Module Code - Title:
MD6242
-
IMPROVISATION
Year Last Offered:
2025/6
Hours Per Week:
Grading Type:
N
Prerequisite Modules:
Rationale and Purpose of the Module:
To provide an overview of improvisational processes within the context of current music and inter-arts practices, wherein improvisation exists at the creative nexus of composition and performance. To introduce the students to a range of aesthetic and technical approaches to improvisation. To provide students with the opportunity to research improvisational processes and to integrate and apply the knowledge gained in their own practices.
Syllabus:
Students will attend a number of workshops in which music and dance faculty and guest artists will demonstrate and explore improvisational processes and practices. Students will develop improvisational scores based on the materials presented.
Learning Outcomes:
Cognitive (Knowledge, Understanding, Application, Analysis, Evaluation, Synthesis)
Identify a range of approaches to improvisation with specific reference to their disciplinary context. Demonstrate an ability to critically engage with principles underpinning discipline-specific improvisational practices. Experiment with a number of approaches to improvisation.
Affective (Attitudes and Values)
Differentiate the principles most relevant to their field of practice. Synthesise the principles studied in the workshops in order to create short improvisational scores.
Psychomotor (Physical Skills)
Skilfully perform motor skills specific to instrumental and vocal music performance and relevant movement-based artistic practices.
How the Module will be Taught and what will be the Learning Experiences of the Students:
The model is taught by faculty and visiting artists in a series of individual and group labs. Students examine, interrogate and engage in various improvisation practices, including idiomatically appropriate, genre-specific styles and interdisciplinary approaches. UL Graduate attributes are core to the ethos of this module, developing creative practices through the development of embodied knowledge. Students learn to cultivate and articulate responsible styles of performance in diverse idioms.
Research Findings Incorporated in to the Syllabus (If Relevant):
Prime Texts:
Bailey, D. (1993)
Improvisation: Its Nature And Practice In Music
, Da Capo
Nettle, B. (1974)
'Thoughts on Improvisation: a comparative approach',
, Musical Quarterly, vol. 60, no. 1,
Nettle, B. (1983)
The study of ethnomusicology: twenty-nine issues and concepts
, University of Illinois Press, Urbana, Illinois.
Toop, D. (2016)
Into the Maelstrom: Music, Improvisation and the Dream of Freedom: Before 1970
, Bloomsbury Academic
Other Relevant Texts:
Pressing, J. (1984)
'Cognitive processes in improvisation' in Cognitive processes in the perception of art
, North-Holland (imprint of Elsevier), Amsterdam.
Programme(s) in which this Module is Offered:
Semester(s) Module is Offered:
Autumn
Module Leader:
Oscar.Mascarenas@ul.ie