Course Syllabus

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Composition

Music 150 - Winter 2024
University of California, Irvine 

 

Tuesday and Thursday, 11:00-12:20
Arts Instruction Technology Resource Center, Room 190

Professor Christopher Dobrian
dobrian@uci.edu

 

Syllabus

Description

This course presents selected techniques of contemporary composition, relevant both to instrumental and digital presentation formats. Students will explore new compositional ideas and techniques through hands-on experience, will hear their own études played by fellow student performers, and will learn to produce recordings of their compositions.

Satisfies an upper-division theory requirement for Music majors.
Prerequisite: Music 16C or consent of instructor.
Music 150 is a prerequisite for Music 157 Harmony for Composers, which will be offered in spring quarter 2024.

Topics

Perception, Cognition, and Aesthetics

  • Composition and organization
  • Perceptual grouping and streaming (multiplicity and unity)
  • Tonality, harmonic progression, and relative consonance/dissonance
  • Cross-domain mapping and metaphor
  • Abstraction
  • Stasis and kinesis; gestural characteristics of sound and music
  • Symmetry in space, time, and music
  • Time and rhythm
  • Motive: establishment and development
  • Modernism
  • Exoticism and cultural appropriation
  • Postmodernism

Styles and Techniques

  • Modal composition
  • Quartal harmony
  • Secondal harmony (clusters)
  • Atonality (dodecaphony, serialism)
  • Indeterminacy (composition, performance)
  • Graphic notation
  • Micropolyphony, stochasticism
  • Synthetic scales
  • Isorhythm
  • Metric modulation
  • Phase music
  • Minimalism
  • Meditative music
  • Algorithmic composition

Technologies

  • Music Notation
  • Audio Recording
  • Audio Editing
  • MIDI realization
  • Quantization and synchronization
  • Digital sound synthesis
  • Mixing and "orchestration" of digital audio
  • Mastering and rendering of finished recordings

Requirements

An attendance record of 90% or better is required to pass the class.

Each student must complete several short composition exercises for solo instrument or small chamber group, as assigned, based on the readings, listenings, and score analyses.

Each student will compose one movement-length piece for mixed ensemble and/or electronic sounds, to be rehearsed and recorded by oneself and/or other members of the class, and presented  in the final "exam" meeting.

Students must participate in class discussions and critiques, and must practice and perform each other's compositions as needed.

Students will be assigned specific readings, listenings, and score study of selected exemplary works, and may be asked to present brief prose summaries of the essential ideas in those works.

Grading

Students will be graded on their assigned written and recorded work, their performance of assigned compositions by fellow students, and their class participation.

Grading in a composition class is necessarily subjective to some degree, as there are often various "right" and "wrong" ways of doing things, and evaluation of creative work is complex. Every effort will be made to grade in a manner that is fair and consistent. Mere completion of the required work is considered the minimum requirement; students will be graded not only on the "correctness" of the work, but also on the originality and creativity they add to the minimal requirements.

To receive full credit, students must hand assignments in at the scheduled due time. If a student is unable to complete the assignment on time for a legitimate reason (e.g., illness), they must provide written documentation of the reason (e.g., a doctor's statement) in order to receive full credit for the late assignment. Late assignments will normally be accepted in the subsequent class session for a reduced grade. Assignments handed in later than that will not be given credit.

There is no specific percentage or weighting of importance predetermined for each assignment. Each of the above-listed requirements is a factor in the final grade.

Exam

The scheduled final exam time is Tuesday March 19, 10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Final performances/recordings of student compositions will be presented at that time. Attendance is mandatory. There is no possibility of a "make-up" exam at a later time.

Guest Speakers

There will be five guest presentation by composers throughout the quarter:
Lei Liang, Tuesday January 16
Rajna Swaminathan, Thursday February 8
Mari Kimura, Tuesday February 13
Eric Lindsay, Thursday February 22
Michael Dessen, Tuesday March 5

Academic Integrity

Plagiarism of any kind is a violation of UCI policy on Academic Integrity, and penalties for cheating or plagiarism can be severe. In this class you will be expected to attribute due credit to the originator of any ideas, music, or other work which you incorporate substantially into your own assignments. While supportive co-education between colleagues and collabrative performances/recordings are encouraged, the assigned composing work must be accomplished individually; students are responsible for producing their own original creative response to the assignments.

Disability

If you have a disability that inhibits you from performing any of the stated requirements of this course, as approved and documented by the UCI Disability Services Center, please ensure that the professor is thoroughly aware of the matter as early in the term as possible.

Other campus information

The UCI Policies on Student Conduct are available in their entirety online.
The UCI Counseling Center provides various types of counseling and mental health services.
 

Assignments
Resources

This page was last modified December 30, 2023.
Christopher Dobrian, dobrian@uci.edu

Course Summary:

Course Summary
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