Enjoyment of Music (Adult Session)

The focus of this course is on some of the most beloved masterpieces of Western art music in their historical and cultural contexts. The main purpose of this course is to derive pleasure from listening and thinking about music. The specific goals of the course are to awaken and encourage active, critical, and comparative listening practices, to give you the tools to respond to a variety of musical idioms in the Western tradition, and to engage you in the issues of various debates about the character and purposes of music that have occupied composers and musical thinkers since ancient times.

The course begins with the fundamentals of musical concepts and vocabulary in order to develop a shared level of discourse in the class. We will then look at the changing genres and styles of music, examining composer’s choices and assumptions, as well as those of their patrons and audiences, as we move chronologically (though not by connecting the dots—this is not a history course) from the Middle Ages to the present. Your critical perceptions and responses to the music will be a vital part of the class. No musical background is presupposed.

No textbook is required for this course. The primary texts of this class are pieces of music. As a part of a guided listening, you will be asked specific questions about each piece. Class participation is essential. The purpose of the course is to help you get accustomed to speaking about music. Although for many of you it might feel foreign and unnatural at first, everyone is encouraged to take part in the discussion.

CLASS 1: Elements of Music / Medieval music

CLASS 2: Renaissance

CLASS 3: Baroque

CLASS 4: Viennese Classicism: Mozart, Haydn

CLASS 5: Viennese Classicism continued: Beethoven

CLASS 6: Early Romanticism: Schubert and Berlioz

CLASS 7: Romanticism continued: Chopin and the Schumanns

CLASS 8: Opera: Bizet and Wagner

CLASS 9: Modernism in Paris and Vienna: Debussy, Stravinsky, Schoenberg

CLASS 10: Modernism in the United States/Jazz

WHEN: Every Thursday between October 1 and December 3, except Thanksgiving week.

COST: $200 for 10 Lectures

REGISTER HERE