Plan de Estudios
Bachelor's Degree in Music Composition

Foundation for individual music creation through the use of traditional and current tonal tools. It builds towards the final composition of a concert piece for trio, to be performed in the Projects course.

Strategies of collaborative work. Defence and feasibility of a project. Concept of the work. Form and structure. Basic formal and harmonic resources. Music composition techniques. Search for sonorities. Originality vs. novelty. Styles and broadening of aesthetic horizons. Analysis and reflection on the music discourse from the perspective of the composer.

Understanding of the fundamental references in music to develop a career as a composer. Development of creative thinking by encouraging an active interest in music from different environments and in different compositional styles. Melodic, harmonic and formal analysis of the languages of different periods, schools, artists, and cultures. Music of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, Classicism, Romanticism, 20th and 21st centuries.

Progress in the understanding and piano interpretation of the various elements of tonal music, through different exercises and the study of a suitable instrumental repertory. Development of piano technique from a contemporary jazz perspective.

Different techniques and ways to approach voice music and to use the body as a music tool in different contexts and styles.

Ear training techniques, exercises and other knowledge to develop and use this skill in musical activity. Listening processes and connection of internal-external hearing through voice: natural major and minor scale notes. Rhythms and beats. Regular rhythmic figures, duplets and triplets.

Technical possibilities and characteristics (acoustic and timbre) of the instruments in a symphony orchestra: string, woodwind, brass, percussion, plucked string and keyboard instruments. Introduction to sound libraries and working with digital sound.

Advanced use of Sibelius music notation software. Tools, notation editing, automatic and personalised settings, xml, mid, pdf, aiff/wav and video files based on own projects. Writing for solo instruments, templates, plugins, shortcuts, lead sheet, score, arrangements for jazz/rock/pop combos, writing for chamber groups and creation of different learning materials.

Basics of sound and acoustics. Microphones. Template planning and production. The audio chain. Mixing tables. Sound design. MIDI integration. Sound mixing automation and image-sound synchronization.

Composition of musical forms in different historical styles. Command of musical notation and own techniques. Knowledge of the main resources of applied harmonics: formation of scales and chords, syntactic and morphological resources used in tonal and modal harmony.

Production of a music project: concept, team and budget, distribution and management. Composition: own proposal, composition techniques, structure and content. Personality and creativity: influences, intertextual techniques, group originality. Defense of the work: reflection and analysis of the musical discourse, diction and argumentation, advanced musical editing.

Understanding the impact of culture on artistic creation. Identification of the most representative currents from the Middle Ages to the present. Creative systems; structure; rhythm and non-western creation processes; harmonic evolution and connection with contemporary music.

Tonal harmony: basic modulation progressions, modulations, augmented chords. Modal harmony: first steps, freedom in harmonic functionality, chord freedom, tensions and resolutions. Repertoire and sight-reading: intermediate-level sight-reading techniques, voice accompaniment, improvisation.

Putting into practice of the most complex elements of musical language, and subsequent execution by means of the body and voice. Amalgamations, polyrhythms, secondary dominants, modulation and modal dictations, based on the materials assimilated in Ear Training I.

Identification and application of specific orchestration techniques (acoustic, timbral, idiomatic), the different musical textures, and instrumentation. Interpretation techniques and musical decisions, midi models and analysis of the different orchestral methods.

Judicial and legal framework for the creation and production of musical works in Spain. Rights related to intellectual property, industrial property, image, collective management, exploitation and more.

This course prepares students to pass the TFI (Test de Français International) official language exam. Students that are in possession of a valid B1-level or superior French language level certificate accepted by the Rey Juan Carlos University (URJC) may be able to apply to the URJC for credit validation for the course.

Understanding the impact of culture on artistic creation. Identification of the most representative currents from the Middle Ages to the present. Creative systems; structure; rhythm and non-western creation processes; harmonic evolution and connection with contemporary music.

Harmony, written, rhythm vs. rhythmic perception, advanced rhythmic writing systems. Non-vocal melodies, melody as texture. Form and structure: new concepts of formal discourse, texture and timbre as form. Compositional techniques and notation of the 20th and 21st centuries (I), new technologies. Creativity: advanced free writing, personality and technique.

Composition of complex musical pieces (5-7 minutes) for a medium/large chamber ensemble. Project creation and production viability. Composition of complex musical forms. Experimentation with new forms of creation and unconventional instrumental techniques. New technologies as an expressive medium. The rehearsal process of a work.

Korngold and audiovisual post-romanticism. Silent film: dramatic resources, accompaniment and scene enhancement. Percussion and extended techniques as effect. Texture and image: Ligeti and Kubrick, texture and emptiness as tension, techniques of creating space through music. Experimental theatre and cinema. Neo-symphonism: historical recreations, symphonic poem and relation with audiovisuals, Wagner, John Williams.

Tonal harmony: modulating progressions, chromatic harmony, diminished chords, enharmonic modulations. Modal harmony: Debussy and Satie, jazz fusion, dominants by extension, flamenco and bimodalism. Chord and chord extension: fourth and fifth chords, parallel chord, polychords, sound blocks, fingering. Advanced sight-reading techniques, voice accompaniment and improvisation.

Listening and performance of music with high tonal chromaticism and bimodality, the musical language of the early 20th century and the Renaissance, composition of complex time signatures and rhythms and the use of all keys in polyphony of up to 4 voices in all keys.

Tradition and modernity: new tonal uses, melody texture, neo-romanticism, post-minimalism, fusion, mystical minimalism, orchestral music, post-spectralism. Extended techniques: noise as function, decontextualized instruments, instrumental gesture as motif, silence and music. Popular and avant-garde music. New discipline: the body as instrument, theatre and music.

Origin of urban popular music. Jazz and its development (I): history, blues music, jazz types, bebop, cool jazz, John Coltrane, musical structures. Rock and its development (I): origins, rock & roll, hard rock, punk, heavy metal, harmonic and formal structures. Flamenco (I): history and origins, styles, development, basic harmonic structures. Electronic music: history, types, structures, textural processes.

Techniques: tutti, primary secondary and tertiary elements in the orchestra. Textures: orchestration of a melody, types of instrumental mix, orchestral techniques. Form: structure of a piece in relation to its orchestral changes, mass and timbre as form. Reduction and transcription. New Media: contemporary orchestral techniques.

History and types of recording: analog vs. digital, recording techniques, phases of multitrack record production, pro studio vs. home studio, specific equipment, microphone preamps, hardware. Recording studio: multitrack (planning and pre-production), mixing (dynamics processors, time and modulation effects), bounce and mastering (basic concepts of mastering).

Style and composition: textural music, the orchestra as instrument, 20th and 21st-century compositional techniques and notation systems, new simplicity and new complexity, spectralism. New technologies: use and expansion of sound and mixed music. Free form and original development.

Composition: development of personal aesthetic; new avenues of melodic expression; textures, melody as axis; new instrumental techniques; the body as instrument; handling the orchestra. Project: concept and development, search for financing, direction and follow-up. Rehearsal technics and defense. Search for originality, towards personal expression.

Zarzuela and audiovisual opera. Music for post-dramatic theater. Leitmotiv and musical characterization. Orchestral symphonic and electronic music.

Relationship between styles leading to fusion. Intertext and hypertext in popular urban music. Construction and structures. Jazz and its development: free jazz, fusion jazz, hard bop, acid jazz. Rock and its development: progressive rock, symphonic rock, power metal, trash and evolution, power chords. Flamenco: fusion, Paco de Lucía and Camarón, Enrique Morente, Mauricio Sotelo. Hip hop: rap culture, trap, reggaeton and latin mainstream.

The workings of the music industry. Uses of music content. The musician as entrepreneur. Marketing in music. Current state of the music industry. Business initiative. Strategic planning and definition of business opportunities. How to put together a business plan.

The purpose of business internships is to obtain practical experience that helps towards insertion in the labor market and raises the future employability of students, contributing to their full education and training, and providing them with knowledge of the work methodologies in the field of music and improving the development of technical, methodological, personal and participatory methodologies.

Attendance to artistic, cultural, student and cooperation events of the school, and artistic entrepreneurship.

In the undergraduate thesis project, students produce an individual, original, and autonomous work under the guidance of a professor, in which they apply and development the knowledge and skills they have acquired in their Degree.