Chicago Classical Music Classes January 2010

Coming up soon, in downtown Chicago at the Gleacher Center just north of the Chicago River, off the Magnificent Mile…

Introduction to Music Literacy: One-day Seminar

3/13/2010
Saturday 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM

This seminar is designed to equip the student with fundamental knowledge of musical notation and language. Clefs, time and key signatures, the staff, symbols for pitch and duration, and musical grammar and vocabulary will all be covered. Also, there will be consideration of the relevancy and value of various analytical models and techniques. Emphasis will be placed on making the participant’s listening experience more rewarding.

See the syllabus and recommended readings for Introduction to Music Literacy

8-Week Classes

These classes meet for 8 weekly sessions.

Piano Music from Mozart to Rachmaninov: (Winter 2010)

1/12/2010 - 3/2/2010
Tuesday 10:00 AM - 12:30 PM

This course presents a survey of some of the most popular and significant piano music of the Classical and Romantic eras. Classes feature discussion and performance of pieces including Chopin’s mazurkas, preludes, and ballades, as well as Schumann’s “Carnival,” famous works by Mozart and Beethoven, and the virtuoso styles of Liszt and Rachmaninov. This course is an ideal opportunity to gain an enriched understanding of piano music.

19th Century Germany (Winter 2010)

1/14/2010 - 3/4/2010
Thursday 10:00 AM - 12:30 PM

This interdisciplinary course will place Bruckner, Wagner, and other 19th-century Austrian and German composers within the context of their own turbulent time. Bruckner’s monumental symphonies and Wagner’s visionary conception of opera and revolutionary harmonies were formed at the same time as the German state; this course will explore the relationships between music and politics. Topics will include the Franco-Prussian War, Metternich and conservative reaction, the German bourgeoisie, and Bismarck and the Second Reich.

Mozart Class, Mahler Class - Starting in September

Hello, everyone. While we’re still steeped in Tchaikovsky and Chamber Music, it’s already time to start thinking about fall courses. In addition to the periodic one-day What to Listen For in Music seminar, we’ve got two eight-week classical music courses in downtown Chicago starting in late September. The Mozart course is a repeat, and I’m delighted to offer a new course on Mahler. If you enjoyed my courses on Entartete Musik and fin de siècle Vienna, it should be right up your alley. I look forward to seeing some of my “regulars” and eagerly welcome any new faces in the Chicago area.

Life and Works of Mozart

9/22/2009 - 11/10/2009
Tuesday 10:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Downtown Chicago

This course will examine Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s phenomenal precociousness, his astounding assimilation of Italianate and Germanic styles, and his relationship to the turbulent social transitions of his time. Divided between biographic study and music analysis, the course will discuss seminal masterworks including selected operas, piano concerti, and symphonies.

Click here to register for the Mozart class.

Mahler

9/24/2009 - 11/12/2009
Thursday 10:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Downtown Chicago

This course focuses on the career of composer and conductor Gustav Mahler, including detailed discussions of his symphonies and song cycles as well as his influence as a conductor. The course also examines fin de siècle Vienna, including musical feuds between Brahms, Bruckner, and Hugo Wolf. And how can we ignore Vienna’s most glamorous personality, Alma Mahler (née Schindler) whose diaries are Vienna’s looking glass? Providing context, such spectacular personalities as Gustav Klimt and Sigmund Freud are discussed alongside Mahler as exemplars of an emerging modernist ethos.

Click here to register for the Mahler class.