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Sample Module Plan for the MAS in Advanced Vocal Ensemble Studies
M1 Performance and Repertoire I
12 credit points
Week 1
Repertoire Philippe Verdelot, Jacques Arcadelt, Cipriano de Rore, Giaches de
Wert, Claudio Monteverdi, Sigismondo d’India, John Dowland,
John Wilbye, Thomas Weelkes, Alessandro Scarlatti & Robert
Lucas Pearsall
Theme Introduction and overview of secular repertoires from 16th
to 19th
centuries for vocal ensemble performed one-to-a-part
Learning Goals Overview of development of secular repertoires for vocal ensemble
from 16th
-19th
centuries; basic background information concerning
historical and cultural contexts
Learning outcomes Practical knowledge of stylistic diversity chronologically,
geographically, and vocally in secular repertoires for vocal
ensemble from 16th
to 19th
centuries; improved sight-reading skills.
Assessment Internal performance
Study Time 30 / 70 hours (contact time / independent study)
Week 2
Repertoire Costanzo Festa, Francesco Corteccia
Theme The origins of the Renaissance madrigal
Learning Goals Practical and historical understanding of rise of madrigal in 16th
-
century Italy
Learning outcomes Repertorial knowledge of Festa and Corteccia; increased
awareness of issues concerning the historical performance practice
of 16th
-century vocal polyphony; introduction to Italian poetry and
prosody; knowledge of cultural and social context.
Assessment Internal performance/public presentation
Study Time 30 / 70 hours (contact time / independent study)
Week 3
Repertoire Alessandro Scarlatti
Theme Late Baroque soundworlds
Learning Goals Negotiating expressivity and drama of the late Baroque madrigal
without continuo
Learning outcomes Repertorial knowledge of Scarlatti; understanding of rhetoric,
drama, and retrospective orientation of late Baroque madrigal;
refined vocal and scenic techniques to deliver expressivity,
contrasting moods, and disparate emotions.
Assessment Internal performance/public presentation
Study Time 30 / 70 hours (contact time / independent study)
M2 Performance and Repertoire II
12 credit points
Week 4
Repertoire Giovanni Perluigi da Palestrina
Theme Palestrina, Plain and Fancy

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Learning Goals Diminution practices in vocal music of the Renaissance
Learning outcomes Awareness of late Renaissance/early Baroque ornamentation
treatises (e.g. Bovicelli); basic practical and vocal understanding of
application of diminution techniques in performance.
Assessment Internal performance
Study Time 30 / 70 hours (contact time / independent study)
Week 5
Repertoire John Dowland, John Ward
Theme English Melancholy
Learning Goals Introduction to Jacobean Song
Learning outcomes Repertorial knowledge of Dowland and Ward; historical
understanding of role of ‘melancholy’ in cultural production
around 1600; basic proficiency with prosody and poetry in
Jacobean English; developed sensitivity to the scenic presentation
of these repertories.
Assessment Internal performance/public presentation
Study Time 30 / 70 hours (contact time / independent study)
Week 6
Repertoire Luca Marenzio
Theme Concerto delle Donne versus Concerto dei Cavalieri
Learning Goals Intimacy and erudition in the late-Renaissance Italian madrigal
Learning outcomes Repertorial knowledge of Marenzio; introduction to affect,
chromaticism, and word-painting and the means to express them
vocally and scenically.
Assessment Internal performance/public presentation
Study Time 30 / 70 hours (contact time / independent study)
M3 Performance and Repertoire III
12 credit points
Week 7
Repertoire Orazio Vecchi, Pomponio Nenna
Theme Piacevole e grave versus durrezz’e ligature
Learning Goals Opposition and tension/resolution of tension
Learning outcomes Repertorial knowledge of Vecchi and Nenna; knowledge of cultural
background (‘commedia dell’arte’, ‘accademia’, etc.) and varying
modes and affects in performance; practical and vocal
understanding of the comedic and ridiculous on the one hand, and
the intense and drawn out on the other.
Assessment Internal performance/public presentation
Study Time 30 / 70 hours (contact time / independent study)
Week 8
Repertoire Thomas Vautor, Orlando Gibbons, William Lawes
Theme Nature and Philosophy in English Music from the Early 17th
Century
Learning Goals Interplay of historical awareness and present needs
Learning outcomes Repertorial knowledge of Vautor, Gibbons and Lawes; overview of
cultural context in first decades of 17th
century (English ‘pastoral’

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themes over against philosophical consolation of idealised past);
vocal and scenic strategies for conveying this theme to
contemporary audiences
Assessment Internal performance/public presentation
Study Time 30 / 70 hours (contact time / independent study)
Week 9
Repertoire Domenico Mazzochi, Claudio Pari
Theme Il cantar novo (chromatic experimentalism on Naples)
Learning Goals Acquisition of musical and technical language of chromatic
madrigal
Learning outcomes Repertorial knowledge of chromatic madrigals from Naples;
historical understanding of Naples as centre for chromatic
experimentation at end of 16th
and beginning of 17th
centuries;
awareness of historical discourses around temperaments;
appreciation of vocal and affective challenges of chromatic
madrigals.
Assessment Internal performance/public presentation
Study Time 30 / 70 hours (contact time / independent study)
M4 Performance and Repertoire IV
12 credit points
Week 10
Repertoire Thomas Tomkins, John Stafford Smith, Robert Lucas Pearsall,
Edward Elgar
Theme ‘The Power of Music’. Transmission of Secular Polyphony in
England from 1600-1900
Learning Goals Revitalising historicism
Learning outcomes Repertorial knowledge of later sweep of English part-songs;
historical understanding of continuities and discontinuities in
English madrigal production from the Baroque to Romantic
epochs; deeper appreciation of vocal delivery of English language.
Assessment Internal performance/public presentation
Study Time 30 / 70 hours (contact time / independent study)
Week 11
Repertoire Repertoire in Personal Projects and Final concert programme
Theme Presentation of Personal Projects; Directing Examinations;
Colloquia
Assessment Final examinations
Week 12
Repertoire Final concert programme
Theme Preparations for Final Concert
Assessment Final examinations