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

Great comprehensive class

A great experience. It is unavoidable long but so good that I am going to listen to it again taking notes and collecting the referenced music.
If you want to “get” music you should listen to this course

A delightful survey taught with gusto

I had first listened to an earlier version of this course on CDs nearly 20 years ago. Professor Greenberg has great enthusiasm and shares his deep love for music in a way that gently trains our ears to hear things we had missed before, it’s like having a great French chef share his secrets and favorite dishes. Brava and grazie!

Great cource, indeed...

This course helps to listen to and understand music.
I learned a lot about music and about the people who wrote and influenced it. So I highly recommend this to anyone who loves or wants to love great music.
And let me also share my thoughts about Roberto Monteverdi (Robert Greenberg :D). HE IS AMAZING. His way of teaching is fantastic. I wish all my lecturers had such a passion and respect for their subjects.

Fantastic!

everything about this is great! The lecturer is easily the best I've ever heard on any of the Great Courses.

Fabulous!! The narrator was excellent!

the narrator made the content easy to learn, understand and listen to. I hope he makes more titles. He opened up a whole new world of masters and masterpiece music to me!

An Amazing Journey Thru Music History

Thank you Dr Greenburg for sharing your love for and knowledge of music, music history and explaining the forms, ideas, and theories. You make it so much fun! You are a wordsmith and this lecture is so wonderfully prepared and presented. I look forward to listening to some of your music and many more of your delightful lectures, including this one- again!
JSelway

Breaking New Grounds

There are very few books that seem to take advantage of audiobook technology as this one has. It is a lecture explaining the origin of music, as well as the developments and changes of schools of thought behind each form of music and how to develop an ear for it, with snippets of the music discussed broken down in each lecture to clarify the lecturer's point, followed by the full piece discussed at the end.

I feel like I can understand music, even modern music, better.

I'm now smarter but I have miles to go

This was a fantastic introduction to all the music I've been listening to without any understanding for decades. Even before I was done with this series of lectures I went out and bought 3 more classes from Professor Greenberg.
I really enjoyed the insightful guided tour through hundreds of years of music, but it was the humor and anecdotes which, along with the amazing music, keep me coming back for more.

Upbeat

Greenberg is a crazy man, very dramatic and funny. The focus is on classical music as opposed to popular music and he would likely object to my use of both terms. He introduces the music and composers who moved the art forward. Thus, this course is also a history of music in the context of the history of culture and politics. The series is replete with biographical anecdotes of famous composers which are always entertaining and interesting. The main point is to guide the listener through the mysteries of great music so that you might gain a greater appreciation of how music is put together and its place in history and culture. Although the subject can be dry at times, Greenberg will have you laughing in explosive and unexpected moments in every lecture.

I Kinda Get It!

At last a music history course, and I didn't even know I wanted one! Now I want more, and recommend this class to anyone who'd like to round out understanding of the arts. At first the narrator/writer annoyed me some, too chummy, but I got over that and grew to appreciate his earthy style and manner.