Performance
Composition
Ethnomusicology
Musicology
http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/schools/music/
Room 101 Performing Arts Centre, building 68, Clayton campus
+
61 3 9905 3231
The School of Music - Conservatorium teaches, researches, and promotes public
outreach in four fields of musical endeavour: performance, composition,
musicology and enthnomusicology. Students specialise in one or more fields, but
gain experience in a unified way in all four areas.
Students
with a strong musical aptitude undertaking this specialisation are expected to
acquire an assured technique and an awareness of the history of performance
style and practice. Students develop their performance skills as well as
interactive musical skills in a variety of ensembles. Throughout the program
students are examined on both solo and ensemble work.
In fourth-year honours, each student is required to present a recital with his
or her own program notes and a research essay on a topic related to the program
or an associated aspect of performance practice.
The performance units MUS1980/MUS1990, MUS2980/MUS2990 and MUS3980/MUS3990 are semester units that are examined by means of journal entries and examination. MUS1980, MUS2980 and MUS3980 are technical exams that have specific requirements as set out in the technical syllabuses. MUS1990, MUS2990 and MUS3990 are repertoire exams, the material for which is decided upon in consultation with the student's studio teacher and instrumental/vocal coordinator. Two examiners are present at all exams with the option of a public recital at third-year level.
Students undertaking this specialisation can expect to acquire experience and skills in music composition. The program offers supervision of students' compositional projects and encourages work in various media, including traditional, electronic, and contemporary solo and ensemble combinations. Honours students will prepare a folio of compositions and arrange an annotated concert performance of their works. The School of Music - Conservatorium organises a number of large and small instrumental and ensemble choral groups and encourages performances of student compositions.
Students
who choose either of these specialisations, or a combination of both, can
expect to develop their knowledge and understanding of music to prepare
themselves as musicologists and/or ethnomusicologists, studying the music
history of various genres, research methods and aspects of systematic
musicology such as performance practice, analysis, aesthetics, criticism, music
sociology and psychology of music. Students at honours level present a thesis
of 15,000 to 18,000 words on an approved research topic in musicology. They may
then proceed with masters-level coursework in other aspects of musicology.
In the ethnomusicology stream, students make detailed area studies of selected
music cultures of Asia and/or Africa, and may learn to perform in an Indonesian
gamelan and in other Asian and African traditions as appropriate for a
particular unit for which a student enrols.
The school has an extensive collection of musical instruments and ensembles
that includes an early music collection comprising a complete consort of
Renaissance shawms, crumhorns, recorders and various keyboard instruments, a
complete Javanese gamelan orchestra, Sudanese bamboo calung and
angklung ensembles, a Ghanaian African drum ensemble, a Chinese
orchestra, a piphat/mahori orchestra from Thailand, a large collection
of Indian instruments, and a set of Japanese instruments. It also contains an
extensive music archive, including the Sumatra research archive, Japanese music
archive, the Australian music collection, the Australian Archive of Jewish
Music, and the Louise Lightfoot Collection of Dance in South Asia.
The school fosters the cultivation of music on campus and presents many
concerts, lecture-recitals and other performances which music students are
expected to attend.
For details of the following courses, see `Outline of undergraduate studies' earlier in this section:
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