Listening to Music with Professor Craig Wright

This course fosters the development of aural skills that lead to an understanding of Western music. The musical novice is introduced to the ways in which music is put together and is taught how to listen to a wide variety of musical styles, from Bach and Mozart, to Gregorian chant, to the blues.

  1. Introduction

  2. Introduction to Instruments and Musical Genres

  3. Rhythm: Fundamentals

  4. Rhythm: Jazz, Pop and Classical

  5. Melody: Notes, Scales, Nuts and Bolts

  6. Melody: Mozart and Wagner

  7. Harmony: Chords and How to Build Them

  8. Bass Patterns: Blues and Rock

  9. Sonata-Allegro Form: Mozart and Beethoven

  10. Sonata-Allegro and Theme and Variations

  11. Form: Rondo, Sonata-Allegro and Theme and Variations (cont.)

  12. Guest Conductor: Saybrook Youth Orchestra

  13. Fugue: Bach, Bizet and Bernstein

  14. Ostinato Form in the Music of Purcell, Pachelbel, Elton John and Vitamin C

  15. Benedictine Chant and Music in the Sistine Chapel

  16. Baroque Music: The Vocal Music of Johann Sebastian Bach

  17. Mozart and His Operas

  18. Piano Music of Mozart and Beethoven

  19. Romantic Opera: Verdi's La Traviata, Bocelli, Pavarotti and Domingo

  20. The Colossal Symphony: Beethoven, Berliotz, Mahler and Shostakovich

  21. Musical Impressionism and Exoticism: Debussy, Ravel and Monet

  22. Modernism and Mahler

  23. Review of Musical Style