How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, 3rd Edition

By: Robert Greenberg, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Robert Greenberg

Length: 36 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

Great music is a language unto its own, a means of communication of unmatched beauty and genius. And it has an undeniable power to move us in ways that enrich our lives - provided it is understood.

If you have ever longed to appreciate great concert music, to learn its glorious language and share in its sublime pleasures, the way is now open to you, through this series of 48 wonderful lectures designed to make music accessible to everyone who yearns to know it, regardless of prior training or knowledge. It's a lecture series that will enable you to first grasp music's forms, techniques, and terms - the grammatical elements that make you fluent in its language - and then use that newfound fluency to finally hear and understand what the greatest composers in history are actually saying to us.

And as you learn the gifts given us by nearly every major composer, you'll come to know there is one we share with each of them - a common humanity that lets us finally understand that these were simply people speaking to us, sharing their passion and wanting desperately to be heard. Using digitally recorded musical passages to illustrate his points, Professor Greenberg will take you inside magnificent compositions by Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Verdi, Wagner, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, and more. Even if you have listened to many of these illustrative pieces throughout your life - as so many of us have - you will never hear them the same way again after experiencing these lectures.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2006 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2006 The Great Courses

Educational and Fun

Just when I was feeling overwhelmed, I listened to some orchestral music, and experienced the course's foundation working actively in me. Like learning a language, this course is good practice in listening.

Genius! I played it twice.

This is a great survey course, and his delivery makes it fun. I find myself enjoying symphonic music now, which I previously haven't had much of an appetite for. This changed me a little for the better. I absolutely recommend it.

Perfect refresher

I received a bachelors degree in music over 10 years ago and then pursued a law degree. How thrilled I have been to complete this course and reacquaint myself with old friends. Prof. Greenberg excels at communicating his subject matter and particularly at putting it in a larger societal context. Well done.

Excellent Lectures, Thoroughly Enjoyed!

What made the experience of listening to How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, 3rd Edition the most enjoyable?

Professor Greenberg's lectures cover an incredible scope and make the history of Western music comprehensible. I learned an enormous amount and understood concepts e.g. 'key' and 'circle of 5ths' that I'd never completely understood before. Prof. Greenberg brought the composers to life and introduced me to many I barely knew and I enjoyed the many anecdotes he shared about the personal lives of the great composers.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Professor Greenberg - for his erudition, his passion and his playfulness. I so enjoyed his lectures that I have now purchased another series.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Well, yes - it certainly kept my interest and I looked forward to my daily listening.

Music Appreciation at its best

Robert Greenberg was entertaining from beginning to end - all 48 lectures! So well informed, not just about the composers and their music, but also the historical context.

Good stuff--I would do it all again

I've just finished. It took me months to listen to all 48 lessons. Now, all I want to do is start them all over again, knowing that I still have more to learn from this skillful professor.

Essential and amazing

After many years of looking, Prof. Greenberg's course finally provided me useful tools to understand classical music through form and historical context. It is quite perfect.

Growing education

I have been singing for most of my life. However, even though I have been singing opera professionally since fall 2015, most of my training was in musical theatre and art songs. In fact my undergrad was in Performing Arts Studies, a far distance from studying and singing music at the level of a vocal major student. This series helped me identify some of the holes in my music knowledge and, through receiving their summaries and snippets of information, inspired me to continue learning. Hence, I will be taking advantage of other related lecture series from The Great Courses. Thank you for supplying this beautiful series!

Great music history with an amazing instructor

What made the experience of listening to How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, 3rd Edition the most enjoyable?

The instructor's enthusiasm and depth of knowledge. He even showed me the roots of heavy metal unintentionally.

What was one of the most memorable moments of How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, 3rd Edition?

Hearing Stravinsky's Dance of the Adolescents

What does Professor Robert Greenberg bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Vigor

Great Audiobook Series

This audiobook series is great! It's more historical than I was intending, but I love history so I find it very interesting. The narrator/teacher is wonderful. He is funny and very knowledgeable.