Forensic Musicology
This course is aimed at students who write original songs, and want to develop analytical skills, alongside a deeper understanding of song copyright. In the early weeks, students practice song analysis, repertoire research, and melodic transcription, including technical tools such as tempo-matching and mix spectrography. These techniques are then used to investigate real-world copyright infringement cases, and to compare works to address the difficult question: how similar do two songs have to be before there is a risk of copyright infringement? The course culminates in individual project casework, where students choose a comparison and investigate the likelihood of whether any similarity was due to coincidence or copying, using techniques learned earlier in the course.