About this course: Using a simple and enjoyable teaching style, this course introduces the novice listener to the wonders of classical music, from Bach fugues to Mozart symphonies to Puccini operas.

Created by: Yale University

Taught by: Craig Wright, Henry L & Lucy G Moses Professor of Music
Department of Music

Commitment	9 weeks, 2 - 3 hours per week
Language	English
How To Pass	Pass all graded assignments to complete the course.
User Ratings	4.9 stars Average User Rating 4.9See what learners said

Syllabus

WEEK 1

What Is Music?

Every day around the world, billions of people listen to music of one sort or another, and millions listen to Western classical music. Why do we do it? Because it’s fun? Because it energizes or relaxes us? Because it keeps us current, allows us to unders...

9 videos, 6 readings

Graded: Popular Music and Classical Music Compared

Graded: How Do We Hear Music? Sound Waves and the Ear

Graded: Why We Like What We Like? It's Nature

WEEK 2

How Music Works, it's Magic.

What is Music? Is music simply the organization of sounds and silences passing through time? Or is it more? Poet Victor Hugo believes music is "what feelings sound like." In this first module, we’ll take apart Hugo’s seemingly simple statement by spending some...

18 videos

Graded: Beat, Meter, and Rhythm

Graded: Hearing the Downbeat, Feeling the Emotion

Graded: Tempo (and How We Feel About It)

Graded: Melodic Notation and Scales

Graded: The Chromatic Scale

Graded: How We Feel About the Music: Mode and Mood

Graded: Phrase Structure in Music: Beethoven's Ode to Joy

Graded: Harmony: A Distinctly Western Phenomenon

Graded: Chord Progressions and Cadences

Graded: Major and Minor Triads

WEEK 3

The Sound of Music

Have you ever wondered what it is that makes music sound sometimes rich and luxurious and sometimes strange and mysterious? Well, you’re in luck because this module, we’ll explore what the nature of simultaneous sounds and textures. We’ll start off with a look...

8 videos, 1 reading

Graded: Why Do Instruments Sound Differently, One From Another?

Graded: Musorgsky Marks a Wagon Move in Music

Graded: Building a Symphony Orchestra

Graded: Musical Texture

Graded: Musical Form

Graded: Musical Style

WEEK 4

Music Back in the Day

We will cover a thousand years in musical evolution during this modules lectures! We'll start with the Middle Ages taking a look at its functional chants and dance music, then we’ll move to the period of the Renaissance, and finish off by listening to the orna...

13 videos, 1 reading

Graded: Gregorian Chant

Graded: The Chant of Hildegard of Bingen

Graded: Polyphony at the Cathedral of Reims: Machaut's Messe de Nostre Dame

Graded: Musical Instruments and Dances

Graded: The A Cappella Motet

Graded: The Madrigal

WEEK 5

The Baroque Era

Novelists, poets, painters, mathematicians, and even geologists talk about "fugue-like" structure in their media and disciplines. But what is a fugue and how did we get it? To find out, we enter the world of Baroque music and famed master of the fugue, Johan...

16 videos, 1 reading

Graded: Early Baroque Opera in Italy

Graded: Early Baroque Opera in London

Graded: Baroque Instruments and Orchestras

Graded: Bach the Young Man and Organist

Graded: Cothen: Prelude and Fugue

Graded: Cothen: Brandenberg Concertos

Graded: Leipzig: The Church Cantada

Graded: Royal Connections: Water Music and Fireworks

Graded: Opera Seria: Julius Caesar

Graded: Oratorio: Messiah

WEEK 6

The Classical Era

Would you believe that once upon a time, musical compositions were viewed as disposable, one-time-use entertainment? Could you imagine an orchestra attempting to perform a beautiful piece over the sounds of noisy patrons in a casino? How about a violin being ...

14 videos, 1 reading

Graded: Introduction to Classical Music Style

Graded: Franz Joseph Haydn and the Emperor

Graded: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his Music

Graded: Genres and Forms

Graded: Senata-Allegro Form: A Mozart Serenade

Graded: Piano Concerto in D Minor

Graded: Don Giovanni

Graded: The Requiem

WEEK 7

The Bridge From Classical to Romantic

If you could put a soundtrack to the French Revolution, it would surely contain music from Beethoven's "Heroic" period, during which, he “brought sound to symphonies.” We’ll see how Beethoven’s incorporation of new instruments, as well as, his creation of a la...

17 videos, 1 reading

Graded: Beethoven and the Romantic Genius

Graded: Beethoven's Early Years

Graded: Growing Deafness and Disability

Graded: The "Moonlight" Sonata

Graded: Symphony No. 3, the "Eroica"

Graded: Symphony No. 5

Graded: Late Period and "Ode to Joy"

Graded: Sketch of the Life and Music of Franz Schubert

Graded: Schubert's Erlkönig

Graded: Robert and Clara Schumann

WEEK 8

The Romantic Era

Module 8 will begin with a tour of Yale’s extraordinary keyboard collection; perhaps the finest of its kind in the world. We’ll see fully functioning instruments of all shapes and sizes, some dating back to the time of Mozart and before! We’ll learn the prefe...

24 videos, 1 reading

Graded: Musical Signifiers and the Language of Sound

Graded: Berlioz and His Symphonie Fantastque

Graded: Recap Quiz

Graded: Symphonie Fantastque, "Witches Sabbath"

Graded: Fixed Pitch Keyboard Instruments: A Quick Review

Graded: From Wagner's Piano to the Steinway of America

Graded: Franz Liszt and the Etude

Graded: Introduction to the 19th Century Opera

Graded: Verdi's La triviata

Graded: Wagner's Die Walküre

Graded: Introduction to Romantic Orchestra

Graded: Musical Instruments and the Industrial Revolution

Graded: The Gustav Mahler Sample

WEEK 9

Music to the Present

When you think of Impressionism, you probably think of paintings, likely the beautiful canvases of Claude Monet. But the emotionally evocative, non-realistic style of Impressionism pervaded all aspects of art. For music, another Claude, this time Debussy, typi...

21 videos, 1 reading

Graded: Claude Debussy’s “Claire de Lune"

Graded: Debussy's "Violes" (Sails) for Piano

Graded: Stravinsky and His Early Ballets Rushes

Graded: Stravinsky and The Rite of Spring

Graded: Schoenberg and the Twelve-tone Music

Graded: Postmodernism & Minimalism

Graded: Beyond Minimalism: John Adams

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Creators

Yale University

For more than 300 years, Yale University has inspired the minds that inspire the world. Based in New Haven, Connecticut, Yale brings people and ideas together for positive impact around the globe. A research university that focuses on students and encourages learning as an essential way of life, Yale is a place for connection, creativity, and innovation among cultures and across disciplines.

Pricing

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Ratings and Reviews

Rated 4.9 out of 5 of 911 ratings

Excellent, engaging course!

Demystified music for me

That was a great course, presented in an intriguing way! I highly recomend it to everybody interested in music. The historic persprective was well structured and gave lots of insights to not only what but why and how happened in music. My own understanding is now bigger and deeper and I had a great time listening to our proffessor and his guests. Thank you!

excellent!

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