This subject has no exam, test, or quiz. And you don't need to write any essay in this subject. So it is a good subject to take if you are tired of having too many essays, exams or tests.👍🏻 ¶ I think this is the most useful subject that I have ever taken at the university. This is an awesome subject if you are interested in analysing music or if you just want to understand the underlying principles of music a bit better, no matter if you are a music theorist, composer, performer or just someone who likes to listen to music! ¶ This subject gives an overview of the most important analytical methods used to analyse music today. More specifically, three prominent analytical methods were taught in details (namely Schenkerian analysis, Neo-Riemannian theory, and Set theory), and two smaller analytical methods were briefly covered (namely Rhythmic/metric analysis, and Segmentation&association). Don't worry at all if you haven't heard of these terms; these will all be taught from scratch. ¶ The Theory of Schenkerian Analysis is the underlying metaphysical theory and philosophy of all mainstream music theories in the Anglophone academic world. So if you have ever studied music theory, harmony, counterpoint, or form in Australia, then by studying Schenkerian analysis, you will be able to appreciate why certain things (e.g. from your harmony studies etc) are taught in certain ways. The theory of Schenkerian analysis also unifies harmony, counterpoint, and form. Studying Schenkerian analysis really changed how I listen to music; I started to appreciate the hierarchical organisation of the notes in a pieces of music. If you are a performer, Schenkerian analysis can really shape your performance decisions; it helps you to know which notes to bring out and which notes have more of an ornamental nature, and perhaps some notes are structurally important in one level, but ornamental in a deeper level. So, I think Schenkerian analysis is not only useful to music theorists and composers, but also very useful to performers and listeners. ¶ Neo-Riemannian theory is also very interesting. Have you ever wondered the underlying harmonic principles in those (late) Romantic period pieces (and some 20th century pieces) where the harmony is very chromatic, and yet every individual chords are triadic-based? If you analyse these pieces using traditional harmonic analysis, you might find these pieces modulate very frequently (e.g. modulation at every bar) and very remotely. The underlying logic behind those wild modulations are not well uncovered by traditional tonal harmonic analysis. Neo-Riemannian theory can help you understand the underlying harmonic logic in those musical passages. The theory is surprisingly simple. You will be given a graph (called Tonnetz) with all 12 pitch's letter name on the graph. All you need to do is circle the pitches based on the harmony, and draw arrows between different circles. Depending on the orientation of the arrows, you can know what's going on harmonically. If you are a composer, neo-Riemannian theory will help you find chord progressions that you would not have think of before. It certainly helped me bridging between my tonal harmonic language and my atonal harmonic language in my composition. The harmonic progressions inspired by neo-Riemannian theory can be very beautiful. ¶ Set theory is the most common method for analysing atonal music. You may think that atonal music can be very complex, but set theory is actually as simple as counting semitones. So if you are able to count to 12, then set theory should be pretty easy to you. It's a simple but yet powerful method for understanding modern music. ¶ Rhythmic/metric analysis really helped me to understand where the rhythmic and metric emphases are. If you are a performer, knowing this analytical method can inform you about where you should emphasise in your performance. ¶ Segmentation analysis is basically just finding a motif throughout a piece. You've probably already done similar things in your ML1 and ML2 studies, so there is not much new. It's just building on it by a little bit. ¶ Elliot did a very good job at explaining those complex concepts into something that we could understand very easily. The tutorials were also very helpful; we had hands-on experiences of practicing these analytical methods during the tutorials, but I think there could have been more class interaction if it was taught face-to-face. We did it all on Zoom due to the pandemic, which is a pity, but I believe it has shifted back to on-campus mode since 2023, which is a plus. ¶ In terms of assessments, as said before, there is no exam, no test, no quiz, no essay in this subject. You just need to analyse a piece for and using each analytical method. It's pretty straightforward if you pay attention during the lectures. I didn't have much experience with any of the analytical methods before I came to the class and yet I got 93 in this subject. By the end of the semester, you even have an opportunity to pick a piece that you like and analyse it using any analytical method that you like. How great is that? I picked a piece that I've been playing for quite a while for that. It was great fun when I finally understood what's going on in that piece analytically.