UNISA Composition Studies Course Module 2025-2026
Major combinations:
NQF Level: 5: CST1501, CST1502
NQF Level: 6: CST2601, CST2602, CST2603
NQF Level: 7: CST3702, CST3703, CST3704, CST3705, CST3706, CST3712
It is advised that students have regular access to a computer for the above-mentioned modules. Students who have completed CST3701 will be exempted from the module CST3712.
| Composition Models 1: Tonal Music – CST1501 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 5 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Purpose: To enable students to explore the structural, harmonic and contrapuntal aspects of tonal compositions with a clear texture and a predominantly diatonic harmonic vocabulary. They will gain skills in studying music for ensemble (e.g. four-part choir/ string quartet) using short score and open score formats. |
| Composition Models 2: Modal and Tonal Counterpoint – CST1502 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 5 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Purpose: To enable students to explore the structural and contrapuntal processes in selected compositions from the 16th, 18th and 20th centuries. They will gain skills in studying both vocal and instrumental mediums, and will be able to create short original compositions using these models. |
| Music Technology 1: Midi – CST2601 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 6 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Purpose: To provide students with the skills required to work creatively with pitched and unpitched sound using the MIDI protocol. They will become familiar with the General MIDI standard and work with MIDI sequencers using tracks, channels, patches, and quantization. They will also gain knowledge of the repertoire of electronic and electro-acoustic music. This work will stimulate the students own compositional activities. |
| Composition Models 3: Chromaticism – CST2602 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 6 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Pre-requisite: CST1501 & CST1502 |
|
| Purpose: To familiarize students with a selected repertoire of music that incorporates chromaticism. This repertoire will focus on, but not be limited To, the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Learners will be able to apply this harmonic vocabulary in the composition of their own music and understand some implications of chromatic material on the structure of music. They will also gain some experience of studying music in orchestral score format. |
| Composition Models 4: Music Analysis – CST2603 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 6 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Pre-requisite: CST1501 & CST1502 |
|
| Purpose: To familiarize students with the structure and syntax of a selected repertoire of music from the 17th to 19th centuries through the application of a range of analytical techniques. They will be able to create original compositions in a variety of mediums using selected models. |
| African Composition Resources – CST3701 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 7 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Pre-requisite: CST2602 |
|
| Purpose: To enable students to explore and gain an understanding of compositional resources used in the music of various cultural groups within various African and Asian traditions. Students will create original compositions, based on models they have studied in this module. |
| Modernist Composition Resources – CST3702 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 7 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Pre-requisite: CST2602 |
|
| Purpose: To enable students to explore and gain understanding of resources available to composers of the first half of the twentieth century. They will become familiar with a selected repertoire of seminal works by major composers from America, Europe and South Africa. Students will create original compositions, based on the models that they have studied in this module. |
| Postmodern Composition Resources – CST3703 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 7 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Pre-requisite: CST2602 |
|
| Purpose: To enable students to explore and gain understanding of the resources available to composers since the late 1960s. They will become familiar with a selected repertoire of seminal works by major composers from America, Europe and South Africa. Students will create original compositions, based on the models that they have studied in this module. |
| Free Composition – CST3704 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 7 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Pre-requisite: CST2602 |
|
| Purpose: To enable students to create a portfolio of original compositions in different musical mediums. They will draw on the wide range of models and resources they have studied in their composition modules. At least one of these will be publicly performed. |
| Performing Practice – CST3705 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 7 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Purpose: To enable students to understand the basic principles of performing practice in Western music since the late 16th century and to explore the historical resources that underpin our knowledge of those principles in order to apply them convincingly in performing music today. |
| Music Technology 2: Digital Audio – CST3706 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 7 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Purpose: To introduce students to acoustics and the manipulation of sound waves for artistic/musical purposes using sampling techniques and a variety of waveform editing and sequencing programs. They will also study the history and current repertoire of electronic and electro-acoustic music in addition to the current thinking behind the manipulation/organisation of sound. This will enhance the student’s ongoing compositional activities with both pitched and unpitched sound. |
