KOMPOSITORIUM
Professional Education for Composers
CURRICULUM
LEVEL 1: PIANO & SOLFEGGIO
This stage establishes fundamental piano proficiency and a rigorous understanding of basic music theory. It provides the bedrock for all future musical endeavors.
- Keyboard familiarity
- Note reading
- Basic rhythm
- Elementary harmony concepts
- Acquisition of a basic piano/keyboard repertoire in renaissance, baroque, classic and romantic styles.
LEVEL 2: EARTRAINING & TONSATZ ON PIANO
This level integrates active eartraining with practical Tonsatz (chorale harmonization) on the piano. It bridges theoretical knowledge with aural comprehension and voice-leading principles.
- Chord identification by ear
- Harmonic dictation
- Functional harmony application
- Basic voice leading
- Partimento
- Through-Bass
- Harmonisation of Melodies
- Rudimentary improvisation
- Acquisition of easy keyboard repertoire in late-romantic, atonal, impressionist, and jazz styles.
LEVEL 3: COUNTERPOINT, SCORE READING & ORCHESTRATION
This stage focuses on advanced score reading techniques and the art of orchestration. It provides understanding of how to effectively write for and combine various instruments while mastering the intricate relationships between independent melodic lines.
- Advanced score analysis (What makes this music beautiful? How was this created? How can I do this?)
- Instrumental ranges & characteristics
- Orchestral voicing
- Timbral blending
- Advanced melodic and textural studies
LEVEL 4: IMPROVISATION, MIDI MOCKUP & FILM SCORING PRAXIS
This level integrates improvisation on keyboard instruments with professional MIDI mockup in a DAW.
A solid mockup and workflow theory is the essential complement to the craftmanship you acquired that will lead to the sophisticated compositions that meet at the same time high artistical standards and film/game industry standards at the same time.
- Advanced improvisation
- Realistic MIDI orchestration
- Professional mixing for mockups
LEVEL 5: FILM SCORING THEORY, ANALYSIS & PHILOSOPHY FOR COMPOSERS
This advanced level delves into the critical analysis of complex scores and the philosophical underpinnings of music. It cultivates a deeper intellectual and artistic understanding essential for profound compositional insight and mature musical thought.
- Advanced score analysis (beyond basic reading)
- Critical listening & interpretation
- Philosophical concepts in music
- Historical & aesthetic contexts of composition
This curriculum is an overview based on the most essential requisites between disciplines. It is a starting point of reference for the student, and suffers adaptations during the process. For example: it is ideal that Level 1 includes Eartraining. However, assuming time or financial constraints, focus on piano + basic theory and start eartraining as soon as possible. Basic theory is a condition to understand some eartraining exercises. It is not a fixed “theory of learning composition,” but it is a framework very close to it, designed for practical and individualized musical development.
The curriculum is based on 3 hours weekly. Ideally, practical disciplines like sight-reading on piano and Tonsatz on piano can be integrated until the latest stages. One lesson with a systematic approach provides massive benefit to skills. The exact arrangement of extra hours next to the addition of new disciplines are discussed on a case-by-case basis.
Emanuel Magalhães Fróes (born 1986, Brazil) is a prize-winning composer, music theorist, and Kantor based in Vienna. He holds a degree in Music Theory & Composition from the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, where he studied orchestration, piano, and conducting under celebrated figures such as Jacques Rouvier, Florian Birsak, and Klaus Fessmann, a collaborator of Stockhausen. His structural comprehension is evidenced by two of his bachelor’s theses receiving the highest possible marks from Dr. Sigrid Heinzelmann, vice-president of the German Society for Music Theory. Emanuel complements this artistic education with two bachelor’s degrees in Philosophy from the University of Salzburg and the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil.
Professionally, he serves as a lecturer across multiple disciplines at one of Vienna’s oldest conservatories, drawing on previous teaching experience in Salzburg. He has worked regularly as an organist and pianist since 2013, performing frequent concerts that feature his own improvisation in one of the most famous avenues in Vienna, and has been admitted as a fixed-employed Kantor in Germany.
Emanuel is also composer for film and games on Upwork, where he is Top-Rated since 2021. Pedagogically, his rigorous curriculum successfully prepared students for demanding entrance exams in Composition and Music Theory at institutions such as the Mozarteum.
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CONTENT GUIDE