HARMONY 1: COMMON-PRACTICE HARMONY - 2023/4

Module Overview

The purpose of this module is to enable an understanding of the basic principles of common-practice harmony.

Module provider

Music & Media

Module Leader

WILEY Christopher (Music & Med)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 4

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 1

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None for Music and Tonmeister students.

Module content

Indicative content includes:

• Introduction to harmonic analysis.


• Simple diatonic progressions and their elaboration.


• Types and roles of non-harmony notes.


• Chromaticism (V/V, viio/V, augmented sixths, Neapolitan sixths)

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

N/A

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of the basic principles of common-practice harmony and methods employed to analyse it.

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

• One analytical exercise (40%) to be submitted by the Monday of Week 4. (Addresses learning outcome 1.)


• One harmony exercise of not more than 24 bars (60%) to be submitted by the Tuesday Week 13. (Addresses learning outcomes 2 and 3.)

Formative assessment and feedback

Formative assessment will consist of exercises enabling students to develop the skills and confidence required for successful completion of the assessed exercises. Feedback on the formative assessments will be provided in good time to feed into the summative assessments. Feedback on the summative assessments will be provided within three weeks after the date of submission.

Module aims

• Develop your understanding of tonal harmony.
• Develop your skills in writing short spans of music employing common-practice harmony.
• Develop your skills in analysing short spans of common-practice harmony.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:

Develop your understanding of common-practice harmony, providing a foundation for modules in FHEQ 4, 5, and 6 that involve close-reading of music from the eighteenth through to the early twentieth centuries.

The learning and teaching methods include:

• Lectures (2 hours per week x 11) incorporating worked examples.

• Class discussion.

• Guided group exercises in class.

• Worked examples on SurreyLearn.

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: MUS1028

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2023/4 academic year.