Class One

We discussed the format of this course and reiterated the importance of attendance. Much of the class will be discussion and listening with information presented on this blog. In addition, the classes will be videoed and placed on this blog for perusal. We are working to develop a comprehensive understanding of the history of music including all styles of music and its theoretical components. Recognizing this is an ambitious project, we will capsulize much of the information with the hope that students will supplement through web resources available. Rather than approaching this course chronologically, we have decided to play ping-pong with music history by starting at the beginning then bouncing to the present. As we move forward and backward, the plan is to end with the Romantic period! Kind of different, but we established that most weakness seem to be in the areas of early music

We then took our first examination to determine our own weaknesses and begin the process of synthesizing and assimilating the vast quantities of musical information. We did not discuss a mental approach to the test, since doing so would might prejudice the overall thinking, but we did discuss the two ways (actually there are more) to approach the time periods of music history. In a discussion of Richard Strauss for example, it is difficult and almost anathema to pigeon-hole his music into Romantic or 20th Century. He was primarily a "Romantic" composer in style, operating mostly in the 20th Century.

We took a moment to play some trivia with regard to composers who wrote nine symphonies=Beethoven, Schubert, Dvorak, Bruckner, and Mahler. We also discussed how Palestrina wrote 104 Masses. Oddly Haydn wrote 104 Symphonies as well. A little more trivia: was Handel an English composer or German. We decided to consider him more English due to the success he experienced while in England.

So the hour concluded by grading our own tests which we will continue doing on Thursday. See you then.