Lectures (Video)
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Introduction to Instruments and Musical Genres
- 3. Rhythm: Fundamentals
- 4. Rhythm: Jazz, Pop and Classical
- 5. Melody: Notes, Scales, Nuts and Bolts
- 6. Melody: Mozart and Wagner
- 7. Harmony: Chords and How to Build Them
- 8. Bass Patterns: Blues and Rock
- 9. Sonata-Allegro Form: Mozart and Beethoven
- 10. Sonata-Allegro and Theme and Variations
- 11. Form: Rondo, Sonata-Allegro and Theme and Variations (cont)
- 12. Guest Conductor: Saybrook Youth Orchestra
- 13. Fugue: Bach, Bizet and Bernstein
- 14. Ostinato Form in the Music of Purcell, Pachelbel, Elton John and Vitamin C
- 15. Benedictine Chant and Music in the Sistine Chapel
- 16. Baroque Music: The Vocal Music of Johann Sebastian Bach
- 17. Mozart and His Operas
- 18. Piano Music of Mozart and Beethoven
- 19. Romantic Opera
- 20. The Colossal Symphony
- 21. Musical Impressionism and Exoticism
- 22. Modernism and Mahler
- 23. Review of Musical Style
Listening to Music
Course Summary
This course is based on Listening to Music, Fall 2008 made available by Yale University: Open Yale under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license.
This course fosters the development of aural skills that lead to an understanding of Western music. The musical novice is introduced to the ways in which music is put together and is taught how to listen to a wide variety of musical styles, from Bach and Mozart, to Gregorian chant, to the blues. This perennially popular introductory course in Yale is conducted by Prof. Craig Wright who has taught at Yale University since 1973. Prof. Wright suggests that "listening to music" is not simply a passive activity one can use to relax, but rather, an active and rewarding process. He argues that by learning about the basic elements of Western classical music, such as rhythm, melody, and form, one learns strategies that can be used to understand many different kinds of music in a more thorough and precise way -- and further, one begins to understand the magnitude of human greatness.
Reading Material
1. Textbook: Listening to MusicWright, Craig. Listening to Music, 5th ed. Stamford: Schirmer Cengage Learning, 2008.
