A-level Composing: Getting Started

Choose a 'Model' Composition

  • Begin by choosing a 'model' composition.

  • This model should be a piece of music which you admire. Even better if it is a piece you know well because you have studied, played or sung it before.

  • This model should be similar to the piece of music you hope to compose. It should have similar performing forces and stylistic features.

  • This model should be for small forces: normally between one and five instrumental or vocal lines.

  • Most importantly, this model should be tonally and/or harmonically complex: the highest scoring A level compositions submitted by Tiffin students have included prominent dissonance and chromaticism.

  • This model may come from western art or jazz traditions/genres. (The harmonic simplicity of models from pop genres usually make them unsuitable).

  • Consequently, this model will, most likely, be a piece of 20th Century, late 19th Century or 21st Century harmonically complex music.

  • You will borrow material from this model composition, especially harmonic and textural material, to compose your own piece.

  • Therefore you must bring with you to EVERY COMPOSITION LESSON/CLINIC a PRINTED SCORE OF YOUR MODEL COMPOSITION. No model composition: no progress.

Recommended Model Compositions

The following works, some used successfully by former A-level students, are examples of suitable model compositions:

Solo Piano Models

  • Bartok 3 Hungarian Folksongs

  • Bartok 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs

  • Berg Piano Sonata

  • Copland Cat and Mouse

  • Copland Passacaglia

  • Debussy Estampes

  • Debussy Preludes

  • Gershwin 3 Preludes

  • Gershwin An American in Paris for Piano

  • Gershwin Promenade for Piano

  • Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue for Solo Piano

  • Gershwin Song Arrangements for Piano

  • Poulenc 10 Improvisations

  • Ravel Le Tombeau de Couperin

  • Stravinsky Firebird for Piano

  • Villa Lobos Homage a Chopin

Solo Voice Models

  • Berg 4 Songs

  • Debussy 2 Romances

  • Debussy 4 Melodies

  • Debussy 12 Songs

  • Debussy Nuit d’etoiles

  • Gurney Five Elizabethan Songs

  • Holst Vedic Hymns

  • Honegger 6 Poemes Appollinaire

  • Poulenc 5 Poemes Max Jacob

  • Ravel 3 Poemes Mallarme

  • Schoenberg 4 Lieder

  • Vaughan Williams 5 Mystical Songs

String Models

  • Bartok Music for Strings Percussion and Celesta

  • Bartok String Quartet 1

  • Berg Violin Concerto

  • Debussy String Quartet in G minor

  • Debussy Violin Sonata

  • Honegger Cello Sonata

  • Ives Violin Sonata 4

  • Kodaly String Quartet 1

  • Ravel String Quartet

  • Ravel Violin Sonata

  • Schoenberg String Quartet 1

  • Stravinsky 3 Pieces for String Quartet

  • Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending (Vln Pno)

  • Villa Lobos String Quartet 1

  • Weill String Quartet

Woodwind Models

  • Bernstein Clarinet Sonata

  • Debussy Premiere Rhapsodie (Clarinet)

  • Finzi Five Bagatelles (Clarinet)

  • Finzi Oboe Quintet

  • Honegger Concerto da Camera (Fl CA Pno)

  • Honegger Romance (Flute)

  • Honegger Sonatine (Clarinet)

  • Poulenc Clarinet Sonata

  • Poulenc Flute Sonata

  • Poulenc Oboe Sonata

  • Prokofiev Flute Sonata

  • Prokofiev Quintet (Ob Cl Vln Vla Db)

  • Stravinsky Histoire du Soldat (Cl Vln Pno)

Brass Models

  • Enescu Legende (Trumpet)

  • Guilmant Morceau de Symphonique (Trombone)

  • Hindemith Trombone Sonata

  • Hindemith Trumpet Sonata

  • Ibert Impromptu (Trumpet)

  • Poulenc Elegie (Horn)

  • Vaughan Williams Tuba Concerto

Choral Models

  • Debussy 3 Chansons de Charles Orleans

  • Hindemith Mass

  • Howells Like As The Hart

  • Howells Requiem

  • Poulenc 4 Christmas Motets

  • Poulenc 4 Lent Motets

  • Poulenc Mass in G major

  • Schoenberg Friede auf Erden

  • Vaughan Williams Lord Thou Has Been Our Refuge

  • Vaughan Williams Mass in G minor

  • Vaughan Williams Three Shakespeare Songs

Jazz Influenced Models

Use these with caution: lead sheets must be paired with fully notated models

  • Afro Blue Santamaria 22

  • All My Tomorrows, Cahn/Van Heusen 28

  • All The Things You Are, Bill Evans

  • Alone Together Schwartz 32

  • Angel Eyes, Dennis 37

  • Anthropology, Bud Powell

  • Armageddon, Wayne Shorter 43

  • Autumn In New York, Vernon Duke 46

  • Autumn Leaves, Chick Corea

  • Beautiful Love, Bill Evans

  • Beauty And The Beast, Wayne Shorter 53

  • Bewitched, Rodgers and Hart 56

  • Big Nick, John Coltrane 57

  • Black Orpheus, Luiz Bonfa 62

  • Blue In Green, Miles Davis 66

  • Blue Room, Rodgers and Hart 68

  • Blues for Alice, Charlie Parker 70

Jazz Influenced Models

Use these with caution: lead sheets must be paired with fully notated models

  • Body and Soul, Green 72

  • Ceora, Lee Morgan 86

  • Con Alma, Dizzie Gillespie 102

  • Conception, George Shearing 103

  • Confirmation, Charlie Parker 105

  • Countdown, John Coltrane 110

  • Crescent, John Coltrane 112

  • Crystal Silence, Chick Corea 113

  • Displacement, Bill Evans

  • It Might As Well Be Spring, Brad Mehldau

  • Gershwin 3 Preludes

  • Gershwin An American in Paris for Piano

  • Gershwin Promenade for Piano

  • Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue for Solo Piano

  • Gershwin Song Arrangements for Piano

  • Gershwin The Man I Love for Piano