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The Go(u)ldberg Variations - MUS00070H

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  • Department: Music
  • Module co-ordinator: Dr. Daniel March
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: H
  • Academic year of delivery: 2023-24

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Semester 2 2023-24

Module aims

Bach's Goldberg Variations are intimately associated with Canadian pianist Glenn Gould, and in this project we are going to explore one in terms of the other (and vice versa). The approach in this project will be deliberately nonhistorical - you wont find any answers to questions about the work's genesis or the status of the manuscript - but definitely not ahistorical - in that we will be connected to a living tradition of responses both to Bach and to Gould's performances (performances that continue to resonate strongly some 40 years after his death). We will study Bach's music in some detail, and alongside this process we will make our own performing version of the work which will draw upon a number of Gould's own preoccupations in an attempt to re-illuminate Bach's composition: fugues and canons, the idea of North, music of the 2nd Viennese school, Sweelinck, hypochondria, on (not) performing Mozart, to name just a few. All this activity will be brought together in a performance at the end of the Semester, in which everyone in the project will take part, though please note that this is not a performance project - the assessment is through the compositional responses that we make, rather than the level to which our playing matches Glenn's!

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the taught part of the module you should:

  • Be very familiar with Bach's Goldberg Variations, have analysed it in some detail and have developed a deeper understanding of that work and by extension of the compositional language of the composer.
  • Have researched and explored the life and music-making of Glenn Gould, and related these tocurrent theories around the act of performance and cultural questions about the status of the performer.
  • Have developed compositional responses to pre-existing music, and placed that work within a context of such recompositions.
  • Have worked with other students in order to realise a larger-scale compositional output.

3rd years: On completion of the module, in your independent work, you should demonstrate Learning Outcomes C1-C6, C8-11

Assessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Essay : Folio of coursework		 N/A 40
Essay/coursework
Essay : Folio of coursework		 N/A 60

Special assessment rules

None

Additional assessment information

Assessment is through the presentation of a folio of compositional responses, with related compositional sketches. Two sketches, with one developed into a completed composition, are to be submitted during the semester (40% of the marks); this composition will be incorporated within the performance. Two further sketches and one further composition are submitted at the end of the semester (60% of the marks).

Reassessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Essay : Folio of coursework		 N/A 100

Module feedback

You will receive written feedback in line with standard University turnaround times.

Indicative reading

TBC


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University is constantly exploring ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary by the University. Where appropriate, the University will notify and consult with affected students in advance about any changes that are required in line with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.