- Department: Music
- Module co-ordinator: Prof. Martin Suckling
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: C
- Academic year of delivery: 2023-24
Exploration and creation of music for instrument(s) / voice(s) and live electronics. For composers, performers, programmers – and people who combine these roles!
Occurrence | Teaching period |
---|---|
A | Semester 2 2023-24 |
Live electronics, once something of a novelty requiring specialist hardware, is now within easy reach of non-specialists and their laptops; increasingly it is a standard feature of contemporary music events and features heavily amongst the new generation of solo performer-composer artists (e.g. Olly Coates, Zoe Martlew, Kerry Andrew, Nadia Sirota, Owen Pallett, Pekka Kuusisto etc.)
In this module we will:
The basis for working with live electronics will be Federico Reuben's Radicals system, which runs in the open source Supercollider environment. No prior experience with programming is assumed – Federico's environment is designed to be accessible to the novice – but there will be plenty of scope for getting your coding hands dirty for those who wish to.
Each week we will take a different topic, examine an example from the repertoire, unpick how the live electronics work, and workshop your own group creative responses to these techniques. You will therefore be expected to collaborate with your peers and contribute as performer, composer and programmer as your skills and interests allow.
Provisional topics (these may change in advance of the module):
This module will be taught jointly by Federico Reuben and Martin Suckling
By the end of the taught part of the project all students should:
In addition, in their independent work, first year students should demonstrate learning outcomes A1-12.
Task | Length | % of module mark |
---|---|---|
Oral presentation/seminar/exam Commentary |
N/A | 10 |
Practical Practical work |
N/A | 90 |
None
Students will collaborate on the production of new pieces for live electronics and solo instrument / voice / small ensemble, which will be performed at the start of summer term (date tbc). A commentary will lay out the issues tackled, the design process and the individual student's contribution to the group. Students will be able to undertake a combination of performance, composition and programming roles, and these should be clearly defined in the commentary. The possibilities for the work undertaken will depend on interests / skills of the students taking the module. The nature of the assessed work submitted will be decided through discussion with the module tutors.
Task | Length | % of module mark |
---|---|---|
Oral presentation/seminar/exam Commentary |
N/A | 10 |
Practical Practical work |
N/A | 90 |
Report form with marks to student no later than 20 working days from submission of assessment.
TBC