HARMONY 1: COMMON-PRACTICE HARMONY - 2025/6

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/CMT/Tonmeister students.

Module content

Indicative content includes:

• Introduction to harmonic analysis of common-practice music and associated nomenclature


• Simple diatonic progressions and their elaboration


• Types and roles of non-harmony notes


• Seventh chords


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


• Modulation 


• Harmonisation of common-practice music 

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 (addresses LOs 1, 4.)


• One short harmony exercise (addresses LOs 2-4.)

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 (e.g. in seminars). 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 completing 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/seminars incorporating worked examples

• Class discussion

• Guided exercises 

• Worked examples 

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

Other information

The Department of Music and Media is committed to developing graduates with attributes encompassing employability, digital skills, global and culture awareness, sustainability as it relates to music and the wider arts and, finally, resourcefulness and resilience.

This module provides opportunities to engage with these attributes in myriad ways including:

Cultural and global capabilities: developing an appreciation of common-practice music, a widespread internationally-practised style of music commonly associated with mainstream Western classical music from the eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries and beyond.

Digital capabilities: studying using a range of digital resources and preparation of digital documents (e.g. annotating PDF files) and specialist music software (e.g. notation software) to create digital artefacts.

Resourcefulness and resilience: independent study, developing skills and work for assessment, maximising available resources, finding creative ways to undertake problem-solving in assessments and exercising resilience in doing so, overcoming difficulties and other challenges in undertaking a wider range of pursuits.

Employability: developing a general awareness of common-practice music and associated culture suited to many careers in the diverse arts industries, as well as transferable skills appropriate to all graduate destinations.

These values are embedded within the module's learning outcomes and educational aims, and throughout the programme.

 

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 2025/6 academic year.