Unit Synopsis
In this unit, you will study elements of modern music as derived from both the western art-music tradition and contemporary popular music styles. These elements will cover aspects of music theory, music notation, music creation and arrangement. There will be a particular focus on creating written arrangements for various medium-sized music ensembles within a contemporary music setting.
Details
| Level | Postgraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 8 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 2 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Prerequisite: MUSC13406 Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026
Term 2 - 2026 Profile
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Written Assessment | 25% |
| 2. Written Assessment | 25% |
| 3. Online Test | 10% |
| 4. Written Assessment | 40% |
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site .
Term 2 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 100.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 27.27% response rate.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Source: Staff reflection
Review learning resources and assessment tasks with a view to improving the student experience.
Review all learning resources and assessment tasks with a view to improving the student experience.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Create an original modal music composition adhering to stylistic melodic and harmonic characteristics
- Construct four and five note mechanical voicings for a variety of musical situations
- Arrange melodic excerpts and accompaniments for SATB choir and a string quartet
- Identify pitch, rhythm, keys, scales, chords, chord progressions, melody and form through aural related tasks
- Create a music score for a medium-sized ensemble using various music arrangement techniques
- Explain decisions made during the creative process of arranging music for a medium-sized ensemble.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment | • | • | ||||
| 2 - Written Assessment | • | |||||
| 3 - Online Test | • | |||||
| 4 - Written Assessment | • | • | ||||
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Communication | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | • | • | • | • | ||
| 4 - Research | • | • | ||||
| 5 - Self-management | • | |||||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 | |