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 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 Evolution of the Symphony: Haydn to Mahler

The Symphony After Mahler: Sibelius to Glass

Leonard Bernstein's Omnibus Lectures Revisited, 1955-58 

The Complete, "The Unanswered Question": Exploring Leonard Bernstein's Norton Lectures

Aaron Copland: Music in the 1920's (Exploring the 12-part PBS series) 

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

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)

The War Years: 1940-45 (Europe and America)

Music in the 1940's - Europe and America

The 20th Century: Debussy to Glass

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 

Introducing “Les Six” - Milhaud, Poulenc, Honegger: The Spirit of a New Generation

  

 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

The Living Composer

Music from Latin America – 20th Century

Music of Our Time: 1960-2000 - America and Latin America (two consecutive semesters, 24 weeks) 

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

The Expanding American Scene - Composers in the 1930's

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

From Scott Joplin to Fats Waller: St. Louis Ragtime to Harlem Stride

The Rise of Swing - 1930 to 1940: Basie, Ellington, Goodman

 

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, 1960's Part I 

American Song, Part VIII: The Singer-Songwriter, 1960's Part II 

American Song, Part IX: 1970: The Singer-Songwriter Comes of Age

American Song, Part X: 1971-72: The Singer-Songwriter in Bloom

American Song, Part XI: 1970's & 1980's: Singer-Songwriters Mid-Stream and Renewal

American Song, Part XII: Women & Songwriting, Part I - Folk, Country and Pop

American Song, Part XIII - The "Old Guard" Into the New Millenium: Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Randy Newman, Laura Nyro, Jackson Browne   

Bob Dylan, Parts I & II (2 semesters, 24 weeks)

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

Joni Mitchell is 75: or How Joni Mitchell, Laura Nyro, Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin and Carole King Changed the Face of Music

Bob Dylan at 75

Paul Simon at 75

It Was 50 Years Ago Today: 1967 in Context, Album as Art and Top 40 Radio

1969: Through the Lens of Song

 

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, Parts I & II (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)