Welcome

 

LR's EMAIL LIST

Delighted to have you sign up

UPCOMING APPEARANCES

FACEBOOK

 In the Classroom

 

LIST OF MUSIC APPRECIATION/HISTORY COURSES TAUGHT

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)