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MUS41260

Academic Year 2026/2027

Foundations in Composition (MUS41260)

Subject:
Music
College:
Arts & Humanities
School:
Music
Level:
4 (Masters)
Credits:
10
Module Coordinator:
Dr Sean L Clancy
Trimester:
Autumn
Mode of Delivery:
On Campus
Internship Module:
No
How will I be graded?
Letter grades

Curricular information is subject to change.

An awareness and understanding of contemporary music concepts and practices is crucial for musicians working in the twenty-first century regardless of their specialism. Whilst knowledge of contemporary practices is essential for composers, music technologists, and experimental performers who are undertaking their own creative work, it is also an important avenue of exploration for other (ethno)musicologists and performers who may wish to extend their field of study and repertoire.

If you are a composer already engaging with new music, this module will enhance your study by equipping you with the knowledge and tools to discuss and/or practice the latest trends in new music. If you are not yet primarily involved with contemporary repertoire, the module will bring complementary knowledge and experience.

Over the course of this module we will discuss modes of analysis useful for exploring new music, and examine how contemporary composers deal with concepts such as appropriation/translation, race, the internet and Ai as artistic practice, gender & sexuality, music as a sonic healer, and environmentalism. You will undertake your own creative practice and/or research, engaging with relevant scholarship. You will critique other practices as a context for your own thus engaging in reflection and self-reflection. Furthermore, you will develop communication skills through weekly group discussion and your creative and/or written skills through preparing the assessment.

Delivery will take the form of seminar-styled sessions of 2 hours.

About this Module

Learning Outcomes:

On completion of this module students should be able to:
- Demonstrate detailed engagement with stylistic, aesthetic, and artistic concepts and practices in contemporary music composition and/or performance, situating either your own compositional practice, or that of chosen composers/performers in a broader context.
- Draw critically on relevant published scores, recordings, research or primary sources, and present the findings of independent work with clarity and refinement.

Indicative Module Content:

Week 1: Introduction & analytical tools
week 2: Race in new music
Week 3: Appropriation and/or using pre-existing sources
Week 4: The New Discipline
Week 5: Students Share their own compositional practice
Week 6: The internet and Ai as creative tools
Week 7: Gender & sexuality in new music
Week 8: Reading week (no class)
Week 9: Assessment Presentation
Week 10: Minimal music & sonic healing
Week 11: New music and the environment
Week 12: Revision & group discussion

UNESCO highlights a set of key competencies that support individuals in their development and support society in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UCD has adapted these competencies and is combining them with others to form a general framework of learning competencies. This module will help you develop the competencies below to the levels specified. 
Learning Competency Additional Information Level

Collaboration

 The ability to learn from others; to understand and respect the needs, perspectives and actions of others (empathy); to understand, relate to and be sensitive to others (empathic leadership); to deal with conflicts in a group; and to facilitate collaborative and participatory problem solving. Expert

Critical Thinking

 The ability to question norms, practices and opinions; to reflect on one’s own values, perceptions and actions. Expert

Systems Thinking

 The ability to recognize and understand relationships; to analyse complex systems; to think of how systems are embedded within different domains and different scales; and to deal with uncertainty. Expert

Strategic

 The ability to collectively develop and implement innovative actions that further sustainability at the local level and further afield. Expert

Integrated Problem Solving

 The overarching ability to apply different problem-solving frameworks to complex sustainability problems and develop viable, inclusive and equitable solution options that promote sustainable development, integrating the competencies in this list. Expert

Self-awareness

 The ability to reflect on one’s own role in the local community and (global) society; to continually evaluate and further motivate one’s actions; and to deal with one’s feelings and desires. Expert

Normative

 The ability to understand and reflect on the norms and values that underlie one’s actions; and to negotiate values, principles, goals, and targets, in a context of conflicts of interest and trade-offs, uncertain knowledge and contradictions. Expert

Anticipatory

 The ability to understand and evaluate multiple scenarios for the future – possible, probable and desirable; to create one’s own visions for the future; to apply the precautionary principle; to assess the consequences of actions; and to deal with risks and changes. Expert

Digital Literacy and Judgement

 The ability to access, evaluate, create and communicate information in digital environments; to engage critically, ethically and responsibly with digital technologies and digital information; to understand their opportunities, limitations, risks and impact on individual’s digital identities; and to exercise informed judgement in digital participation and decision-making. Expert

AI Literacy & Agency

 The ability to understand, critically evaluate and responsibly engage with artificial intelligence; to recognise how AI systems are shaped by human values; to assess their ethical, social and environmental implications; and to exercise human judgement, agency and accountability in AI-related contexts. Expert

Wellbeing

 Wellbeing is having the resources and skills to meet life's challenges, including attributes such as personal development skills, resilience, stress management, strengths, lifestyle skills, nutrition, physical activity, sleep, alcohol/substance use, academic skills, time management, goal setting, interpersonal skills, group work, communication. Expert

The United Nations identified seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as core to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and UCD contributes in general to SDG 4 Quality Education. Further SDGs explored within this module if relevant are listed below. A scale of 1 - 5 indicates the extent to which the SDG is covered.


 

Student Effort Hours:
Student Effort Type Hours
Autonomous Student Learning

152
Lectures

24
Project Supervision

24
Total

200

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
In-person seminars 2 hours per week
group peer-feedback
office hours with module coordinator
self-directed research, study, composition and/or academic writing.

Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 

Assessment Strategy
Description Timing Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade Component repeat (in-module) Offered
Individual Project: Create a piece of music that engages with one or more of the areas discussed in class OR Write a research paper of c. 5000 words discussing the practice of a contemporary composer or performer. Week 14 Graded No
80
 No
Reflective Assignment: Keep a creative learning journal that contains sketches, reflections, and context, for your final assessment work-in-progress. This will be delivered in a presentation format in week 9. Week 9 Graded No
20
 No

As part of UCD's student support, under the Additional Consideration policy, extensions may be available for the following assessments in the module: Assignment (including essay/poster), Portfolio, Reflective Assignment, Report(s), and Individual Project.


Carry forward of passed components
Yes
 

Resit In Terminal Exam
Spring No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 

Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, on an activity or draft prior to summative assessment
• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Peer review activities

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Feedback will be given individually to students, post-assessment by written and annotated remarks through the VLE. Feedback will be given orally on work-in-progress in-class. Peer feedback will be given on work in progress in a respectful & structured format.

ADLER, Samuel, The Study of Orchestration, 4th Edition (New York, Norton, 2016)

BERGER, John, Ways of Seeing (London: Penguin, 2008)

BISHOP, Claire Disordered Attention: How We Look at Art and Performance Today (London: Verso, 2024)

BLATTER, Alfred Instrumentation and Orchestration 2nd Edition (Boston: Cengage learning, 1997)

BURROWS, Jonathan, A Choreographer’s Handbook. (Abingdon: Routledge, 2010)

CAGE, John, Silence (London: Marion Boyars, 1968)

CONRAD, Tony Writings (New York: Primary Information, 2019)

FELD, STEVEN, Pygmy POP. A Genealogy of Schizophonic Mimesis in Yearbook for Traditional Music , 1996, (Cambridge: CUP, Vol. 28 1996), pp. 1-35

FELDMAN, Morton, Give my Regards to Eighth Street (Cambridge MA: Exact Change, 2000)

GALLOPE, Michael; HARREN, Natilee; HICKS, John, The Scores Project: Essays on Experimental Notation in Music, Art, Poetry, and Dance, 1950-1975 (Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2025)

GLOVER, Richard & HARRISON, Bryn, Overcoming Form: Reflections on Immersive Listening (Huddersfield, Huddersfield University Press, 2013)

GOTTSCHALK, Jennie, Experimental Music Since 1970 (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016)

GRIFFITHS, Paul, Modern Music and After 3rd edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010)

HARREN, Natilee, Fluxus Forms: Scores, Multiples, and the Eternal Network (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020)

LEWIS, George, A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2009)

LELY, John & SAUNDERS, James, Word Event: Perspectives on Verbal Notation (London: Bloomsbury, 2012)

LUCIER, Alvin, Music 109: Notes on Experimental Music (Middletown CT, Wesleyan University Press, 2012)

LUCIER, Alvin, Eight lectures on experimental music (Middletown CT, Wesleyan University Press, 2018)

ONO, Yoko, Grapefruit (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000)

NATTIEZ, Jean-Jacques Music and discourse: toward a semiology of music (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990)

NYMAN, Michael, Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974)

OLIVEROS, Pauline, Deep Listening: A Composer's Sound Practice (iUniverse, 2005)

PRIEST, Eldritch, Boring Formless Nonsense: Experimental Music and the Aesthetics of Failure (London: Bloomsbury, 2013)

RADIGUE, Éliane, Alien Roots: Éliane Radigue: Blank Forms 10 (Chicago: Blank Forms Editions, 2025)

REDHEAD, Lauren, New Music as Patriarchal Category In: HAWORTH, C & COLTON, L eds. Gender, Age and Musical Creativity. London: Routledge, pp. 171-184.

RUTHERFORD-JOHNSON, Tim, Music after the Fall, (Oakland, University of California Press, 2017)

TENNEY, James, From Scratch: Writings in Music Theory (Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2019)

ZIMMERMANN, Walter, Desert Plants, Conversations with 23 American Musicians (Cologne, MusikTexte, 2020)

WALSHE, Jennifer, The New Discipline (MusikTexte 149, May 2016)

WALSHE, Jennifer, Unsound Dispatch: 13 Ways of Looking at AI, Art & Music (online, 15 December 2023)

It's also useful to read articles in periodicals such as Journal of Music, Tempo, Perspectives of New Music, MusikTexte, Leonardo Music Journal, and The Wire

Timetabling information is displayed only for guidance purposes, relates to the current Academic Year only and is subject to change.
Autumn Lecture Offering 1 Week(s) - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12 Tues 10:00 - 11:50
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