Lessons

Lessons

Music Composition lessons poster
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See link for details: https://openacademy.sydney.edu.au/tutor/1728

Music Composition lessons

I teach composition and music theory at the Open Academy at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, open to all ages.

As an experienced teacher with a PhD and years of expertise, I tailor lessons to each individual, offering guidance in the writing process, feedback, assistance with music software, and a diverse range of ideas to enhance and expand musical understanding, including:

  • Pitch: tonalities and modality, chromatic and microtonality, melodic cells and contour, register, voice-leading,
  • Rhythm/Duration: meter and hypermeter, polyrhythm and polymeter, additive/subtractive patterning, syncopation, groove, tempo modulation.
  • Harmony: functional harmony, secondary functions, modal interchange, extended tertian, quartal/quintal writing, planning, nonfunctional sets, parsimonious voice-leading.
  • Dynamics: phrase shaping, envelopes, accent hierarchy, microdynamics, articulation, terraced and graduated changes
  • Timbre: orchestration and registers, multiphonics, sound objects, advanced techniques, spectral thinking, synthesis and sampling, FX chains and filtration.
  • Texture: monophony/homophony/polyphony/heterophony, stratified layers, counterpoint, canon and hocket, ostinati and drones, density and space.
  • Form: phrase and period design, binary/ternary/rounded binary, variation forms, strophic/ through-composed, cyclic design, large-scale architectures (sonata, fugue, arch form, collage). Contemporary/experimental approaches (modular, aleatoric, process-based, open form).

I also offer lessons for: HSC examinations, AMEB, child education, focusing on building a strong foundation for future learning, self-confidence, and introducing musical concepts through fun, interactive, activities. Lessons are available both in person and online.

Dr Daniel Portelli

Alongside traditional analysis, I also use models that describe sound through gesture, texture, physical action, perception and independently unfolding musical parameters.

Gesture/Texture

Surrogacy, physical origin and temporal framing.

Utterance

Voice, breath, corporeal contact and bodily sound.

Behaviour

Dominance, conflict, coexistence and perceived agency.

Energy and Motion

Momentum, inertia, vectors, contour, growth and decay.

Object-Substance

Material qualities, massing, morphology, grain and continuity.

Environment

Ambient, ecological and contextual frames around sound.

Vision

Auditory imagery, quasi-visual listening and cross-modal association.

Space

Distance, width, depth, diffusion and imaginal placement.

Musique Concrète Instrumentale

Lachenmann: sound as the acoustic trace of physical, mechanical action.

Parametric Polyphony

Ferneyhough: pitch, rhythm, dynamics, technique and gesture unfold independently.

Neutral Heterophony

Ablinger: sound identities dissolve into murmur, shifting focus from what is played to how listening happens.

Micropolyphony

Ligeti: many closely spaced lines move independently, creating a dense musical fabric in which individual voices blur into shifting texture, mass and internal motion.

Based on: John Coulter—Extension of Denis Smalley’s Model of Creativity: https://vimeo.com/112869189

Modern & Contemporary Textbooks

  • Music Composition in the 21st Century: A Practical Guide for the New Common Practice, Robert Carl. A clear guide to contemporary composition, including technology, minimalism, sound art, collaboration, and stylistic diversity. Buy / eBook: Bloomsbury
  • Techniques of the Contemporary Composer, David Cope. A practical introduction to twentieth-century and contemporary techniques, including serialism, indeterminacy, algorithmic composition, and electronic music. Borrow / locate: Open Library
  • Materials and Techniques of Post-Tonal Music, Stefan Kostka and Matthew Santa. A strong foundation for analysing and composing post-tonal music, including pitch-class sets, scalar materials, and twentieth-century techniques. Buy / eBook: Routledge
  • Creative Music Composition: The Young Composer’s Voice, Margaret Lucy Wilkins. A practical book for developing an individual compositional voice, with examples across instruments, voice, and electronic music. Buy / eBook: Taylor & Francis

Methodological & Technical Readings

  • Composing with Constraints: 100 Practical Exercises in Music Composition, Jorge Variego. A practical exercise-based book for developing ideas through limits, systems, and compositional challenges. Buy / eBook: Oxford University Press
  • Twentieth-Century Harmony: Creative Aspects and Practice, Persichetti. A classic text on harmonic materials and practices after 1900. Buy: W. W. Norton
  • The Technique of My Musical Language, Olivier Messiaen. Messiaen’s own account of his rhythmic, melodic, and modal techniques, including modes of limited transposition. Buy: Hal Leonard
  • New Musical Resources, Henry Cowell. A landmark text on tone clusters, rhythm, pitch organisation, and expanded musical materials. Buy: Cambridge University Press

Cross-Cultural & Analytical PerspectivesAesthetic & Philosophical Readings

  • Analytical and Cross-Cultural Studies in World Music, Michael Tenzer and John Roeder, eds. An advanced university-level collection that examines musical structures across different traditions, including rhythm, form, pattern, and analytical method. It is useful because it does not treat Western art music as the default model, but instead gives students tools for comparing complex musical systems across cultures. Buy / locate: Oxford University Press
  • The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century, Alex Ross. An accessible history of twentieth-century music, composers, politics, aesthetics, and listening culture. Buy: HarperCollins
  • Silence: Lectures and Writings, John Cage. A foundational text for chance, indeterminacy, experimental music, and twentieth-century sound aesthetics. Buy: Amazon
  • A Composer’s World: Horizons and Limitations, Paul Hindemith. A reflective book on composition, aesthetics, craft, and the practical limits of musical creation. Buy: Hal Leonard

Instrumentation & Notation

  • Behind Bars: The Definitive Guide to Music Notation, Elaine Gould. A major reference for modern score preparation, notation clarity, layout, and professional engraving practice. Buy: Faber Music
  • The Study of Orchestration, Samuel Adler. A widely used orchestration textbook covering orchestral instruments, ranges, techniques, and ensemble writing. Buy: W. W. Norton
  • Music Notation in the Twentieth Century: A Practical Guidebook, Kurt Stone. A useful guide to notating contemporary techniques and twentieth-century performance practices. Buy: The Nile
  • Instrumentation and Orchestration, Alfred Blatter. A detailed orchestration and instrumentation reference, especially useful for instrumental ranges, combinations, and practical writing. Borrow / locate: Open Library
  • Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom, Robert Hutchinson. A free online music theory textbook with downloadable PDFs and exercises. Free online text: Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom