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Five centuries of composition.
One integrated path.

Most composition courses teach theory as a collection of rules. Gradus teaches it as history: each stage is a century of composers solving real problems, and you follow their thinking step by step. You don’t just learn what the rules are — you understand why they exist, where they came from, and when great composers chose to break them.

The curriculum runs from Pythagoras and Palestrina through Stravinsky, Messiaen, and Arvo Pärt. Ten stages of study. Ear training, theory, sight reading, orchestration, and score study are woven into every stage — not separate courses, but a single fabric. When you study chromatic harmony in Stage III, the score library opens to Brahms. When you reach whole-tone scales in Stage IV, Debussy’s La Mer is waiting with seventy annotations.

Each stage ends with a composition project — a real piece, written for real instruments, using everything you have learned. Stage I ends with a solo modal composition. Stage II ends with a string quartet. Stage V ends with a complete orchestral work in your chosen style. The curriculum doesn’t just build knowledge. It builds a composer.

Curriculum — five-stage historical journey

gradusmusic.com/curriculum
Stage I
Pre-Classical
Steps 1–13
Pythagoras · Palestrina · Fux
The harmonic series, modal scales, Renaissance voice leading, and all five species of Fux counterpoint — the method from which all Western tonal writing descends.
In Progress
Stage II
Classical Era
Steps 14–25
Haydn · Mozart · Beethoven
Functional harmony, the tonic–dominant axis, modulation, classical form, fugue, and sonata. Dissonance becomes purposeful: every tension earns its release, every phrase answers its question.
Stage III
Romantic Era
Steps 26–30
Brahms · Wagner · Tchaikovsky
Chromatic harmony, borrowed chords, and vast orchestral forces. Resolution stretches across entire movements. The principles of tension and release remain — pushed to new extremes.
Stage IV
Impressionist Era
Steps 31–33
Debussy · Ravel · Holst
Parallel dissonant chords as texture. Whole-tone scales with no tonal pull. Sound as pure color. The moment Western music discovers that dissonance can be beautiful in itself.
Stage V
Modern Era
Steps 34–40
Stravinsky · Bartók · Messiaen · Pärt
Atonality, serialism, extended techniques, and polytonality — each system a different composer's answer to: what is possible now? The same aesthetic principles that governed Palestrina still govern Stravinsky.
Begin Your Journey