Masterworks of Music

Our society experiences a separation of music from literature that would have been foreign to ancient societies: Homer, for example, was originally performed to music. Viking culture, with its great focus on martial feats as the basis for fame, also treated musical prowess an essential trait for an epic hero. Indeed, still in the 19th century in the West no one could claim to be educated who did not have some ability to perform and an even greater knowledge of the musical greats.

The 20th and 21st centuries, in which the music of the past has become increasingly the province of specialists (often, only the performers themselves) is therefore revealed to be a historical aberration that cuts us off from the integrated way in which culture was experienced in earlier times. And yet, the 20th century saw the rise of the recording, a phenomenon that made music available with an ease that was previously unimaginable. But this ubiquitous ease of access to music has rendered it banal and inaccessible. We hear great music without hearing it, as the background hum of our travels, the unattended soundtrack to lives that are fundamentally about something else.

This is not a course about music history, nor is it a music appreciation course. Rather, it aims to develop and hone the skill of extracting from a piece of music what it has to say in the context of the larger cultural conversation of which it is a part. Our trade will not be in musical influences, political patrons, and changes in style; no, we have to do with love and death, with the infinite longing of the human spirit,  with pagan idolatry, the death of Love, and the resurrection of the crucified God. We will listen to and discuss works by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Stravinsky, and Mahler.

No previous music knowledge is required!

This course is being offered in conjunction with ClassicalU. In addition to your registration in this course, you will also receive six weeks of complimentary access to ClassicalU.