Unit convenor and teaching staff |
Unit convenor and teaching staff
Tutor
Jamie Gabriel
Contact via jamie.gabriel@mq.edu.au
Unit Convenor
Julian Knowles
Contact via julian.knowles@mq.edu.au
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Credit points |
Credit points
3
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Prerequisites |
Prerequisites
15cp
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Corequisites |
Corequisites
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Co-badged status |
Co-badged status
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Unit description |
Unit description
This unit addresses various progressive/avant-guard sound explorations that arose in the twentieth century. Key figures and movements that have shaped the evolution of contemporary music will be examined. The unit also addresses contemporary approaches to musical hybridity and sound production as related to contemporary performance practice in a globalized environment. In particular, the unit will explore examples of creativity from the areas of progressive rock, world music, jazz and digital production.
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Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
Name | Weighting | Due |
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Mid-Semester Test | 20% | August 26 |
Concept Essay | 40% | October 14 |
Creative/Analysis Task | 40% | November 4 |
Due: August 26
Weighting: 20%
This test will be based around the unit content for weeks 1 - 5. The test will be given during the tutorial times in Week 5. Questions may relate to the readings, the lectures and/or the listening examples.
Grading Criteria:
1. Successfully identify key works in repertoire through listening
2. Capacity to successfully locate works in a historical context and field of genres
3. Capacity to analyse and describe musical works in an aural test context
Due: October 14
Weighting: 40%
Students will write an essay of 2000 words length based on a topic chosen from a list of options provided by the lecturer. The essay topics will draw on unit content and require students to explore concepts surrounding seminal moments in contemporary practice. The essay will require students to demonstrate their understanding for the way particular music practitioners stretched the boundaries of conventional music practice.
Grading Criteria:
1. Capacity to coherently and comprehensively deal with the chosen topic.
2. Capacity to locate appropriate sources used and correctly reference materials.
3. Capacity to synthesize information from a number of different sources.
4. Capacity to write coherently in appropriate academic style.
5. Demonstrate learning associated with the unit content.
Due: November 4
Weighting: 40%
There are two options for this assignment. The first is more creatively oriented while the second is more analytically oriented. Choose either Option 1 OR Option 2.
Option 1: Creative Task
Create a musical work that uses ideas examined in this unit. The work may be a song, instrumental composition or soundscape. The length of the musical work will depend on your individual project, but as a guideline will be between 3 and 4 minutes.
Option 1 Grading Criteria
1. Capacity to extract, via analysis, the essential stylistic elements of a model musical work
2. Capacity to develop a new work that deploys the stylistic elements in musically successful ways
3. Capacity to articulate a clear creative rationale for the work in written form.
4. Successful delivery of the final work to an online music streaming/download service.
Option 2: Analytical Task
Choose a musical work/event by a recognized musical artist and analyze the musical sounds within it. The analysis should begin with a detailed description of the sounds as well as the 'form' of the work. Thereafter, the analysis should explore the historical, technological, and/or social factors that influenced the creation of the work/event.
Option 2 Grading Criteria
1. Capacity to recognise, interpret and articulate the formal and structural aspects of a musical work.
2. Capacity to situate a work in a field of practice and discuss its significant and impact.
3. Capacithy to locate appropriate sources and correctly reference materials.
4. Capacity to synthesize information from a number of different sources.
5. Capacity to write coherently in appropriate academic style.
Delivery: Day
This unit will use: iLearn as a support to on-campus teaching.
There is one 1-hour lecture and one 1-hour tutorial per week. For current updates, lecture times and classrooms please also consult the MQ Timetables website: http://www.timetables.mq.edu.au.
Essential Readings
Bennett, A. and Peterson, R.A (eds.) (2004) Music Scenes: Local, Trans-Local and Virtual, Nashville, TN: Vanderbuilt University Press
Brend, M. (2012) The sound of tomorrow: how electronic music was smuggled into the mainstream, New York: Bloomsbury
Gendron, B. (2002) Between Montmartre and the Mudd Club: Popular Music and the Avant-Garde, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Gunderson, P. (2004). Danger Mouse's Grey Album, Mash-Ups, and the Age of Composition, Postmodern Culture, Issue 15, No.1
Hegarty, P. (2007) Noise/Music: A History, New York: Continuum International Publishing Group.
Kelly, C (2009) Cracked media: the sound of malfunction. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press
Knowles, J. (2008) Liminal Electronic Musics: Post-Punk Experimentation in Australia in the 1970s-80s, Sound: Space. Proceedings of the Australian Computer Music Conference 2008, pp.37-45
Masters, M. (2007) No Wave. London: Black Dog Publishing.
Moore T. and Coley, B. (2008) No Wave: Post-Punk and Underground. New York 1976-1980
Nobakht, D. (2005) Suicide: No Compromise. London: SAF Publishing,
Osborn, B. (2013) Subverting the Verse-Chorus Paradigm: Terminally Climactic Forms in Recent Rock Music, Music Theory Spectrum, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Spring), pp. 23-47
Sherburne, P. (2001) 12k:between two points, Organised Sound, Vol. 6/3, pp. 171-176
Szepanski, A (2001) A mille plateaux manifesto, Organised Sound, Vol. 6/3, pp. 225-228
Tamm, E. (1995) Brian Eno: His Music and the Vertical Colour of Sound, Boston: Da Capo Press.
Walser, R. (1997) Eruptions: Heavy Metal Appropriations of Classical Virtuosity, in Gelder, K (ed.) The Subcultures Reader, London: Routledge
Listening
A list of relevant musical works will also be provided and students should listen to these in preparation for each lecture/tutorial. These will be made available, wherever possible, as free Spotify streams. Some tracks will not be available on Spotify and may need to be purchased through iTunes or similar legal music service.
MUS 204: "Sound Explorations"
Exploring sounds through an examination of critical moments in 20th century popular music
Weekly Topics:
Traditions of musical experimentation and concepts of the avant-garde
Art into Pop: 60s psychedelic music and pop/art cross-overs
No Wave and post-punk experimentation
Ambient music and field recording
Plunderphonics, cut-up and mash-up
Post-rock and math rock – new instrumentalism
Post classical music
Playback media and turntablism
Minimalism – from repetition and drones, to minimal techno
Noise and lo-fi and tape
The extended guitar
Glitch and post digital
Cracked media – Markus Popp (Oval) guest lecture
Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central. Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:
Academic Honesty Policy http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/academic_honesty/policy.html
Assessment Policy http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/assessment/policy.html
Grading Policy http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/grading/policy.html
Grade Appeal Policy http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/gradeappeal/policy.html
Grievance Management Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/grievance_management/policy.html
Special Consideration Policy http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/special_consideration/policy.html
In addition, a number of other policies can be found in the Learning and Teaching Category of Policy Central.
Attendance is compulsory.
Examination(s)
There is a mid-term test in week 5, but no examination.
Assignment submission
All assignments must be submitted via Turnitin, NOT by email. Pay close attention to the submission requirements outline in the assessment description. URLs (web links) for recorded media works must be tested and confirmed to be working prior to asssignment submission.
Students must attach an Arts Faculty cover sheet to each assignment. Read, sign, and attach the declaration before submitting your work. Make sure to include the course number, your name and your student number.
Extensions
Extensions must be requested in advance directly from the lecturer and must be accompanied by evidence such as medical certification. Extensions may be requested using email and a copy of the lecturer's confirmation of the extension should be attached to the assignment.
Late penalties
Late assigments (where no extension has been granted) will be penalised at 5% per day or part thereof past the due date.
Macquarie University provides a range of Academic Student Support Services. Details of these services can be accessed at: http://students.mq.edu.au/support/
Students with a disability are encouraged to contact the Disability Service who can provide appropriate help with any issues that arise during their studies.
Details of these services can be accessed at http://www.student.mq.edu.au/ses/.
If you wish to receive IT help, we would be glad to assist you at http://informatics.mq.edu.au/help/.
When using the university's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students and it outlines what can be done.
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