MUSI20061: Music Language 2: Chromaticism & Beyond

10 weekly assignments (60%), 10% "listening test", 30% final exam. Must complete all assessment requirements to pass the subject. (80% tutorial attendance is also a hurdle requirement)

Lectures:
This subject is a music theory subject which will explore classical music from late Baroque through early 20th century. It is a core subject for Bachelor of Music students, and if you are interested in music theory or music composition (classical), then this subject is for you.
Throughout the semester, you will learn about harmony and form:
The first week of the subject is “revision” of basic harmonic functions and voice leading principal which have been learned in Music Language 1: the Diatonic World, which is the prerequisite of this subject. Although it is only revision, pay attention to all of the lectures, since there are some topics which have not been covered in Music language 1 (eg. Basic Harmonic Progressions).
In the second and the third week, you will learn about non-harmonic tones, mixtures, diatonic 7th chords, half & full-diminished vii7 chords and secondary / applied dominants. Follow the lectures for secondary / applied dominants carefully since they show up frequently throughout the semester.
The next three weeks will discuss about modulation to closely related key (static modulation and pivot modulation) and form. The formal topics which will be discussed are: Early pre-sonata form, contrapuntal devices, canon and fugue. Personally, I found that it is quite difficult to notice what type of modulation is used. Moreover, I found that the formal analysis (which you will do in the assignment) is quite subjective and the assignment for canon is the hardest assignment in this subject. (Note: in the canon assignment, when it asked you about measure, don’t forget to include the beat. For example, you should answer “bar 15 beat 1” instead of “bar 15”. I lost quite a lot of mark just because of this.)
In the next week, you will learn other types of modulation: chromatic, common tone and enharmonic modulations. These types of modulations can be classified as modulation to distant key. Again, I found this topic quite hard. I found that there can be several interpretations of what modulation is used, but you should be able to find the best interpretation of what modulation is used in the excerpt.
After dealing with harmony, you will learn about form again for the last time in this subject. You will learn about early, expanding, late and hybrid sonata forms.
The rest of the subject is about harmony again. You will learn about altered & consecutive dominants, extended tertian harmony, Phrygian II (Neapolitan 6th), common tone diminished 7th chords, augmented 6th chords, median relationship and Tristan chord. Pay attention to Neapolitan 6th and augmented 6th chords. (Applied dominant, Neapolitan 6th and augmented 6th chords are three important chords in romantic period)

My opinion:If you want to do well in this subject, focus on your weekly assignments. Always double-check your assignments. In the composition part, make sure that you don’t make any parallel 5th and parallel 8th as you will get penalised heavily if you make any. Be clear, indicate any inversions if the chord is in inversion, and do not forget the previous lectures because some of them will show up frequently in the assignments and the exam. Also, do your weekly listening because memorising 40 pieces is not something you can cram for one day. (However, if you are fine in losing about 2% of your mark, you can ignore this, because the listening test format in my semester is similar to the assignment. The difference is that there might be a question like “what is the title?” or “who is the composer?”.) Finally, to prepare for the final exam, re-reading your assignment might be a good idea because the format is similar to the assignments. My final exam consists of two parts: formal analysis and harmonic analysis. The harmonic analysis in the exam is quite complex and you need to quickly realise what harmonic function and modulations are used in the excerpt (My final exam harmonic analysis is the first 2 minutes of “Finlandia” by Jean Sibelius. Download the score and perform harmonic analysis if you want a rough idea of how the exam would be). Overall, it was an interesting subject which you can apply to “add some colour” to your music through the use of chromatic chord.

Yes, with screen capture

Dr Kevin March

No, but the exam is similar to the assignments

4.5 out of 5

The recommended textbooks are "Edward Aldwell and Carl Schachter. Harmony and Voice Leading, 4th edition, New York: Thomson Schirmer, 2003 or 2011" and "Kent Kennan, Counterpoint 4th edition, Prentice Hall, 1999.", but I didn't use one.

2x1 hour lectures and 1x1 hour tutorial per week

Semester 1, 2013

95 [H1]