Composition 101

The following applies to Year One Bachelor of Music students.

Unit Aims

Composition 101: Instrumentation and Orchestration aims to introduce students to the characteristics, capabilities and notation techniques of common orchestral and band instruments, developing knowledge and applied understanding of their range, application, and common uses in compositions and contemporary music. Students will develop an awareness of the overall sound and playing characteristics of individual instruments within instrumental groups, increasing their skills in writing music for performance by professional musicians. Students will develop social, interpersonal and communication skills through writing and applying lyrics and preparing music for performance. This unit also introduces students to the role of electronic and computer-generated sound in contemporary music. Knowledge gained in this unit will be illustrated through the composing and orchestrating of musical works in a range of common styles and forms. In addition, students will extend music technology skills software in incorporating notation software as a resource for writing compositions.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students are expected to be able to:

1. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the four main instrumental families and their roles in orchestral and common musical environments.
2. Demonstrate understanding of the capabilities, ranges, timbral characteristics and strengths of common orchestral instruments.
3. Compose simple melodies for instruments of all orchestral families in conventional musical notation, employing appropriate expressive and engraving techniques.
4. Construct a musical composition that demonstrates effective pairing and blending of instruments from differing instrumental families.
5. Develop creative insights to pair and combine alternate instrument combinations including electronic and computer-generated instrumentation for contemporary composition methods.
6. Analyse recorded and written musical scores for instrumental attributes and typical musical conventions, researching and evaluating the harmonic and melodic applications of the featured instruments.
7. Display social, interpersonal and communication skills in writing original song lyrics, knowledge of negative or positive outcomes and social responsibilities, including poetic and lyrical techniques and the ability to communicate a musical message or idea to listeners.

Teaching Outline

Student Assessment

Prescribed and recommended readings:

Library Resources
Online Resources (books/video)
A subscription to Oxford Music Online and to Grove Music Online which includes:

• The Grove Dictionary of American Music (2nd ed.).
• The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (2nd ed.).
• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2nd ed.).
• The New Grove Dictionary of Opera.
• The Oxford Companion to Music.
• The Oxford Dictionary of Music (2nd ed.).

Plus updated content bibliographies, specially-commissioned articles only available online.

A subscription to JSTOR Journals and books
A subscription to Lynda.com video tutorials

Reference Materials

Cooke, M. (2001). Film music. Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Web. Retrieved from: http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/09647.

Owen, B., & Ord-Hume, A. J. W. G. (n.d.). Orchestrion. Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Web. Retrieved from: http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/20409.

Recommended Reading List

Blatter, A. (1997). Instrumentation and Orchestration (2nd ed). New York, NY: Schirmer Books.

Korsakov, R. (1964). Principles of Orchestration (Dover ed.). New York, NY: Courier Corporation.

Assessment Overview
The orchestration subject is assessed through a series of closed, open questions and creative assessment tasks. These relate to questions and assignment tasks that require creativity or allow freedom of application, through the form of short answer questions and discussions, and compositions.

Closed Questions relate to questions that have a single correct answer. This is applicable through the quiz assessments and refer to questions about instrumental notation that have a single correct answer, including transposition, instrument types and roles.

Open Questions relate to questions whose answers allow freedom of application or creativity in responses, limited to text answers in analysis assessments. These include questions relating to the aesthetic and perceived role of an instrument in a piece of music, understanding of an instrument’s general playing style and ability, and depth of analysis of music overall. See the Written Assessments Rubric to see how marks are applied.

Creative Assessments refer to compositional tasks which are wholly assessed on the strengths, effectiveness and originality of a student’s musical scoring. These tasks contain a degree of finite responses, such as theoretical and notational accuracy, however as a whole are largely focused on students’ comprehension of effective writing practises for all instruments in a wide variety of styles, utilising this knowledge in composing original works of harmonic and melodic interest. See the Creative Assessments Rubric to see how marks are applied.

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