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Briefing on the New Work assessment

What is the New Work assessment?​

Working with a composer to create a new work for the first time takes a special array of skills, and can be an exciting and fulfilling process. The New Work assessment enables you to be assessed on your performance of a new work, composed in the course of the academic session, and the collaborative process that supported it.

What do I have to do?​

The precise assignment depends on your award and department. In each case, the length and musical requirements are slightly different, but the common elements are:

  • A live performance or studio recording
  • Either an oral examination exploring the creative process in the studio or a written commentary

The details for each award and department are given Assessment Specifications for the relevant Principal Study module. No length of work is stipulated in the assessment requirements, reflecting the fact that the length in minutes of a new work does not necessarily reflect the challenge it presents. Therefore, in agreeing the arrangements for this assessment with your Head of Department, the ‘challenge’ presented by the new work needs to relate to the weighting assigned to it within the module (25% or 50%).

Please note that it is not permissible to perform a pre-existing contemporary work in this assessment, nor can there be any overlap of repertoire with another Principal Study assessment. It is also not acceptable for the new work assessment to write your own work, although this might form the basis of an independent project.

What are the examiners looking for?​

Examiners are looking for a fine performance of a new work, assessed according to the standard criteria for performance given in the Principal Study module and evidence of collaboration with the composer, which will be assessed in an oral examination.

In the oral examination, you are expected to demonstrate:

  • The nature, extent and effectiveness of your creative collaboration with the composer
  • Your role in shaping the work at different levels
  • Your understanding of the context for the new work, with reference to other works featuring your instrument

Consideration of these criteria will form the basis of the oral examination or commentary. A single holistic grade is awarded for the performance (or recording) and the oral examination or commentary.

Process​

  • Students who elect the new work assessment will have the opportunity to meet with a selection of the composers currently studying at the Conservatoire and members of the Composition Department.
  • Once you have found a composer to work with, you should arrange to meet and confirm the arrangements for the project with your Head of Department and/or the Head of MMus programme. The name of your collaborators and the details of the proposed work should be recorded on your online student record.

Strategies​

During the course of the project, you are advised to keep in touch with your Head of Department and/or the Head of MMus programme. In particular, it is important to let us know if the timelines are slipping, or the collaboration is not proving successful. If this happens, it may be possible to change to another performance assessment: such changes require a minimum of six weeks notice.

You will need to keep detailed notes on the process of working with the composer. You should make sure that you are ready to demonstrate all of the assessment requirements given above by detailed reference to specific examples – this could include sequence of annotated draft scores or excerpts from scores, notes on modifications and creative experiments, notes on practice sessions and audio or video recordings of rehearsals.

Deadline​

If you choose to be assessed in live performance, you will need to agree the timing of your assessment with your Head of Department. If you choose to be assessed through a studio recording, the deadline for submission of the recording is negotiated will be recorded on your online student record, usually no later than mid May.

Oral examinations will normally be held between a week and a fortnight after the performance or recording submission.