The Music Department's new Level 2 60-point course, A224 Inside Music, focuses on an understanding of the basic principles of music, and the development of skills to put them into practice.
Unlike its predecessor A214 Understanding Music, A224 includes the study of jazz and popular music as well as western art music (‘classical’ music) and, in Block 1, examples of music from across the world. Students begin by learning some of the basic principles underlying music across a wide range of periods and cultures. Later parts of the course concentrate on the listening, analytical and writing skills of western music. The intention of this broad approach is to make students aware of the different ways in which common musical methods are applied to many kinds of music (without simplistically claiming that methods are ‘universal’), and to enable them to understand the context of western music in the wider world of musical cultures.
Another new feature of A224 is creative song-writing. This is one of three main strands running through the course, the other two being harmony and form. The harmony and form strands progress from familiarisation with elements of musical techniques, construction and style, through more complex procedures, polyphony, texture and form, and on to the study of selected large musical works. This culminates in a study of Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C minor, K491.
The song-writing strand consists of exercises in composition, culminating in the writing of a complete song with instrumental accompaniment. Students can draw on the knowledge they have gained in the harmony and form strands to create songs that use the procedures that they have been taught.
Students on A224 are supplied with, and trained to use, Sibelius Student music software for the study of harmony, notation and the development of song-writing skills. This provides valuable training for students interested in writing music, many of whom will have used Sibelius at school and in their musical activities.
Unlike A214, A224 assumes some basic music literacy – knowledge of pitches, rhythms, staves, key signatures etc. The level of music theory needed to start the course is roughly equivalent to Associated Board grade 3. Students who have already taken TA212 The Technology of Music will already have learned the music-reading skills needed to start A224.
For anyone uncertain whether they have the required knowledge, online preparatory material is available on OpenLearn.
A224 does not include a summer school.
Robert Philip, Production Chair, A224 Inside Music
Listen to this short audio track for a flavour of what you will study:
