Competences developed in the course

Transferable skills: 

CT3: Solve problems and make decisions that respond to the objectives of the work being carried out.  

CT6: Conduct a self-assessment of one’s own professional and interpersonal practice.  

CT8: Reasonably and critically develop ideas and arguments.  

CT13: Strive for excellence and quality in their professional activity.  

CT15: Work autonomously and value the importance of initiative and entrepreneurial spirit in professional practice.  

CT17: Contribute through their professional activity to raising social awareness of the importance of cultural heritage, its impact on different fields and its capacity to generate significant values. 

General competencies: 

CG: To know the theoretical principles of music and to have adequately developed the skills for recognising, understanding and memorising musical material.  

CG2: Demonstrate appropriate skills for musical reading, improvisation, creation and recreation.  

CG3: Accurately produce and interpret the graphic notation of musical texts.  

CG4: Recognise musical materials through the development of aural skills and be able to apply these skills in professional practice.  

CG7: Demonstrate the ability to interact musically in different types of participatory musical projects.  

CG: Apply the most appropriate working methods to overcome challenges that arise in the field of personal study and collective musical practice.  

CG11: Be familiar with a broad and up-to-date repertoire, centred on one’s specialism but open to other traditions. Recognise the stylistic features that characterise this repertoire and be able to describe them clearly and comprehensively.  

CG17: Be familiar with different musical styles and practices that allow them to understand their own field of activity within a broader cultural context and enrich it.  

CG21: To create and shape one’s own artistic concepts, having developed the ability to express oneself through them using assimilated techniques and resources.  

CG23: Value musical creation as the act of giving sound form to a rich and complex structural thought.  

CG24: Develop the capacity for self-directed learning throughout their professional life.  

CG25: To know and be able to use study and research methodologies that enable continuous development and innovation of one’s musical activity throughout one’s 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 the other musical disciplines in particular, enriching the practice of one’s profession with a multidisciplinary dimension. 

Specific competencies: 

MU1: To understand the musical structure of works from the various repertoires of the Western tradition and others, with the ability to fully appreciate their syntactic and sonic aspects.  

MU2: To understand the artistic, historical and social conditions in which musical creation and interpretative practice have developed.  

MU3: To understand the materials of music, historical and modern compositional techniques, instruments, their construction, their acoustics, and other organological characteristics.  

MU5: To know the musical sources and the tools for accessing them, as well as the techniques necessary for their dissemination.  

MU8: Argue and express in writing and orally one’s points of view on interpretation, as well as respond to the challenge of facilitating understanding of the musical work.  

IN2: Construct a coherent and personal interpretative concept.  

IN4: Express oneself musically with one’s instrument or voice in a way that is grounded in knowledge and mastery of instrumental and bodily technique, as well as in acoustic, organological and stylistic characteristics.  

IN5: Communicate, as an interpreter, musical structures, ideas and materials with rigour.  

IN6: Argue and express one’s viewpoints on interpretation verbally, as well as respond to the challenge of facilitating understanding of the musical work. 

Learning outcomes (general objectives)

1. Explain the musical activities and thought on music of this period in Europe through various historical and historiographical sources: musical manuscripts and documents and objects relating to musical activities. 
2. 2.Apply research methodologies (including transcription and analysis) specifically related to the music of the period. 
3. Read the various notations and evaluate interpretative theories in relation to plain chant. Establish similarities and differences in relation to other liturgical chants. 
4. Develop versatility and the ability to adapt to diverse situations, as well as the capacity for lifelong self-training. 
5. To assimilate and apply in a practical manner all kinds of conceptual, theoretical and methodological elements specific to the music for the chosen instrument, and to delve deeper into its specific interpretative  
6. Explain the tuning issues of early music and the differences between historical temperament systems. 
7. Sing in tune correctly with variable-pitch instruments. 
8. Expand knowledge of the historical period in question, and in particular of the most important works in its repertoire, whether in old or modern editions. 
9. Situate a work within a style or period by recognising the compositional, stylistic and formal elements involved, and draw relevant  
10.  To develop criteria and a broad vision for programming diverse repertoires based on the elements at play in a given situation.

Contents

History of plainchant in different cultural contexts. Basic elements of other liturgical chant traditions. Modal, rhythmic and melodic theories of plainchant. Notations of plainchant, and notations of other liturgical chants. Approach to a basic repertoire of plain chant. Analysis and interpretation of a basic repertoire of plain chant. Analysis and recognition of other traditions of liturgical chant. Positioning of liturgical chant and its social appreciation within the relevant religious and cultural context. 

Teaching methodology

The teaching-learning methodology in classes comprises lectures (topic presentations), group work sessions and student-led topic presentations. Autonomous work involves compositions, recording practice and other exercises, either individually or in groups. 

Assessment systems

The assessment system is continuous assessment, based on diagnostic assessment and materialised in a summative assessment which leads to the final grade. Continuous assessment is carried out through various assessment records derived from specific assessment activities such as participation and work in class, the presentation of classwork, the completion of assignments, compositions, and practical exercises, the submission of written work, or the taking of written, oral or aural tests.