Postgraduate Course: Music and Human Communication (PG) (MUSI11074)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | How valuable is music for human communication? Given that words and speech can provide such a rich and specific mode of human interaction, what is music's role? In some cases where social acts of communication prove challenging (e.g. autism, developmental disorders, trauma recovery), the work of music therapists and community music practitioners appears to alleviate difficulties. What makes music special?
By focusing on musical action and performance - studying music as something that people do - this course introduces students to aspects of the relationship between music and human communication. You can watch a 3-minute Course Explainer video here: https://media.ed.ac.uk/media/t/1_ddruivod |
| Course description |
This course helps you to read and interpret a broad and cross-disciplinary range of scholarly and primary sources in order to deepen your understanding of music and human musicality as communicative, artistic practice. During the course, you will consider such questions as: What are the materials of musical communication? How should we understand the relationship between music and language? Does music have a particular social and communicative function? You will read scholarship in ethnomusicology, music psychology, communication studies, and the cognitive sciences to learn various answers put forward to these questions from different disciplinary perspectives, from mid-twentieth century to current day research.
On this course you learn by engaging in weekly reading, writing and practical tasks that are designed to guide your critical integration of such varied perspectives. This approach provides a supportive introduction to interdisciplinary research, based in creative reflection.
The course is taught through regular 2-hour teaching events (weeks 1-11) plus a single 1-hr practical workshop in week 2, and two 1-hour seminars which take place before / after the musical communication video case study presentations. Course materials are accessed through the course VLE, including short instruction videos, writing tasks, and online resources.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 13,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20,
Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 1,
Online Activities 1,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 3,
Summative Assessment Hours 1,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
157 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
This course has 2 assessment components:
1. Musical communication video case study (slides and script for 10-minute presentation, plus a 500-word reflective commentary), 40%, weeks 5-7.
2. Essay (3000 words), 60%, May exam diet.
The musical communication video case study component involves supported group work. The assessor assigns the grade based on the group submission; this mark is individually adjusted through peer-moderation. |
| Feedback |
Formative feedback.
Feedback on weekly writing and comprehension tasks are provided by sample answers and seminar discussion. You have an option to share writing samples in Week 4 for individual feedback. Guidance on the final essay task is delivered during class time from weeks 8-10. Individual feedback is offered on short essay plans submitted by Week 10.
Summative feedback.
Verbal and written feedback on the Musical communication case study component is delivered during class time, by both staff and peers. Individual feedback on reflective commentary is provided by the Course Organiser. Summative feedback on component 1 informs component 2.
Written feedback is provided on the final essays by academic staff. Summative feedback will be provided according to University regulations. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of principal theories and concepts which inform the study of music as communication.
- Use a range of standard and specialised research and techniques of enquiry to carry out a defined project of interdisciplinary research.
- Investigate current issues that apply to one specialist area of the study of music as human communication.
- Practice in ways that show critical reflection on their contribution to the course community.
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Reading List
Bauman, Richard (ed.). Folklore, Cultural Performances, and Popular Entertainments a Communications-Centered Handbook. Oxford University Press, 1992.
Clayton, Martin, Byron Dueck, and Laura Leante (eds). Experience and Meaning in Music Performance. Oxford University Press, 2014.
Finnegan, Ruth. Communicating: The Multiple Modes of Human Communication. Second edition. Routledge, 2014.
Miell, Dorothy, Raymond MacDonald and David Hargreaves (eds.) Musical Communication. Oxford University Press, 2005.
Nachmanovitch, Stephen. Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art. J.P. Tarcher/Putnam, 1993. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Communication. Through the opportunity to engage deeply with scholarship on interpersonal and artistic communication, and the in-class experiential learning opportunities, you may gain considerable insight into the value of interpersonal and cross-cultural communication skills. For example, you will be sensitive to the need to use a range of communication styles in different contexts, and ways in which effective communicators command different modes (verbal and non-verbal) to achieve understanding through dialogue with other people.
Research and enquiry. By engaging with the interdisciplinary course material, you learn more general skills about how to interpret ideas and knowledge effectively, to abstract meaning and apply this across different domains.
Personal and intellectual autonomy. In the weekly creative ¿grounding¿ exercises, you are offered techniques to develop skills of self-awareness and reflection. Being guided to take the role of facilitator in a group project, and then systematically reflecting on the communicative strategies that this requires, you have the chance to develop skills of self-awareness and reflection. You may also learn ways to critically evaluate ideas, evidence and experiences from an open-minded and reasoned perspective. |
| Keywords | musicality,language,music therapy,interdisciplinarity,behaviour,interaction,cognition,art |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Nikki Moran
Tel: (0131 6)50 2423
Email: n.moran@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Laura Duff
Tel:
Email: lduff4@ed.ac.uk |
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