Great Courses:  How To Listen To And Understand Great Music:  Part III:  The Classical Era I, taught by Professor Robert Greenberg

There is a certain joy in listening to this particular talk about chamber music, a joy that only increases if you happen to be a musician or already somewhat familiar with the music.  A large part of that joy comes from the fact that Professor Greenberg is himself so immensely joyful about what he is teaching, so aware of the stern limitations of having only 48 lectures of 45 minutes each (of which this part consists of eight of those lectures), and not being able to include more of the music that he so dearly loves to talk about.  And it is clear in listening to this part of the course that the author is very familiar with the classical era and very intent in helping the listener to understand the forms of the classical era, at least a few examples of these forms, and the ways that the classical era drew upon the previous Baroque era for inspiration, showing a great deal of continuity even as there is also a great deal of distinction as well.  This allows him the chance to backfill a bit of his discussion of Baroque music by including Canon in D and some music by Lilly that he wasn’t able to cover earlier for lack of time.

The lectures included in this part of the professor’s longer course are about half of the author’s total instruction on the Classical Era.  We begin with a discussion of the Enlightenment and an introduction to the Classical era, which discusses the connection between an age and its concerns with the sort of chamber music that is created in that larger social context (17).  After that there is a discussion of the Viennese classical style and two aspects that are of vital importance to its music, namely homophony (instead of Baroque polyphony) and the importance of cadences (18).  After this the author discusses a variety of forms, beginning with the theme and variations form (19).  The professor spends two lectures on the Minuet and Trio form (20, 21), first discussing baroque antecedents to this form and then discussing the form as it was used by classical composers like Haydn and Mozart.  After this comes a lecture on the Rondo (22), and then the final two lectures of this particular part of the course discuss the first half of the author’s discussion on Sonata-Allegro form, with some excellent examples of the form from Beethoven and Mozart.

There is a lot to appreciate about this particular class.  For one, the course is simply full of great music that is part of the classical repertoire, and the author’s joy in talking about this music is definitely contagious.  For another, the author spends a great deal of time helping the listener recognize the difference between thematic music as well as transitional music, and to understand the grammar and structure of classical era music that allows the listener to be a vastly more intelligent and knowledgeable listener (and even performer) of such music by seeking to understand what the composer was trying to communicate and how it is that one can modulate between different keys and how different types of cadences change the listening experience for the reader, providing clues to whether a section is thematic or not, and sometimes, as in the case of the deceptive cadence, putting the listener in a sense of unease about the way a particular piece is progressing.  This particular discussion is the sort of music theory discussion I wish I would have had more of when I was an orchestra student, but I suppose such discussion is usually limited to those who are in training to become composers themselves.