Composition techniques
*break week: 27 May 2025.
Why do I need an advice session
Choose a starting date
Learning modes and locations may be different depending on the course start date. Please check the location of your chosen course and read our guide to learning modes and locations to help you choose the right course for you.
- Start Date: 16 Sep 2025End Date: 25 Nov 2025Tue (Daytime): 10:30 - 12:30In PersonLocation: Keeley StreetDuration: 10 sessions (over -11 weeks)Course Code: MG854ATutors: Edward HendersonFull fee £259.00 Senior fee £207.00 Concession £181.00
- Start Date: 13 Jan 2026End Date: 24 Mar 2026Tue (Daytime): 10:30 - 12:30In PersonLocation: Keeley StreetDuration: 10 sessions (over -11 weeks)Course Code: MG854BTutors: Edward HendersonFull fee £259.00 Senior fee £207.00 Concession £181.00
- Start Date: 21 Apr 2026End Date: 30 Jun 2026Tue (Daytime): 10:30 - 12:30In PersonLocation: Keeley StreetDuration: 10 sessions (over -11 weeks)Course Code: MG854CTutors: Edward HendersonFull fee £259.00 Senior fee £207.00 Concession £181.00
- Start Date: 29 Apr 2025End Date: 08 Jul 2025This course has startedTue (Daytime): 10:30 - 12:30In PersonLocation: Keeley StreetDuration: 10 sessions (over -11 weeks)Course Code: MG854CTutors: Edward HendersonFull fee £249.00 Senior fee £199.00 Concession £174.00
Please note: We offer a wide variety of financial support to make courses affordable. Just visit our online Help Centre for more information on a range of topics including fees, online learning and FAQs.
What is the course about?
This term will focus on your own compositional project with special consideration of piano textures. This course is based on the analysis of composition techniques and listening and analysis of contemporary and experimental repertoire. You will be encouraged to try out different techniques and incorporate them into your existing composition practice. The aim of the course will be to write a short piano piece for an advanced piano student at City Lit for an informal performance at the college.
What will we cover?
The elements of texture and timbre and their application:
- textural principles: density, homophony and polyphony.
- timbre: grain and colour of sound
- colour: ranges and opportunities of instruments
- some extended techniques.
- the course will look at piano music by: Ravel, Debussy, Cassandra Miller and Messiaen.
What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...
- Understand the role of texture and timbre in musical composition
- Understand the technical and idiomatic capacities of voices and selected instruments
- Apply this understanding in exercises for instruments and voices to exploit idiomatic qualities
- Make informed aesthetic choices about using texture and timbre in your own composition.
- Practical skills related to working with a performer on a piece.
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
You need solid knowledge of music theory to at least Grade 6 standard, including understanding of metre and rhythm, intervals and conventional music notation, as well as experience on an instrument or voice. Entrance to this course is via a short test: please email music@citylit.ac.uk if you have further questions or click the ‘start my interview’ button on this page and we’ll contact you.
Do try this composition workshop chord naming quiz [external website] to get an idea of the entrance level of this course.
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
- group discussion and feedback
- guided analytical listening, score study, discussion and playing/singing of examples
- class and individual exercises in writing using the techniques studied
- playing / singing of exercises
- playing through and critiquing student exercises and compositions
- presenting your composition project to the group in performance or via recording/Sibelius files etc….
Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?
Please bring your own manuscript paper, pencil and eraser. Other musical materials will be supplied by the tutor. You may need to bring your instrument to class to play the exercises and compositions.
When I've finished, what course can I do next?
Composition Techniques runs every term, and different topics are studied each term. You may also be interested in Song writing, Music production, Music theory, Music history, or one of City Lit’s many practical instrumental, singing and ensemble courses.
For more details about musicianship and music theory please visit our blog: Musicianship and music theory at City lit which lists our full sequence of musicianship and music theory classes.
Edward is a composer who studied at Cambridge and Trinity Laban. He teaches composition and music history at City Lit, Morley College and Trinity Laban Junior Department, and writes about music for The Wire (UK) and Positionen (Germany). His latest work includes a commission for the London Contemporary Music Festival 2024. Previous significant work includes “Flower” (recorded by the BBC at the Aldeburgh Festival 2019 and broadcast on the New Music Show), “One Two” (Cologne 2022), Will (Oslo and Cambridge), “Hold” (Huddersfield 2017), and “Tape Piece” ( LCMF 2015). Since 2013 Ed has worked with Bastard Assignments curating, performing and contributing work to regular shows in London and internationally. Their performances at Southbank Centre (2016) and Wellcome Collection (2017) were broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, and they have featured in articles in the Guardian, Telegraph, Financial Times, Frieze, and Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. In 2024 a profile on the group, “Family Dynamics,” was broadcast in Germany. They have been commissioned for a large scale performance in Norway, Denmark and London in 2025 and 2026, and “House” for Musik Installationen Nürnberg in 2025.
Please note: We reserve the right to change our tutors from those advertised. This happens rarely, but if it does, we are unable to refund fees due to this. Our tutors may have different teaching styles; however we guarantee a consistent quality of teaching in all our courses.
