Individual Lessons and Masterclasses • Workshops • Techniques of Composition • Orchestration • Electronic Music • Analysis • Aesthetics

Undergraduate

This course offers some of the most stimulating and creative training for composers available in the UK, and the list of distinguished composers that the School has produced supports this. Our guiding principle is that composers should develop in collaboration with technically proficient, sympathetic instrumentalists, under the expert guidance of experienced practitioners. At the heart of the course is the workshop process and we make a commitment to workshop every piece that students write, from their first exercises for one or two instruments, to ensemble and orchestral pieces in their third and fourth year. 

Teaching is delivered by Composition Professors through weekly lessons that focus on developing your individual voice and fostering your creative imagination. These are supported by a lively programme of Composers’ Classes, in which a variety of techniques and approaches to composition are explored, including historical techniques, contemporary techniques, non-western techniques, orchestration, electronic music and music technology. There are also classes in Analysis, to help you develop skills to investigate music in a systematic way, and Aesthetics, to encourage you to consider the difficult questions about what music is, how it relates to other art forms, the role it might play in the wider culture, and ultimately to formulate your own artistic vision. Support for your learning is provided through the library – with its generous stock of books, scores, recordings and online resources – and a dedicated room of composer workstations.

Our aim is that at the end of four years, not only will you be well on the road to finding your individual voice, you will also know a great deal about the craft and art of composition as it is practiced today, as it was practiced in the past, and as it is practiced in a wide range of musical cultures throughout the world. Music develops through encounters with all kinds of other music, as well as other art forms, and we want our students to be alive to the possibility of finding inspiration anywhere. We actively encourage our students to engage with musical traditions beyond the boundaries of Western classical music. In addition to their music for classical ensembles, some of our students are active in the fields of pop music, or experimental electronica; some will be particularly engaged with African or Asian music, or with Jazz. And as one would expect at a school of Music and Drama, there are frequent opportunities to collaborate with actors and directors in the creation of music for school productions.

Owing to the School’s location within an international arts venue, distinguished visiting composers pass through our doors regularly, giving masterclasses, seminars and individual lessons to our students. The department enjoys close working relationships with a number of external partners including Aldeburgh Music, and the Wigmore Hall, organisations such as the British Music Information Centre, and the Society for the Promotion of New Music, orchestras such as the BBC Symphony, Philharmonia or Orchestra of the Swan, and festivals such as the City of London Festival and Spitalfields Festival. New Music performance at Guildhall School includes an annual week-long festival in the summer term, a lively student-run society for New Music and concerts given by the Guildhall New Music Ensemble.

If you would like further information, or a detailed outline of our course, please contact the Composition Department Administrator to request a copy. Or read our Frequently Asked Questions about the Composition course 

Alternatively, come to our Open Day, when the content of the course will be explained in more depth and you will have the opportunity to ask questions.

Recent Department Highlights 

• The School’s New Music Ensemble annually performs in the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s Total Immersion composer days, recently: Brett Dean, Brian Ferneyhough, Unsuk Chin and Peter Eotvos (2011); Hans Werner Henze (2010); Stockhausen, Murail, Xenakis, George Crumb (2009).  In March 2012, Guildhall composition students Jason Anderson, Benjamin Graves and Peter Yarde Martin wrote ensemble pieces for the Brett Dean day, later broadcast on BBC Radio 3 
• Voiceworks – AHRC Funded Research Project with the Contemporary Poetics Research Centre, Birkbeck College, resulting in annual performances at the Wigmore Hall, streamed live on www.voiceworks.org.uk
• London Contemporary Dance School collaborations: each year postgraduate composers collaborate with dance school choreographers to produce new works featured in a series of public performances at The Place 
• Orchestral premieres by Guildhall composers Edmund Finnis, Ed Nesbitt and Francisco Coll featured in Guildhall Symphony Orchestra concerts at the Barbican Hall

Recent Student Successes 

Raymond Yiu (DMus Composition) Winner of the British Composer Award for Chamber Work Northwest Wind

Alumni include 

Francisco Coll (Composition 2011)
Mica Levi (Composition 2009), Raisa Khan, Marc Pell (Electronic Music 2009) aka Micachu and the Shapes 
Tansy Davies (Composition 1998), composer and recipient of Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award 
Dario Marianelli (Composition 1994), Oscar-winning film composer 
Thomas Adès (Composition 1989)
Guy Chambers (Composition 1985), songwriter and producer
Debbie Wiseman MBE FGS (Composition 1984), film and television composer 
Harry Gregson-Williams (Composition 1981), Grammy-nominated film composer