
at the 92nd Street Y (or NYU) since 1984
(courses last twelve weeks, 100 minutes per session, unless otherwise indicated.)
1. CLASSICAL MUSIC
SURVEY COURSES, 1700 – Present
The Art of Listening: An Introduction to Music
Music Below the Surface: An Introduction to Music
The High Baroque, 1700-1750: Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Couperin, Telemann
The Classical Style, Part I: Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven
The Romantic Style: Schubert to Mahler
Music for Orchestra: The 18th Century
Music for Orchestra: Beethoven to The Rite of Spring
Music from 1825 to 1945: Schubert to Stravinsky
The 20th Century: Debussy to Glass
The Evolution of the Symphony: Haydn to Mahler
The Symphony After Mahler: Sibelius to Glass
The Living Composer
Music in the 1890's - Europe and America
Music in the 1910's - The Emergence of Modernism
Music in the 1920's - The Anything Goes Decade (Europe and America)
Music in the 1930's - A Decade in Crisis (Europe and America)
Music in the 1940's - Europe and America
Leonard Bernstein's Omnibus Lectures Revisited, 1955-58
Music of Our Time: 1960-2000 - America and Latin America (two consecutive semesters, 24 weeks)
The Complete, "The Unanswered Question": Exploring Leonard Bernstein's Norton Lectures
Music in Times of Crisis: 1930's
The War Years: 1940-45
Music from the 1940's: Post War/Cold War
Music and Dance, Watching and Listening: from Stravinsky to Marsalis, Parts I, II & III (29 sessions)
Moments of Crisis - Music for the Soul: Choral Masterpieces by Beethoven, Brahms, Stravinsky, Britten and Bernstein
BAROQUE AND CLASSICAL PERIODS
The Keyboard Music of Johann Sebastian Bach
The 18th Century: Enlightenment to Revolution
Johann Sebastian Bach and His World (2 consecutive semesters, 22 weeks)
Haydn & Mozart – The Symphony
Haydn, Mozart and the Birth of the Quartet
Haydn Quartets
Haydn & Mozart: Trios, Quartets and Quintets
The “Complete” Mozart (3 consecutive semesters, 34 weeks)
Mozart Before Vienna: 1773-1781
Mozart in Vienna: 1781 to 1791
The “Complete” Beethoven (3 consecutive semesters, 34 weeks)
Beethoven: The Nine Symphonies
Beethoven: Chamber Music, Quartets and Sonatas
Piano Concertos of Mozart and Beethoven
Masterworks of Chamber Music (6 semester sequence)
Beethoven at 250, Part I: A Symphony Celebration
Beethoven at 250, Part II: Chamber Music and Music for Piano
Beethoven at 250, Part III: From the "New Path" to the Grosse Fuge
Mozart: Orchestral Genius - The Piano Concertos and Symphonies
Beethoven Piano Sonatas
Mozart Piano Sonatas and Fantasies
Birth of the Symphony from the Galant to the Classical Style: Stamitz, Sammartini, CPE Bach, Haydn and Mozart
The Baroque Concerto: Corelli, Vivaldi, Bach & Handel
The Symphony's First Golden Age: Haydn and Mozart
The Symphony's Second Golden Age: Beethoven & Schubert
ROMANTIC ERA
The Music of Franz Schubert: Classicist and Romantic
Frederic Chopin and the Romantic Era
Robert Schumann: Radical Modernist & Classicist
Schumann and Chopin: a 200th Birthday Celebration
Mendelssohn & Schumann – The Chamber Music
Johannes Brahms – Music for Orchestra
Johannes Brahms – Chamber Music, 1855-1870
Johannes Brahms – Chamber Music, 1871-1896
Music of Russia, Part I: Tchaikovsky & Mussorgsky
The Complete Mahler (2 consecutive semesters, 24 weeks)
Music for Orchestra, 1805-1850: from Beethoven to Liszt
Music for Orchestra, 1850-1913: from Schumann to Stravinsky
After Beethoven: Early Romantic Chamber Music - Schubert, Mendelssohn and Schumann
The Symphony After Beethoven: Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Liszt
Music of Chopin: Tragic Genius (2 semesters, 18 weeks)
Pyotr Tchaikovsky and His World
EUROPEAN MODERNISM
Benjamin Britten: 100th Birthday Celebration
The Isle of Joy: Music of Claude Debussy
The Music of Maurice Ravel: Incomparable Beauty
Erik Satie and the Birth of the Avant Garde
Birth of the Modern, Part I: Paris, 1889 to 1929
Birth of the Modern, Part II: Vienna and Berlin, 1900 to 1934
The “Complete” Stravinsky (2 consecutive semesters, 24 weeks)
Bela Bartok: His Music and World
Music of England, Part I: Elgar, Delius & Vaughn-William
Music of England, Part II: Benjamin Britten, William Walton
Modern Beauty: 100 Years of Music for Dance
Music of Terezin: Ullman, Krasa, Haas, Klein & Berman (three-week mini-course)
The Chamber Music of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel
Seven Masterpieces from 1917: a 100th Anniversary
Music of Russia, Part II: Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich
Beauty Reimagined - French Chamber Music: Franck, Faure, Debussy, Ravel & Milhaud
2. AMERICAN STUDIES
CLASSICAL SCENE
American Masters, Part I: 1890 to 1950, Ives to Copland
American Masters, Part II: 1950-2000, Bernstein to Adams
The American Composer Today
Gershwin at 100
Copland at 100
Music by Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein & the Jewish Experience
Copland & Bernstein at the Millennium
Music of Samuel Barber
The African-American Composer in America
Crossing Genres: 1990-2010
Music from Latin America – 20th Century
American Music Comes of Age – The Concert Hall: 1920-1950
The Symphonic Side of Leonard Bernstein: a 100th Birthday Celebration
"Just Don't Call it Minimalism:" The Music of Philip Glass and Steve Reich
Music of Our Time and Place: Selected American Composers from 1970 to 2020
Music and Dance in the U.S.A. - American Composers and Choreographers Come of Age
The New American Concert Scene, 1850 to 1930: Gottschalk to Gershwin
Crossing Genres - The Soul of American Music: Ellington & Copland
JAZZ
Louis Armstrong: From New Orleans Style to Modern Master
Jazz, Part I, The Birth of Jazz: Joplin to Armstrong
Jazz, Part II, Swing & the Rise of Modern Jazz: From Duke to Bird
Jazz, Part III, Bebop and Beyond: From Dizzy to Miles
Jazz, Part IV, From Coltrane to Marsalis
Jazz, the Composers: Joplin to Marsalis
Ellington at 100
Ellington in the Concert Hall: The Suites
Jazz in the Concert Hall – from Europe to America
The Jazz Concept Album, Parts I & II
Five Giants of Jazz: Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Wayne Shorter
Six Giants of Jazz: Jelly Roll Morton, John Coltrane, Horace Silver, Ornette Coleman, Dave Brubeck and Miles in the ‘60s
Jazz in the 1950's, Parts I & II (2 semester sequence)
Jazz in the 1960's, Part I & II (2 semester sequence)
Jazz and World Music: Fusion in the 1960's
Straight from New Orleans: Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton and the Invention of Jazz
POPULAR SONG
The Blues: W.C. Handy to Muddy Waters
American Song: Stephen Foster to the Present
American Song, Part I, 1830 to 1920
American Song, Part II: 1920 to 1945
American Song, Part III: The Blues: An American Story, 1900 - 1960
American Song, Part IV: American Roots Music - The Song of Rural America, 1920 to 1960
American Song, Part V: The Rise of Rock and Roll: 1945 to 1970
American Song, Part VI: From Spirituals and Gospel to Soul: The Rise of Soul Music
American Song, Part VII: The Singer-Songwriter, Part I
American Song, Part VIII: The Singer-Songwriter, Part II
American Song, Part IX: Women & Songwriting
Bob Dylan
Blowin' in the Wind: Politics & Song, American Style
The Beatles
The Beatles After The Beatles – The Solo Careers
Love in Song: Love, Lust & Sexual Politics in Song Since Stephen Foster
The Concept Album
Bob Dylan & Paul Simon at 70: Forever Young
A Birthday Celebration: Carole King, Brian Wilson, Joni Mitchell & Randy Newman @ 70
Four Essential Songwriters: Leonard Cohen, Laura Nyro, Neil Young & James Taylor
Bob Dylan at 75
Paul Simon at 75
It Was 50 Years Ago Today: 1967 in Context, Album as Art and Top 40 Radio
Joni Mitchell is 75: or How Joni Mitchell, Laura Nyro, Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin and Carole King Changed the Face of Music
1969: Through the Lens of Song
1970: The Singer-Songwriter Comes of Age
1971-72: The Singer-Songwriter in Bloom
1970's & 1980's: Singer-Songwriters Mid-Stream and Renewal
American Song - The "Old Guard" Into the New Millenium: Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Randy Newman, Laura Nyro, Jackson Browne and Louis Rosen
THEATER and FILM
George Gershwin’s Musicals: The Road to Porgy and Bess
The American Musical as Opera – from Porgy and Bess to Rent
Music for the Theatre: The American Musical and the 20th Century
Gershwin at 100
Sondheim at 85
The Theater of Leonard Bernstein: from Fancy Free and On the Town to Mass and The White House Cantata
The Theater of Stephen Sondheim (two semesters, 24 weeks)
Kurt Weill at 100
Weill & Sondheim: Modernists in the Theatre
The Cradle Will Rock: Politics and the American Musical Theater
Music for Movies: Composers and Songwriters from Satie to Glass
The Theater of Gershwin & Weill: New York and Berlin, 1920-1935 (two semesters, 18 weeks)