"The Great courses, Topic: Fine arts & music ; Subtopic: Music appreation"--Cover. "Course no. 7261"--Disc labels. 16 lectures lasting 45 minutes each. Accompanying CD-ROM contains course workbook in PDF format. Lecturer: Professor Robert Greenberg, San Francisco Performances.
Contents:
Lecture 1. The language of music -- lecture 2. Timbre, continued -- lecture 3. Timbre, part 3 -- lecture 4. Beat and tempo -- lecture 5. Meter, part 1 -- lecture 6. Meter, part 2 -- lecture 7. Pitch and mode, part 1 -- lecture 8. Pitch and mode, part 2 -- lecture 9. Intervals and tunings -- lecture 10. Tonality, key signature, and the circle of fifths -- lecture 11. Intervals revisited and expanded -- lecture 12. Melody -- lecture 13. Melody, continued -- lecture 14. Texture and Harmony, part 1 -- lecture 15. Harmony, part 2 : function, tendency, and dominance -- lecture 16. Harmony, part 3 : progression, cadence, and modulation.
Summary:
For anyone wanting to master music's language, being able to read musical notation is a necessity. But this course, as Professor Greenberg notes, is a basic course, designed to introduce you to music's language in a way that is similar to the way you learned your own native language, by "discovering and exploring musical syntax through our ears-- by learning what the parts of musical speech sound like-- rather than what they look like on paper." By sidestepping the necessity to read music, these lectures represent an extremely rare opportunity in musical education-- an opportunity to experience a solid introduction to music theory's basics in a way that is not technically intimidating, yet provides a substantial grounding in the fundamentals-- Publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.