This was the same time we started to see large concert halls created specifically for the purpose of listening to concerts. It wasn’t until around 1800 that people began to appreciate musical compositions, as they do today. Would you believe that once upon a time, musical compositions were viewed as disposable, one-time-use entertainment? Could you imagine an orchestra attempting to perform a beautiful piece over the sounds of noisy patrons in a casino? How about a violin being drowned out by a dog loudly barking outside of a café? Well, this was the reality before the turn of the 18th century. Finally, we'll wrap up the module with an introduction to music of the Classical Period, and who better to lead the way than the inimitable Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart? One might say that Bach was an idealist and Handel was a realist when it came to music, so we’ll look at how these personality traits informed each composer’s musical style. Next, Bach’s music will then be compared and contrasted with that of his exact contemporary and fellow German, George Frideric Handel.
First, we'll get a chance to "live" during the Baroque period by taking a detailed look inside the life, career, and even home of Bach- explore where and how Bach and his family lived, discuss Bach’s music, and talk about the techniques of Baroque music as a whole.
But what is a fugue and how did we get it? To find out, we enter the world of Baroque music and famed master of the fugue, Johann Sebastian Bach. Novelists, poets, painters, mathematicians, and even geologists talk about "fugue-like" structure in their media and disciplines. Finally, we will see how the elements of musical composition have evolved over time and how they have been translated to a universal language enjoyed and understood by millions. We’ll also learn how classical composers used these elements in some of their most famous works and how modern artists are still using them today. You’ll find that it is both culture and the physics of music that determine why we like the music we like! From there, we’ll be ready to take a look at the basic elements of musical composition rhythm, melody, texture, etc. Then, we’ll travel to different parts of the world, comparing and contrasting both traditional and popular Western music with sounds from various regions and cultures. We’ll begin with a look at the inner workings of the human ear to determine how our brains process sound waves. What is Music? Is music simply the organization of sounds and silences passing through time? Or is it more? Poet Victor Hugo believes music is "what feelings sound like." In this first module, we’ll take apart Hugo’s seemingly simple statement by spending some time asking how and why music induces strong emotions in people across different cultures. By the end, we hope all of us have become more human (enriched our personalities) and had a rollicking good time! What makes his music great? Why does it move us? What should we listen for? And so we proceed down through Western musical history, visiting virtually the people who created it and the places where they did so. Ultimately, we reach the masters, commencing with Bach. Next, we proceed to the compositions themselves, starting with the Middle Ages and Renaissance, to show how Western music developed in ways unique to the West. We begin with the elements of music, breaking classical musical into its components of pitch, duration, and sound color, allowing us to better understand how music works. The aim of this course is to do just that: To explicate the mysteries and beauties of some of Western cultures greatest musical compositions-among them masterpieces of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, and Puccini. Why do we do it? Because it’s fun? Because it energizes or relaxes us? Because it keeps us current, allows us to understand what’s happening in past and popular culture? The pull of music-especially classical music-has never been explained. Every day around the world, billions of people listen to music of one sort or another, and millions listen to Western classical music.
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