Bachelor’s Thesis


Type: Compulsory (OB)

Area: Bachelor’s Thesis

ECTS: 8

Classroom hours: 15
Hours for self-study and independent learning: 225

Competences developed in the course

Transversal competences:

CT1 Organise and plan work in an efficient and motivating way.
CT2 Collect significant information, analyse it, synthesise it and manage it appropriately.
CT3 Solve problems and make decisions that respond to the objectives of the work being carried out.
CT4 Make efficient use of information and communication technologies.
CT6 Self-criticism of one’s own professional and interpersonal performance.
CT7 Use communication skills and constructive criticism in teamwork.
CT8 Develop ideas and arguments rationally and critically.
CT13 To seek excellence and quality in their professional activity.
CT14 Master the research methodology in the generation of projects, ideas and viable solutions.
CT15 Work independently and value the importance of initiative and entrepreneurship in professional practice.
CT16 Use the means and resources at their disposal with responsibility towards cultural and environmental heritage.
CT17 Contribute through their professional activity to raising social awareness of the importance of cultural heritage, its impact in different areas  and its capacity to generate significant values.

General competences:

CG1 Know the theoretical principles of music and have adequately developed aptitudes for the recognition, comprehension and memorisation of musical material.
CG2 Show adequate aptitudes for reading, improvisation, musical creation and recreation.
CG3 Produce and interpret correctly the graphic notation of musical texts.
CG8 Apply the most appropriate working methods to overcome the challenges that arise in the field of personal study and in collective musical practice.
CG10 Argue and express verbally their points of view on different musical concepts.
CG13 Know the fundamentals and structure of musical language and know how to apply them in performance, creative, research or pedagogical practice.
CG18 Communicate in writing and verbally the content and objectives of their professional activity to specialised people, with an adequate use of technical and general vocabulary.
CG21 Create and give form to their own artistic concepts having developed the ability to express themselves through them by means of assimilated techniques and resources.
CG24 Develop skills for self-training throughout their professional life.
CG25 Know and be able to use study and research methodologies that will enable them to continuously develop and innovate their musical activity throughout their career.
CG26 Be able to link one’s own musical activity to other disciplines of scientific and humanistic thought, to the arts in general and to other musical disciplines in particular, enriching the exercise of one’s profession with a multidisciplinary dimension.

Specific competences:

Speciality of Composition

CO3 Analytically interpret the construction of musical works in each and every one of the aspects and structural levels that make them up.
CO4 Know how to apply new technologies to the field of musical creation in a variety of contexts and formats, including collaborations with other artistic fields.
CO5 Master the techniques and resources of the main historical and recent compositional styles.
CO6 To know the fundamentals of musical acoustics, the acoustic characteristics of the instruments, their technical, sonorous and expressive possibilities, as well as their possible combinations.
CO7 Develop the interest, skills and methodologies necessary for musical research and experimentation.
CO8 To get to know the most recent trends and proposals in different fields of musical creation.
CO10 Transmit verbally a well-structured theoretical, analytical, aesthetic and critical judgement, beyond its application to the strictly compositional sphere.
CO11 Acquire a singular and flexible artistic personality that allows you to adapt to multiple creative environments and challenges.

Conducting Specialty

DI1 To master the conducting techniques that allow him/her to develop a personal sense of interpretation, based on a critical knowledge of tradition.
DI2 Know the musical structure of the works of the different repertoires of the Western tradition and of other music, with the ability to evaluate their syntactic and sonorous aspects.
DI4 Analytically understand the creation, notation and performance of musical works from a global conception.
DI7 To know the fundamentals of musical acoustics, the acoustic characteristics of the instruments, their technical, sonorous and expressive possibilities, as well as their possible combinations.
DI8 To know the most recent trends in musical creation, with the ability to evaluate them in depth in their notation and interpretative implications.
DI9 To develop the capacity for communication and understanding with other musicians from the special responsibility and leadership that the profession of conductor entails.
DI10 Verbally transmit well-structured, concrete and global musical thoughts of a theoretical, analytical, aesthetic and critical nature.
DI11 Acquire a singular and flexible artistic personality that allows them to adapt to multiple musical environments and challenges.
DI12 Know the stage implications of their professional activity and be able to develop their practical applications in their field of work.

Speciality of Interpretation

IN1 Interpret the significant repertoire of one’s speciality, dealing adequately with the aspects that identify it in its stylistic diversity.
IN2 Constructing a coherent and own interpretative idea.
IN3 Demonstrate the ability to interact musically in all types of participatory musical projects, from duos to large ensembles.
IN4 To express oneself musically with one’s Instrument/Voice in a way that is based on knowledge and mastery of instrumental and corporal technique, as well as on acoustic and organological characteristics and stylistic variations.
IN5 Communicate, as a performer, the musical structures, ideas and materials with rigour.
IN6 Argue and express verbally their points of view on the interpretation, as well as respond to the challenge of facilitating the understanding of the musical work.
IN7 Develop reading and improvisation skills on musical material.
IN8 Assume adequately the different subordinate, participative or leadership roles that can occur in a collective musical project.
IN9 Knowing the processes and resources proper to orchestral and other ensemble work, adequately dominating sight-reading, showing flexibility in the face of the conductor’s indications and the ability to integrate into the group.
IN10 Know the stage implications of their professional activity and be able to develop their practical applications.

Speciality of Musicology

MU1 Know the musical structure of the works of the different repertoires of the Western tradition and others, with the ability to fully appreciate their syntactic and sonorous aspects.
MU2 To know the artistic, historical and social conditions in which musical creation and performance practice have developed.
MU5 To know the musical sources and the means of accessing them, as well as the necessary techniques for their dissemination.
MU6 Know the scientific research methods specific to their field and their applications.
MU8 Argue and express in written and verbal form their points of view on the interpretation, as well as respond to the challenge of facilitating the understanding of the musical work.

Speciality of Pedagogy

PE1 Understand and explain the fundamentals of contemporary music pedagogy, both in the area of systematic knowledge and in its application, and know how to base on them the critical reflection of one’s own and others’ musical educational activity.
PE2 Elaborate, select, apply and evaluate musical teaching/learning activities, materials and resources according to the demands of each educational context, being versatile in the mastery of instruments and other musical resources and applying new technologies in a functional way.
PE3 Know the constituent elements of music, showing a high level of mastery in auditory perception, reading, analysis, writing, improvisation and musical creation, and be able to interrelate all this in order to apply it and use it appropriately in the development of one’s own activity.
PE4 Acquire technical mastery and expressive capacity in the interpretation and conducting of vocal and instrumental ensembles, as a basis for improvisation, creation and experimentation with one’s own instrument, voice and body in specific musical teaching/learning situations.
PE5 Be able to develop an educational-musical practice, as an artist and musical trainer oriented to the community.
PE6 Contextualise music education in current times and in different cultural spheres, reflecting critically on the function and results that the practice of music education can contribute to the improvement of the individual and society.
PE7 Know how to take advantage of the training and specialisation opportunities that each job offers, incorporating them into the development of one’s own professional profile.
PE8 Become actively involved in educational-musical projects through cooperative work and take responsibility for developing the musical education profession as a collective task.
PE9 Design and carry out systematic educational evaluation processes on students, teachers, programmes and institutions and base the planning of educational improvement on their results.
PE10 Design, carry out and evaluate research in music education, both individually and as an active part of research teams.
PE11 To know the fundamentals of musical acoustics, organology and their applications to musical practice.

Production and Management Speciality

PG1 To have an in-depth knowledge of current national and international legislation on artistic, entertainment and copyright matters.
PG3 Mastering musical computing, office automation and communication networks.
PG6 To have an in-depth knowledge of the historical and more recent repertoire of different musical practices and styles, with special attention to the most recent trends in the field of creation and performance.
PG8 Knowledge of economics, management, accounting, market strategies and human resources.
PG9 To know the professional environments in which the musical activity is developed with its singularities.
PG10 To know the characteristics of public management from the logic of the service and its regulatory peculiarities.
PG11 To understand the musical event in its community dimension as an element that has an important impact on social cohesion.
PG12 To master the characteristics of the musical business, understanding that they are not necessarily in contradiction with the commitment to artistic quality.
PG14 Knowing how to define and apply a strategy in a proactive way.
PG15 To master the conceptual and practical tools to develop one’s own musical business project.

Speciality of Sonology

SO3 Apply technologies to the field of creation, performance and public dissemination of music, and use the technical resources that enable the production and organisation of sound, as well as the different approaches, applications and functionalities that underpin musical creation.
SO5 Know and critically assess the most recent trends and developments in different fields of music technology, with the ability to evaluate their implications in the processes of creation, performance, dissemination and reception of music, as well as knowing how to design and programme applications for composition and performance in real time or in real time.
SO7 To know the techniques and procedures of creation and support for musical, sound and audiovisual creative processes.
SO8 Plan sound production processes, as well as generate and transform sounds and musical recordings with creative objectives dictated by a production plan.
SO9 Be able to use tools and devices to support or complement processes of capturing, recording, creating, manipulating and disseminating sound and musical material.
SO10 Being able to integrate art, technology and science, with sufficient flexibility to adapt to multiple and changing environments.
SO11 Know the stage implications of their professional activity and be able to develop their practical applications in their field of work.

 

Learning outcomes (general objectives)

  1. Produce a work with a well-defined outline on a subject related to the speciality studied.
  2. To adequately use the most appropriate methodologies to carry out this work.
  3. Present the conclusions of the work in the forms most appropriate to its nature.

Contents

General guidelines

The subject can be chosen freely by the students. It is also recommended that students ask for topics that can be developed in the departments and in the teaching staff related to their speciality.
The results of the research must be applicable to the student’s speciality.
The Final Degree Project may explore a field of knowledge that the student has not developed in his/her speciality, but provided that the student deals with the approaches and knowledge of his/her speciality and that he/she also has the necessary specific training in the speciality he/she is approaching.

Composition

Works that lead the student to a greater understanding and reflection on the compositional fact and the compositional and creative action. The subject and content of the work must be linked to composition, both in a direct and specific way and in a more general way. In the first option, the research work may be associated with the student’s own compositional work, either in progress or sketched out as a detailed project of a composition pending completion. However, the assessment of the content of the work will in no case depend on an assessment of the compositional work. In the event that the applicability of the subject matter of the work is not reflected in a concrete proposal of compositional practice, the link with the compositional fact will derive from a fundamentally theoretical and analytical study of some aspects of compositional techniques in current music, such as, for example, aspects of timbre, acoustics, instrumentation, technologies applied to composition, structural or constructive aspects in relation to current composition, analysis of a work or author of reference in current composition. It is recommended to link the work to the subject Composition 8.

Conducting

Work applied to conducting, whether it be musical, stylistic or historical analysis of the repertoire with the aim of considering specific aspects to be taken into account such as gesture, schools and references of orchestral and choral conducting, specific contexts of the repertoire, integration of technological elements in conducting practice (synchronised conducting with clapperboard, for example).

Interpretation

This consists of an original work that also demonstrates the achievement of the specific competences of the speciality and the student’s ability to apply them in a creative, autonomous and critical work, correctly using methodological and research tools in instrumental practice. The work may be linked to the student’s final concert.

Musicology

This consists of a work on any musical fact that develops the corresponding analytical and reflective treatment using the most appropriate methodologies for the elaboration of conclusions. The analysis of historical documents, the cultural and socio-anthropological approach to music, the cataloguing and documentation of archives and musical heritage, the documentation and study of interpretative practices and the reception of music, studies on the ecology of sound and soundscape, gender and post-structuralist studies in music, the historical, organological and interpretative study of musical instruments, studies of iconography and visual representations of music, among others, are musicology projects.

Pedagogy

The work must be situated in the field of musical-artistic education, with a foundation in the framework of the social sciences and with a methodology oriented towards obtaining data from primary sources. The work as a whole must enable the student to acquire a greater understanding of the phenomenon studied and to direct his or her approaches to educational improvement.

Production and management

Development of musical projects (festivals, facilities, community projects, production, programmes, companies) from their conceptualisation to the evaluation forecast. Analysis of cultural and musical policies. Study of legal or economic aspects linked to music management. Reflections and definitions of strategies linked to marketing, communication and musical sponsorship or patronage. Cross-cutting perspectives on musical projects (economic, social, educational, heritage).

Sonology

This consists of an original work that demonstrates the achievement of the specific competences of the speciality and the student’s ability to apply them in creative, autonomous and critical work, correctly using methodological and research tools in subjects related to Sonology. Sonology projects are the critical analysis of techniques, styles or musical productions, the practical application of a technology, technique, model or strategy in the field of music or research on phenomena related to the generation and perception of sound and music.

Teaching methodology

The teaching-learning methodology in individual classes involves monitoring and guiding students’ progress. Autonomous work involves personal study and preparation of the materials to be worked on in class.

Assessment systems

The assessment will be carried out during the presentation and defence of the work by a panel made up of three members appointed by the student’s related department, two of whom must be accredited. The members of the panel will mark the written part of the paper prior to the defence. Only in the case of a unanimous maximum mark for this written part will the student be eligible for an honours degree. Likewise, the director will issue an assessment report on the follow-up and the result, with a grade that will represent a percentage of the final mark.