Competences developed in the course

Transversal competencies

CT1: Organise and plan work efficiently and in a motivating manner.

CT3: Solve problems and make decisions aligned with work objectives.

CT8: Develop ideas and arguments in a reasoned and critical manner.

CT11: Develop a professional ethic based on aesthetic, environmental and diversity awareness.

CT13: Pursue excellence and quality in professional activity.

General competencies

CG1: Understand theoretical principles of music and develop skills for recognising, understanding and memorising musical material.

CG2: Demonstrate appropriate skills in reading, improvisation, creation and re‑creation of music.

CG3: Produce and correctly interpret graphic notation of musical texts.

CG4: Recognise musical materials through auditory skills and apply them professionally.

CG8: Apply appropriate working methods to overcome challenges in personal study and collective musical practice.

CG9: Understand the characteristics of one’s main instrument: construction, acoustics, historical evolution and interdisciplinary influences.

CG10: Argue and express verbally viewpoints on diverse musical concepts.

CG11: Be familiar with a broad and updated repertoire, recognise stylistic traits and describe them clearly.

CG12: Demonstrate sufficient knowledge of musical practice and its relation to aesthetic, artistic and cultural evolution.

CG13: Understand the foundations and structure of musical language and apply them in interpretative, creative, research or pedagogical practice.

CG14: Understand the historical development of music across different traditions from a critical perspective.

CG15: Possess extensive knowledge of representative works in historical and analytical music literature.

CG16: Use available resources responsibly with respect to cultural and environmental heritage.

CG17: Be familiar with different musical styles and practices to understand and enrich one’s field.

CG18: Communicate professionally in written and oral form using appropriate technical and general vocabulary.

CG19: Understand pedagogical and educational implications of music at different levels.

CG20: Understand classification and acoustic, historical and anthropological characteristics of musical instruments.

CG21: Create and shape artistic concepts using assimilated techniques and resources.

CG22: Possess broad musical resources to create, adapt or improvise pieces in diverse contexts.

CG23: Value musical creation as the sonic expression of rich and complex structural thought.

CG24: Develop self‑training capacities throughout one’s career.

CG25: Use study and research methodologies for continuous development and innovation.

CG26: Link musical activity to scientific, humanistic and artistic disciplines, enriching professional practice.

Specific competencies

CO1: Understand major repertoires of Western tradition and other musics, valuing expressive, syntactic and sonic aspects.

CO2: Recognise and evaluate aurally and intellectually different musical and sonic structures.

CO3: Analyse the construction of musical works across all structural levels.

CO5: Master techniques and resources of major historical and recent compositional styles.

CO6: Understand fundamentals of musical acoustics and acoustic characteristics of instruments and their combinations.

CO7: Develop interest, skills and methodologies for musical research and experimentation.

CO11: Acquire a singular and flexible artistic personality adaptable to multiple creative environments.

DI2: Understand musical structure of works from various repertoires and evaluate syntactic and sonic aspects.

DI3: Develop auditory skills that allow the recognition, memorisation and reproduction of a wide variety of musical materials.

DI4: Analyse the creation, notation and performance of musical works from a global and integrated perspective.

DI5: Master basic compositional techniques.

DI6: Understand technological applications in musical notation, recording, editing and performance.

DI7: Understand the fundamentals of musical acoustics, the acoustic characteristics of instruments, their technical, sonic and expressive possibilities, as well as their possible combinations.

DI8: Understand the most recent trends in musical creation, with the ability to assess them by examining their notational systems and interpretative implications.

DI9: Develop the capacity for communication and understanding with other musicians, assuming the specific responsibility and leadership inherent to the profession of conductor.

DI10: Verbally convey well‑structured, concrete and comprehensive musical ideas of theoretical, analytical, aesthetic and critical nature.

DI11: Acquire a singular and flexible artistic personality that enables adaptation to multiple musical environments and challenges.

Learning outcomes (general objectives)

1. Contextualise the factors that motivate and enable compositional activity within its historical and social context.
2. Assess the different trends, methods and approaches used by composers, relating them to the ideological, cultural and social aspects that shape each composer’s environment and perspective.
3. Acquire a broad range of techniques for sound production and organisation, as well as the various approaches, applications, constraints and functions that underpin musical creation at an aesthetic and social level.
4. Develop personal criteria that allow for the structuring and development of compositional work.
5. Produce musical works emphasising prior approaches and choices and their constructive, aesthetic and formal implications.
6. Compose for musical groups formed by available instruments and performers, enabling the interpretation of written works and the corresponding evaluation of the results obtained.
7. Explore new creative, theoretical and analytical methods and perspectives in addressing diverse problems related to musical practice, and identify themes and lines of action that may guide the final project and, eventually, postgraduate research.
8. Understand musical instruments and their technical and timbral characteristics, and combine and balance timbres across diverse instruments and sound layers.
9. Control technically and timbrally the instruments in various formations (duos, trios, quartets, quintets, chamber ensembles, orchestra).
10. Understand timbre and instrumentation as parameters of structural and formal organisation.
11. Critically evaluate different forms of contrapuntal imitation as techniques for organising musical material and form, and apply them in real musical contexts in direct relation to all musical parameters that shape formal organisation.
12. Extend knowledge of musical construction and organisation techniques, including scalar and harmonic structures within diverse tonal and atonal contexts.
13. Apply the main techniques and methods of musical construction and organisation developed throughout the twentieth century up to the present day.

Contents

Creation of works encompassing various areas of musical activity, including solo instruments, duos, trios, quartets, quintets, chamber ensembles, orchestra, with or without soloist, with or without text, programmatic, incidental, electroacoustic, audiovisual and other formats.

Acoustic, technical and idiomatic characteristics of orchestral instruments. Traditional instrumental combinations. Perceptual aspects. Instrumentation techniques across historical periods and their relationship with the compositional thinking of each stylistic era. Recent instrumentation techniques and their relationship with contemporary compositional languages and thought. Timbre and instrumentation as compositional parameters.

Experimentation with instrumental possibilities in collaboration with performers of various instruments. Analysis of instrumental writing in works and composers from different periods and styles. Transcriptions and arrangements of musical passages adapted to the characteristics and possibilities of different instruments. Listening and analysis of instrumentation in works considered paradigmatic in the evolution of instrumentation techniques throughout music history.

Use of contrapuntal imitation techniques as expressive and formal constructive methods. Relationship between imitation techniques and other elements involved in the organisation of a musical work. Adaptation of imitation and fugue concepts and techniques to tonal materials and diverse musical contexts. Integration of imitation and fugue techniques into analysis and composition. Musical analysis and composition from a creative perspective that considers all elements of musical evaluation.

Variation as a compendium of diverse compositional techniques and as a generator of the twelve-tone method. New systems of musical organisation and their formal implications. Chromaticism. Expanded harmonies. Polytonality. Polyrhythms. Atonality. Twelve-tone technique.

Use of the techniques studied as expressive and formal constructive methods. Relationship between these techniques and other elements involved in the organisation of a musical work. Adaptation of developed concepts and techniques to tonal materials and diverse musical contexts. Integration of these concepts and techniques into analysis and composition from a creative perspective that considers all elements of musical evaluation.

Use of the techniques studied as constructive, expressive and formal methods in close relation to other elements involved in the organisation of a musical work. Adaptation of developed concepts and techniques to diverse musical contexts, integrating them into analytical and compositional work from a creative perspective. Research, experimentation and conceptualisation of new technical and aesthetic proposals in relation to new situations and the evolving needs of music.

Teaching methodology

The teaching–learning methodology in individual lessons involves reviewing and guiding the student’s compositional work. Collective lessons include lecture sessions (presentation of topics), debate and discussion sessions, group work sessions and student presentations. Autonomous work includes compositions, study of works and written assignments, individually or in groups.

Assessment systems

The assessment system is continuous assessment, based on diagnostic assessment and formalised through summative assessment that determines the final grade. Continuous assessment is carried out through different records derived from specific assessment activities such as class participation and work, presentation of assignments in class, completion of tasks, compositions, analyses and/or readings outside class, submission of written assignments, listening to composed works, or written or oral examinations.