MUSM 402 - ORCHESTRATION

Spring 2008

MWF 9:00 – 9:50 AM


Professor: Dr. Scott L. Miller (PAC 222; 308-3291; slmiller@stcloudstate.edu)


Credit Hours: 3 cr.


Attendance: Critical, but not monitored


Office hours

TEXT and MATERIALS

All students must purchase The Study of Orchestration, 3d edition, by Samuel Adler (text AND workbook). The CD set is strongly recommended. Also strongly recommended is a text on music notation, either Kurt Stone’s Music Notation in the Twentieth Century: A Practical Guidebook or Gardner Read’s Music Notation: A Manual of Modern Practice. All written materials (e.g. transcriptions) must be handed in printed from a computer music notation program according to professional standards of music notation. Handwritten work or work printed on low weight, spiral bound or otherwise unprofessional paper will not be accepted. Exceptions to this will include specified exercises in the workbook.

COURSE OBJECTIVES subject to change according to the needs of the class

The student will demonstrate knowledge of the following regarding the instruments of the orchestra and wind ensemble: ranges, methods of sound production, proper notation, idiomatic instrumental music writing, the musical consequences of timbre, and orchestration’s contribution to the perception of musical structure.

ASSESSMENT

Mastery of the material will be monitored and evaluated by:

• periodic worksheets and exams testing knowledge from readings and lectures,
• the creation of piano reductions from full scores,
• a class presentation and summative paper analyzing the orchestration and its musical contribution in an assigned work, and
• the creation of musically sensitive compositions or transcriptions for various combinations of instruments.

All work will be weighted equally and letter grades will be assigned according to the chart below. There will be no mid-term or final exams, but class will meet during the assigned final exam time. No late work will be accepted.

Final Exam Period Monday 05 May 2008, 7:30 AM - 10:00 AM

Grade Scale:

A = clear mastery of all material in work, demonstrates development and exploration of ideas and techniques (90 - 100%)


B = satisfactory work (80 - 89%)

C = work demonstrating a minimum of effort (70 - 79%)

D = minimally acceptable work (60 - 69%)

F = unacceptable work (>60%)

It is the hope of the instructor that all compositions/transcriptions will receive a reading by the ensemble for which they are written. The success of this most valuable opportunity rests largely on the quality of the prepared materials. Hastily and/or sloppily prepared scores/parts will waste the time of the volunteering ensembles and the class in general. At best, that kind of work will be deemed minimally acceptable, and will be graded as such.

Readings of works will rarely, if ever, take place during regular class hours. As much notice as possible will be given prior to a reading, and it is the student’s responsibility to be prepared for and attend all readings. Students will not be excused from attending a reading.