on the discipline. Many Musicology Workshop activities are built around the Conservatorium's fortnightly Musicology Colloquium Series lectures, presented by SCM staff and visiting national and international scholars speaking on a wide range of topics. Other class activities explore areas such as research and writing skills, music criticism, controversies in recent music literature, visits to local libraries or archives, and conference attendance and reporting. Students are expected occasionally to attend other musicological activities such as the Conservatorium's Alfred Hook lecture series. During classes students also have the opportunity to present and gain feedback on their own research topics.
Textbooks
Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. Edited by Wayne C. Booth et. al. 9th edition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2018.
MCGY1020 Musicology Workshop 2

Credit points: 3 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Alan Maddox Session: Semester 1,Semester 2 Classes: 1 x 2hr seminar per fortnight, including attendance at Musicology Colloquium Series Prerequisites: MCGY1019 Assessment: Semester research project (40%), reflective journal (40%), participation and short tasks (20%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Musicology Workshop provides a forum for discussion of musicological work, and the opportunity to gain a broad perspective on the discipline. Many Musicology Workshop activities are built around the Conservatorium's fortnightly Musicology Colloquium Series lectures, presented by SCM staff and visiting national and international scholars speaking on a wide range of topics. Other class activities explore areas such as research and writing skills, music criticism, controversies in recent music literature, visits to local libraries or archives, and conference attendance and reporting. Students are expected occasionally to attend other musicological activities such as the Conservatorium's Alfred Hook lecture series. During classes students also have the opportunity to present and gain feedback on their own research topics.
Textbooks
Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. Edited by Wayne C. Booth et. al. 9th edition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2018.
MCGY2612 Music in the Classical and Romantic Eras

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr David Larkin Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1 x 2hr lecture/week, 1 x 1hr tutorial/week Assumed knowledge: The ability to read musical notation and basic knowledge of music theory Assessment: Essay (30%); Tutorial assignments and participation (30%); In-class tests (10%); 1 x 2hr exam (30%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Note: This is a Foundation unit in Analysis, History and Culture studies.
This unit will survey the main lines of musical development between 1750 and 1890, with primary focus on the composition of music, and how this relates to the social and aesthetic currents of the time. The overview given in the lecture series will be reinforced by detailed focus on individual works in the tutorials from both historical and analytical perspectives. Topics will include the emergence and codification of classical form and syntax; style and genre in the works of the first Viennese School; Beethoven's 'heroic' and 'late' styles; national opera traditions; symphonic poem and music drama; nationalism and exoticism; and the conflict between progress and tradition.
Textbooks
J.P. Burkholder; D.J. Grout; C.V. Palisca: A History of Western Music. 9th ed. (2014).

Electives

MCGY1031 Australian Musical Worlds

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Rachel Campbell Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1 x 2hr lecture/week, 1 x 1hr tutorial/week Assessment: 1 x 2hr lecture/week, 1 x 1hr tutorial/week Assessment: 1 x 2000wd essay (40%), 1 x tutorial report (20%), 1 x listening test (20%), tutorial preparation and participation (20%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Embracing popular music, Indigenous music, classical music, and the music of multicultural communities in Australia, this unit offers an introduction not only to diverse musical traditions, but also to themes prevalent in the work of contemporary music scholars. These include gender and identity, ownership and appropriation, reception and transmission, colonialism and Empire, globalisation, modernity, representation, and music and place.
MCGY2601 Perception of Music Performance

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Assoc. Professor Helen Mitchell Session: Semester 2 Classes: 2hr Seminar per week Assessment: Class participation in performances and discussions (10%); Poster presentation (30%); Development of a pilot study topic (20%); Written report (40% Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Listening to music performance is an everyday occurrence, yet expert listeners possess tacit knowledge about performers' sound and little is known about how they process sensory information from a performer to conceptualise, recognise and verbalise the sound they hear. This unit of study will focus on recent empirical research studies and examine the ways in which we listen to music performers by sound and sight, how we assess music performance, and how we describe the sounds we hear.
MCGY2611 Music from the Middle Ages to Baroque

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Alan Maddox Session: Semester 2 Classes: One 2hr lecture/1hr tutorial/week Assumed knowledge: Ability to read musical notation Assessment: Tutorial preparation and participation (20%), essay (40%), exam (40%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit explores major topics in the history of Western art music from the 9th century to c. 1750 in a broad historical context. Beginning with Gregorian chant and the invention of music education notation, we investigate a wide range of genres and styles of the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque eras, as well as innovations including the development of music printing, developments in musical instruments, and the emergence of opera, sonata and concerto. Musical works for analysis and discussion include examples by Hildegard of Bingen, Machaut, Dufay, Josquin, Palestrina, Gesualdo, Monteverdi, Frescobaldi, Corelli, Lully, Purcell, Vivaldi, Handel and J.S. Bach.
Textbooks
J. P. Burkholder, D. J. Grout and C. V. Palisca. A History of Western Music, 10th ed. (2019)
MCGY2612 Music in the Classical and Romantic Eras

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr David Larkin Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1 x 2hr lecture/week, 1 x 1hr tutorial/week Assumed knowledge: The ability to read musical notation and basic knowledge of music theory Assessment: Essay (30%); Tutorial assignments and participation (30%); In-class tests (10%); 1 x 2hr exam (30%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Note: This is a Foundation unit in Analysis, History and Culture studies.
This unit will survey the main lines of musical development between 1750 and 1890, with primary focus on the composition of music, and how this relates to the social and aesthetic currents of the time. The overview given in the lecture series will be reinforced by detailed focus on individual works in the tutorials from both historical and analytical perspectives. Topics will include the emergence and codification of classical form and syntax; style and genre in the works of the first Viennese School; Beethoven's 'heroic' and 'late' styles; national opera traditions; symphonic poem and music drama; nationalism and exoticism; and the conflict between progress and tradition.
Textbooks
J.P. Burkholder; D.J. Grout; C.V. Palisca: A History of Western Music. 9th ed. (2014).
MCGY2613 Music in Modern Times

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Rachel Campbell Session: Semester 1 Classes: 2hr lecture and 1hr tut/week Assumed knowledge: Ability to read musical notation Assessment: essay (35%), in-class test (20%), tutorial preparation (10%), exam (35%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Note: This is a Foundation unit in Analysis, history and culture studies.
Traces the essential developments in Western art music from the very end of the 19th century to the start of the 21st, and relates them to broad socio-historical and artistic changes. The overview given in the lectures is reinforced by the analysis of key works in tutorials. Areas covered include Late Romanticism, Impressionism, Expressionism, Free Atonality, Rhythmic Innovation, Neo-classicism, Serial Music, Political Music, American Experimentalism, Electro-Acoustic Music, Chance composition, Textural Composition, Minimalism, influences from Popular Music, Collage and Polystylism, East-West Encounters, Neo-Romanticism, Post Modernism and Spectralism. Works analysed include compositions by Andriessen, Bartok, Cage, Debussy, Ligeti, Messiaen, Part, Schoenberg, Strauss, Stravinsky, Stockhausen and Webern.
Textbooks
Auner, J. Music in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries, New York: Norton 2013
MCGY2615 The Ultimate Art: 400 Years of Opera

This unit of study is not available in 2022

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Alan Maddox, A/Prof Michael Halliwell Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1 x 1hr lecture/week, 1 x 2hr seminar/week Prerequisites: MCGY2611 or MCGY2612 or MCGY2613 or MUSC1506 Assessment: Essay (40%), Module tasks (30%), Listening tests (30%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Since its beginnings around 1600, no genre of Western art music has been more innovative or influential than opera. It has inspired devotion and disdain, and led to innumerable theoretical debates. In this unit, 400 years of changing operatic practices will be explored through a series of seminal works. These will be treated as documents of specific historical circumstances (including contemporaneous singing and staging practices), and as aesthetic objects which have been reinvented continuously down to the present.
MCGY3630 New Germans: Wagner and Liszt 1848-76

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr David Larkin Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1 x 1hr lecture/week, 1 x 2hr seminar/week Prerequisites: MCGY2612 Assumed knowledge: It is expected that students will have some knowledge of harmonic and formal practices up to 1850 Assessment: 1 x research essay (50%); 2 x in-class tests (20%); 1 x in-class presentation (20%); Seminar participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
The New German School was a controversial term coined in 1859 to legitimise the self-consciously progressive art of figures such as Wagner and Liszt. This course explores the music and aesthetic theories of these two composers against the backdrop of contemporary debates and reception politics. Their personal relationship will also be scrutinized in detail. Works to be studied include selections from Liszt's symphonic poems and piano works, Wagner's Tristan, Die Meistersinger and Ring tetralogy.
MUSC1507 Sounds, Screens, Speakers: Music and Media

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: A/Prof Charles Fairchild Session: Semester 1 Classes: 2hr lecture and 1 tut/wk Assessment: Article summary, 1000 words (25%); Media analysis of 1000 words (20%); Tutorial tests (15%); Final Project, 2,000 words(30%), overall participation (10%). Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Music has been dramatically shaped and reshaped by every major change in communications technology in the 20th century from vinyl discs to spotify. In this unit of study we will analyse such issues as the ways in which the early recording industry transformed jazz, the blues and country music, how the presentation of music on radio and television changed the ways the music industry created new musical celebrities, and the challenges the music industry faces as digital technology transforms the creation, distribution and consumption of music.
MUSC2638 Jazz Riots and Revolutions

This unit of study is not available in 2022

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Christopher Coady Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1 x 1hr lecture per week; 1 x 1hr tutorial per week Assessment: Tutorial Participation/Demonstrated Knowledge of Required Reading (20%); Annotated Bibliography (30%); Research Essay Introduction (20%); Research Essay Body (30%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This course examines the powerful link between jazz and moments of social revolution in the United States. It illuminates the central role jazz musicians like Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus and Max Roach played in changing hearts, minds and social structures during four distinct historic periods: the Harlem Renaissance, the post-War 1940s, the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and the Black Nationalist movement of the 1960s. Its central focus is on how music can both ride and resist the political energies that charge particular historic moments.
MUSC2645 Psychology of Music

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Associate Professor Helen Mitchell Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1 x 1hr lecture/week, 1 x 1hr tutorial/week Assessment: Readings, Summaries and Class Discussion Participation (30%); Key Question Identification and Project Design Poster Presentation (30%); Essay (40%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Psychology of Music examines music cognition and behaviour to explore the way music is created, produced and perceived. This unit will introduce recent interdisciplinary research as a way to explore music as a social activity. It will consider the methods used by sociologists and psychologists to investigate music and encourage students to think conceptually about their own musical activities.
MUSC2663 Survey of Film Music

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Phillip Johnston Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1 x 2 hour lecture/week and 1 x 1 hour tutorial/week Assessment: Licensed music assignment 1,000 words + 3 minutes of audio (35%), final paper 2,000 words (50%), participation (15%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit is an introductory survey of the history and aesthetics of film music from the late 1890s to the present day. Topics for discussion will include the dramatic function of music as an element of cinematic narrative, the codification of musical iconography in cinematic genres, the symbolic use of pre-existing music, and the evolving musical styles of film composers.
MUSC2672 Australian Popular Music

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Toby Martin Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1 hr lecture + 1 hr tut/week Assessment: Tutorial participation and presentations 25%. Essay 25%. Final research project 50%. Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
The history of Australian popular music presents us with a long and complex heritage. It reflects, in its very constitution, the lives of those who create it and is underscored by the dynamic relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia. This unit of study will explore the continuing experience and influence of a wide range of music made in Australia, from songlines to bush ballads and dance anthems, Countdown and Rage. We will examine hillbilly music of the 1930s, surf rock of the 60s, pub rock of the 70s, reggae, punk and indie rock of the 80s and 90s as well as the emergence of Australian dance music, hip hop and the multiplicity of styles and expressions that mark the contemporary music scene.
MUSC3630 Popular Music and the Moving Image

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: A/Prof Charles Fairchild Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1 x 2hr seminar/week Assessment: 1 x 1000wd musical analysis (20%), 1 x 1000wd industrial critique (20%), 1 x listening and viewing test (20%), 1 x 3000wd final project (30%), overall participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
The range of media channels through which we experience, popular music has prolifereated in recent years. The emotive power of music is used to tell stories, sell products and connect people to one another. This unit will analyse the use of popular music in a broad range of multimedia forms from film and television to video games and the use of digital media to disseminate a multitude of musical multimedia productions.
MUSC3631 Music in Public: Performance and Power

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: A/Prof Charles Fairchild Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1 x 2hr seminar/week Assessment: 2 x 500 wd performance reports (15%), 1 x 1500wd performance genre analysis (25%), 1 x 1000wd performance analysis (20%), 1 x 3000wd essay (30%), overall seminar participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
The act of performing music creates a multitude of social relationships between listeners, audiences, musicians, performers, and the industries and institutions that surround them. This subject will ask students to study acts of performance historically, theoretically, and observationally. They will examine a wide range of situations and circumstances and try to work out how the expression of music is also an expression, affirmation, and contestation of social power. This subject will appeal to those who wish to study subjects such as music, performance studies, sociology, anthropology, and gender and cultural studies. It cuts across all of these areas of inquiry in the attention that is paid to the complexity and subtlety of how music is perceived and experienced across multiple social scenes and communities. This subject is not about performance practice or assessment. Instead, it seeks to allow students to gain some insight into the experience of performance as multifaceted and perspectival.
MUSC3639 Music Journalism

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr James Wierzbicki Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1 hr lecture, 1 hr tut/week. Assessment: Exercises in music journalism and reviewing 4,000 words (50%), final paper 2,000 words (30%), participation (20%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Even as the 'Age of Newspapers' seems to be coming to an end, human beings' need for authoritative commentary on music remains as strong as ever. Along with surveying the history of music journalism from the early eighteenth century up to the present day, this unit of study offers participants the chance to try their hands at various forms of music journalism.

Historical Studies

MCGY2621 Exploring Ethnomusicology

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Catherine Ingram Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1 x 2hour seminar/week Prerequisites: MCGY1030 Assessment: Critical review of an ethnographic monograph in ethnomusicology (20%), class participation (30%), major essay or video essay (scaffolded approach) (50%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Note: This is a compulsory unit for the minor in ethnomusicology. If prerequisite not met, you may apply for special permission.
Ethnomusicology refers to the study of all musical genres worldwide within their respective social and cultural contexts, and is sometimes also known as the anthropology of music or cultural musicology. This unit introduces and explores some of the most important ideas that have informed the thinking of researchers working in this field - such as the connections between music and gender, social structures, forms of capital, politics, identity, health and the environment. The course also interrogates notions of the nature and experience of music, why musical genres differ and why music has such important but diverse significance worldwide. The course includes several lectures given by expert practitioners from particular musical traditions (such as Indigenous Australian music and Korean drumming), and it directly complements courses on ethnomusicological fieldwork methods. It does not require prior formal musical training.
MCGY3604 J.S. Bach and his World

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Alan Maddox Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1 x 2hr seminar per week Assessment: Critical Reading Assignments (20%); Class Presentation (20%); Essay (50%); Seminar Preparation and Class Presentation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
More than 250 years after his death, J.S. Bach remains one of the most revered musicians in the Western tradition. What influences formed Bach's style? What makes his music embedded in its time and place, yet distinctive and instantly recognisable? This unit investigates the music of this iconic composer in its historical context, considering his training, cultural and religious environment, stylistic influences and ongoing legacy, and allows students to explore their own research interests relating to Bach's music.
MUSC3609 Musicology

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr James Wierzbicki Session: Semester 2 Classes: 2 hr seminar/wk Assessment: Written assessments (50%), weekly summaries of readings (30%), participation (20%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Note: This unit is a requirement for Honours in the Arts Music unit.
What do we study when we study music? What kinds of stories do we tell about the history of music? What are the central issues, questions, and concerns that drive the study of music? This unit of study begins to answer these questions and provides an overview of musicology as an academic discipline. The readings cover the field of musicology from its beginnings in the 1880s up to the present day.
MCGY3629 Romanticism and the Fantastic

This unit of study is not available in 2022

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr David Larkin Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1 x 2 hour seminar per week Assumed knowledge: It is expected that students will have some knowledge of harmonic and formal practices up to 1850. Assessment: Essay (40%); Critical/ analytical assignment (15%); Listening and score-based tests (20%); Presentation (15%); seminar participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit will explore the fantastic as a central aspect of romanticism in its various manifestations, including the uncanny, the daemonic and the alienated. In music, this meshes fruitfully with the fantasy as a genre, which is similarly dependent on the imagination and the evasion of clear boundaries. A range of Lieder, operas, symphonic and solo works by composers such as Schumann, Berlioz, Liszt, Mendelssohn and Schubert will be studied against the backdrop of literary and artistic innovations by Goethe, Hoffmann, Byron, and Friedrich. Theories of the fantastic by Todorov, Freud and others will also be examined.
MCGY3636 Mozart's World: Music in the Age of Reason

This unit of study is not available in 2022

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: Essay (2, 500-3, 000 words) (50%), Seminar presentation (30%), critical reading assignments (1, 000 words) (20%) Assumed knowledge: It is strongly recommended that students have completed MCGY2612, or have a sound knowledge of the Viennese Classical repertoire. Assessment: 1 x 1hr lecture and 1 x 2hr seminar per week Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Note: Dr Alan Maddox
Since the early 20th century, the period c.1750-1830 has been associated with the idea of Classicism in European music, but it was also a period of rapid development and transformation in both music and society. This unit offers an in-depth examination of the music of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and their contemporaries in this historical context, and provides an opportunity to explore topics that will deepen and extend students' understanding of this highly significant period. Students will explore important repertoire, become acquainted with scholarly and performance issues associated with the style by studying a selection of critical writings about the period, and choose one topic to research in depth.
MCGY3639 Modernism in Austria and Germany 1889-1914

This unit of study is not available in 2022

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr David Larkin Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1 x 2 hour seminar per week Prerequisites: MCGY2612 Assessment: Essay (40%); Critical/analytical assignments (15%); Listening and score-based tests (20%); In-class presentation (15%); Seminar participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Between 1889 and 1914, certain Austro-Germanic composers played a crucial role in the emerging modernist movement. Richard Strauss, Mahler and Schoenberg engaged with past musical traditions and contemporary trends in visual art, literature and philosophy to produce a distinctively new type of music. Works to be studied include Strauss's tone poems, Mahler's symphonies and Schoenberg's chamber music, as well as Lieder and stage works. Among the issues which will be explored are the way in which traditional formal structures were invoked and destabilised, the changes the musical language underwent and how music was conceptualized in this era of change and crisis.

Ethnographical Studies

MCGY3602 Understanding East Asian Music

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Catherine Ingram Session: Semester 2 Classes: 2hr Seminar per week Assessment: Academic blog based on class activity (15%); In-class presentation (15%); Academic blog based on set reading (10%); Major essay (60%) M Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Students will learn about, discuss and play different musical forms from East Asia - ranging from ancient guqin music to contemporary K-Pop. They will develop an understanding of key aesthetic concepts, musical instruments and musical features of the music cultures in this region. Students will be encouraged to develop awareness of the diversity of East Asian musics and cultures, and of music's interrelation with and great significance to East Asian societies both in the past and today.
MUSC3610 Musical Traditions and Globalization

This unit of study is not available in 2022

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1 x 2 hour seminar per week Assessment: Academic Blog - Musical Tradition (20%); In-class Presentation (15%); Academic Blog - Musical Piece (15%); Major Essay (50%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Every musical form worldwide exists within a tradition, and globalization has been crucial in shaping those traditions in the contemporary era. This course explores different ways that musical traditions and globalization intersect. It introduces key theoretical approaches to both globalization (including postcolonial perspectives) and the concept of musical tradition, and explores case studies including social media and music in the Pacific Islands, East African hip-hop, understanding globalization's influence on indigenous Australian musical traditions and historically informed Western art music performance.
MUSC3629 Music and Everyday Life

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: A/Prof Charles Fairchild Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1 x 2hr lecture/week Assessment: 1 x 3000wd fieldwork project paper (40%), 1 x 1000wd description of a musical event (20%), 2 x 1000wd critical response papers (30%), overall class participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Note: This unit is a requirement for Honours in the BA.
What can we learn from non-textual approaches to understanding music? The primary goal of this unit of study is to study music not as a composer, producer, performer, listener or audience member, but as an ethnographer. That is, analysing music through an observational, experiential and intellectual understanding of how people make and take meaning from music.
MUSC3640 Rhythms and Sounds of Latin America

This unit of study is not available in 2022

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Daniel Rojas Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x 2 hr lecture per week, 1 hr tutorial per week Assessment: Essay 2,500 words or creative composition/sound project with reflective statement (50%), 2 listening assessments (20%), Exam (30%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Note: Musical knowledge may be helpful but not necessary
Latin American music has become a powerful force in today's music industry, but its rich diversity and cultural contexts are not always known or acknowledged. This unique unit of study surveys a number of Latin American popular, folk and indigenous musical traditions in terms of their cultural milieu and historical development. These include Afro-Cuban traditions, samba, salsa, tango and Andean music. Various musical, historical and cultural concerns are examined alongside a practical and creative involvement with the compositional characteristics and the repertoire pertinent to these traditions.

Analytical Studies

CMPN4666 Advanced Analysis

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Gerard Brophy Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1 x 2 hr seminar/lecture per week Assessment: Class presentation (1000 words) (15%), Composition analysis (20%), Weekly readings reports (15%), Research Project (50%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit is designed to equip students with a working knowledge of current music theory and analysis practice, impart analytical skills that can be applied across a broad spectrum of activities and different musical genres and types, and develop an understanding of related concepts such as what analysis actually is, different types of analysis (functional, descriptive, surface, aural/perceptual vs. score based) and an understanding of working at different levels of abstraction.
JAZZ3618 Jazz Musicology and Analysis

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Christopher Coady Session: Semester 1 Classes: One 2 hr seminar per week Prerequisites: JAZZ2017 or JAZZ2624 Assessment: Participation (20%); Essay (50%), Seminar Presentation (30%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Note: This is a Foundation unit in Analysis, History and Culture studies.
This unit aims to provide students with an historic overview of the development of the field of jazz studies and the emergence of key musicological paradigms that continue to frame contemporary jazz scholarship. In turn, it will introduce students to the most prevalent analytical approaches used to study jazz works and help them make sense of these approaches in relation to the aims of different jazz researchers. By the end of the unit, students will be able to frame new research questions about particular jazz phenomenon in relation to strains of existing musicological discourse and answer these questions using appropriate analytical tools.
MCGY3638 Harmony as Counterpoint

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Lewis Cornwell Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1 x 2hr seminar/week Assessment: 1 x 30min presentation (60%), 1 x composition and 15min performance (40%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Composition and basso continuo manuals from the 17th and 18th centuries often describe music as the movement of parts, rather than progressions of chords. This approach focuses on voice leading primarily and harmony as its consequence, contrary to the theory of Rameau. Students will study different styles through the examination of relevant contemporary sources and put that knowledge into practice by emulating those styles in composition and performance. Offering a deep understanding of how Baroque and Classical composers conceived their music, this unit is intended to challenge the way that students listen to and play works within and outside of the canon.