Music Composition
MIT's course in directed composition for students writing larger original works for voices and/or instruments. The centerpiece is a weekly seminar where students present work in progress for group critique and discussion, learning to defend and refine their compositional choices among peers. Alongside their own writing, students study contemporary compositions and major works from twentieth-century music literature as models and points of reference. The course culminates in a substantive original piece that each student is expected to have performed publicly by the end of the term, giving the class a real deadline and a real audience rather than a classroom exercise alone. Materials are provided through MIT OpenCourseWare under a Creative Commons license, free to access, with no certificate offered. Best suited to students who already have grounding in composition and want structured feedback on a large-scale piece.