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Music 250 begins with a brief exploration of the
vocabulary useful in listening to European music.
We then examine briefly the music of the Middle
Ages (to 1450), the Renaissance (1450-1600) and the
Early Baroque (1600-1700). The main body of the
course surveys, primarily through listening, the
musical created by European composers from 1700 to
the present. This is the music of Bach and Handel;
Haydn and Mozart; Beethoven; Schubert, Schumann,
Berlioz, Liszt and Chopin; Brahms and Wagner;
Mahler, Strauss and Tchaikovsky; Debussy and Ravel;
Bartok, Stravinsky and Hindemith; Schoenberg, Berg
and Webern; Prokofiev and Shostakovich; Boulez and
Stockhausen, and many more Throughout the semester,
we will contrast specific types of European music
with examples drawn from the music of the
non-Western world; we will also build skill in
navigating music from any time or place. . Class
time includes guided listening, demonstrations,
videos, lectures, guest performers and class
discussion.
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Classical European music is often regarded as
"high culture", requiring extensive training to
"appreciate" its intricacies. Yet much of this
music served a role more like the popular music of
today; and until the end of the nineteenth century,
the main focus of listening--classical or
popular--was the most recent music. Today a major
part of the currently performed classical music
repertoire--like the repertoire of drama --is drawn
from works of the past. So what do we need to learn
about classical music to be able to listen to it
with pleasure? Mostly, you just need to listen. You
may be surprised at this answer! This is a class
about stripping away the "difficult" reputation of
classical music, to reveal its present
functioning--especially of older music--as just one
more way to experience the world in sound. And
that's hat all music is about.
No prior knowledge of music is assumed for
this class.
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