Uncover the fascinating and surprising connections between famous music and historical events, led by celebrated composer and music historian Professor Robert Greenberg. In Music as a Mirror of History, music lovers and history enthusiasts alike will be enthralled by this exploration of how momentous compositions have responded to-and inspired-pivotal points in the history of the world.
Music as a Mirror of History
Discover the fascinating ways in which great works of music have interacted with historical events, in this eye-opening course taught by a celebrated composer and music historian.
Rated 5 out of
5
by
the professor from
OUTSTANDING Historical Review of Composer's Impact
I have immensely enjoyed all 28 of Dr. Robert Greenberg's The Great Courses Lecture sets. Most I have watched at least twice. Professor Greenberg is one of the BEST of The Best Professors in the Teaching Company. His enthusiasm, energy, humor, worldly knowledge, and persona makes him mesmerizing. This course, 'Music as a Mirror of History' is absolutely brilliant. Many of the composers I was not familiar with such as Gottschalk, Janacek, Berg and Crumb, and it did not take long for the brilliant Professor to show why they earned there place here. I was overwhelmed with Berg and his heart wrenching Wozzeck. Its meaning and impact is crushing as is Crumb's Black Angels. I highly recommend this course along with every other Dr. Robert Greenberg's courses.
Date published: 2024-09-04
Rated 5 out of
5
by
puigmald from
Excellent relevant content with a great presenter!
It exceeded everything I expected! For those who like music and pay due attention to history. For those who are moved by historical details. I can't judge if it's 100% accurate, but it's very enjoyable!
Date published: 2024-01-18
Rated 3 out of
5
by
zWillyz1000000 from
Lots of history, some music, tiny mirrors
The concept of relating music to the historical period in which it was developed is promising but is not well developed here. We do learn how a composer like Shostakovich chose or was forced to tailor his compositions to the demands of his government, and these cases are very interesting and are well treated here. But by far the most time goes into lengthy descriptions of history—sometimes fascinating, sometimes just begging to be fast forwarded—without a lot of payoff in added understanding to the music of the period.
Still, we have Robert Greenberg’s inimitable wit to perk up the lectures, and whatever insights don’t get buried in the mire of historical material are generally compelling.
Date published: 2023-10-27
Rated 5 out of
5
by
TizTina from
Music as a Mirror of History
An excellent combination of history and the context within which music is written. Richard Greenberg is by far the best professor in the Great Courses cannon.
Date published: 2023-07-30
Rated 4 out of
5
by
Magyar from
Music well-explained, Errors in History
First of all, it is wonderful to look at a work of art in its historical context. I was in graduate school in the 1970s for German Literature, and that was discouraged (in other literatures as well) because we were supposed to consider only the work itself.
Dr. Greenburg certainly knows music. I appreciate his style of lecturing most of the time. However, he at times gives short shrift to events and/or individuals. I specifically mention his comments on Charles I Stuart. He was not what Dr. Greenburg dismisses him as with one remark. And there are some errors. James I of England was James VI, not VII, of Scotland. The translation of "La Marseillaise" has an error. "Formez vos battalions :is "Form your battalions" not "From your battalions" (sic)
So far I have seen three lectures. I will pick others that interest me, but someone needs to clean the historical mirror here.
Date published: 2022-11-08
Rated 5 out of
5
by
LLTB from
Everything this guy does is excellent
Everything this guy does is excellent. Placing composers in their historical context elucidated the music and made it come alive for me. It is crucial for those of us who want background to see the big picture. This is especially true for those composers whose music I would have never listened to in the past. I particularly enjoyed his lecture on Wagner’s Ring and the comparison between Beethoven and Bonaparte. And, he pointed out that the Russian entry into WWI was probably more of a land grab than what I was taught in school that viewed it as Russia simply supporting the minor, satellite country of Serbia. The maps and photos on the video were nice if you can deal with him staring at you, waving his arms and pointing. Otherwise the audio is fine. I never had a college professor who used a teleprompter and some Great Courses lecturers seem rather stilted when using it. They seem more natural using their notes at a podium.
Date published: 2022-10-07
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Canadian from
A Multi-faceted Course
Remarkable! Dr. Robert Greenberg packs such an amazing amount of engaging content into each of his lectures that I could hardly spare attention for jotting down notes. As per the course title, history and music are the featured topics, but worthwhile ideas are also presented about geopolitics, psychology, sociology, economics, journalism, and cultural traditions.
Dr. Greenberg shares insights eloquently and confidently. The way he can correlate musical compositions with their backstories makes this a very special course—highly recommended. I consider his musical analyses superb, not only of pieces I’ve long loved, but also with respect to ones that were unfamiliar or even unappealing to me. His commentary on other topics in general is stirring and, in the best sense of the word, provocative. I appreciate his abilities to “bust myths” and to reveal how and when popular assumptions have been overly simplistic.
Experiencing this course includes humour, joy, and sorrow. Students take note: you will find yourselves feeling and thinking deeply.
Date published: 2022-07-03
Rated 5 out of
5
by
tacotank10 from
Fascinating and enjoyable overview of history
This course offers an excellent overview of history through the lens of classical music. Focusing on European history in the era from about 1700-1945, when classical music was at its high point, the broad strokes of European history are recounted. In each lecture, the professor gives thorough historical background to the events motivating a composer, capturing the drama and thrill of invasions, revolutions, and other events. He also gives a biographical portrait of the composer, and their motivation and intention in writing a specific piece of music.
This professor is fun, engaging, and deeply intelligent. At one point he mentions that he had a full list of pieces of music and events about which he was prepared to speak, but pared it down to half to give this course. I sincerely hope he comes back to do another round of them for Wondrium.
Date published: 2022-04-11
Overview
About
Dr. Robert Greenberg is Music Historian-in-Residence with San Francisco Performances. A graduate of Princeton University, Professor Greenberg holds a Ph.D. in Music Composition from the University of California, Berkeley. He has seen his compositions-which include more than 45 works for a wide variety of instrumental and vocal ensembles-performed all over the world, including New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, England, Ireland, Greece, Italy, and the Netherlands.
He has served on the faculties of the University of California, Berkeley; California State University, Hayward; and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and has lectured for some of the most prestigious musical and arts organizations in the United States, including the San Francisco Symphony, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Van Cliburn Foundation, and the Chicago Symphony. For The Great Courses, he has recorded more than 500 lectures on a range of composers and classical music genres.
Professor Greenberg is a Steinway Artist. His many other honors include three Nicola de Lorenzo Composition Prizes and a Koussevitzky commission from the Library of Congress. He has been profiled in various major publications, including The Wall Street Journal; Inc. magazine; and the London Times.
You can find more music content from Robert Greenberg on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/RobertGreenbergMusic.
Trailer
01: Music and History, Madrigals and Maps
Begin to contemplate the connections between composers and specific historical events. Grasp how Thomas Morley's madrigals in praise of Queen Elizabeth I engaged with English national self-perception and myth, and how Leon Janacek and Frederic Chopin responded to political events in key works. Take account of how the magnified emotions stirred by human conflicts feed artistic ...
47 min
02: Handel: Water Music (1714)
Discover how music and history intersected in the remarkable career of George Frederick Handel. Trace the extraordinary circumstances in which the German prince George Ludwig of Brunswick-Lüneberg became King George I of England. Learn about his patronage of Handel, whose phenomenal success as a composer in England led to the creation of numerous musical masterpieces written for the English r...
44 min
03: Mozart: The Abduction from the Harem (1782)
Here, learn how political events in Europe directly shaped Mozart's music and personal circumstances. Investigate the long-term threat posed to Europe by the Ottoman Empire, and observe the paradoxical Turkish vogue in European art and fashion. Study the Turkish elements in both the plot and musical content of Mozart's opera The Abduction from the Harem, and grasp how the economic fallout from Aus...
44 min
04: Haydn: Mass in the Time of War (1797)
Take stock of how events that began in revolutionary Paris inspired the expressive content of Haydn's Mass in the Time of War. Delve into the dramatic unfolding of the French Revolution, the subsequent rise of Napoleon, and the impending threat his war machine posed to Vienna. Hear the dramatic, martial character of Haydn's mass within this context-a triumphant musical exhortation to victory again...
44 min
05: Beethoven: The Farewell Sonata (1810)
In the first of two lectures on Beethoven, learn how the composer identified, almost mystically, with the figure of Napoleon. Study the events of the continuing clashes after the French Revolution, and witness the progressive military conflicts between Napoleon and the Austrian Habsburg empire. Grasp the highly personal meanings in Beethoven's Farewell Sonata, which depicts the departure and absen...
45 min
06: Beethoven: Wellington's Victory (1813)
The Napoleonic Wars-and Beethoven's conflicted feelings toward Napoleon-were elemental in another important episode in the composer's life. Trace Beethoven's increasing animosity toward the French, and observe the unfolding debacle of Napoleon's Peninsular War against Portugal and Spain. Learn how Beethoven came to compose Wellington's Victory, celebrating the British commander's triumph over the ...
46 min
07: Berlioz/de L'Isle: "La Marseillaise" (1830)
In this lecture, envision the evolution of Paris from the 17th century to the 19th, and grasp how the city became a magnet for artists and intellectuals, and the spawning ground for the age of European revolutions. Witness the political events from the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy following Napoleon's downfall to the revolutionary movement of 1830, which inspired Berlioz's monumental settin...
44 min
08: Chopin: Etude in C Minor, Op. 10, No. 12 (1831)
In 1831, a failed political insurrection in Warsaw left a permanent mark on the music and spirit of Frederic Chopin. Beginning in the 17th century, explore the history of invasions, "partitions," and occupations of Poland by neighboring European powers, which effectively destroyed the Polish Commonwealth. Learn about Chopin's early life, and delve into the doomed "November Uprising" ...
46 min
09: Glinka: A Life for the Tsar (1836)
Glinka's A Life for the Tsar was a landmark in the creation of Russian language opera. Learn about the origins of the opera's storyline in Russia's "Time of Troubles," an era of discord and invasions, and consider Glinka's role in a community dedicated to bringing Russian art and literature to prominence. Through compelling excerpts from the hugely successful opera, observe how A Life for the Tsar...
43 min
10: Strauss Sr.: Radetzky March (1848)
Uncover the story behind Vienna's beloved Radetzky March, which reflects the last glory of the Austrian Empire. As background, track the historical triumphs and tribulations of the Habsburg dynasty, leading to the 1848 rebellion in which the musical Johann Strausses, Senior and Junior, took opposing sides. Experience Strauss Senior's rousing March in its historical setting, celebrating the Field M...
45 min
11: Brahms: Piano Quartet in G Minor, Op. 25 (1861)
As the prelude to a fateful episode in the life of Johannes Brahms, explore the 19th-century Hungarian nationalist movement, highlighting the revolutionary initiatives of Lajos Kossuth, icon of the 1848 revolt against Austrian domination. Witness how Brahms's meeting with the Hungarian refugee and violinist Eduard Remenyi ignited the composer's longtime love affair with Hungarian gypsy musi...
42 min
12: Gottschalk: The Union (1862)
Louis Moreau Gottschalk was the first truly American composer. Delve into his early life in New Orleans, and observe the richly diverse cultures that shaped his music, encompassing European, Caribbean, Latin American and African influences. Follow his remarkable career as a touring composer-piano virtuoso, his tireless work for the Northern cause during the Civil War, and the events which sparked ...
47 min
13: Verdi: Nabucco (1842)
In the creation of his opera Nabucco, Giuseppe Verdi played a key role in the movement for Italian unification. Study the series of 19th-century rebellions against Austrian rule that culminated in the two Italian wars of independence. Observe how the music and poetry of Nabucco came to be identified with the Italian people's quest for nationhood, ultimately leading the composer into a direct parti...
45 min
14: Wagner: The Ring (1876)
Wagner's operatic cycle The Ring functions metaphorically as a caustic critique of 19th-century European society. Learn about Wagner's embrace of anti-capitalist rhetoric in 1848 and 1849, a time when revolutions broke out across Europe, and his writing of revolutionary articles and manifestos. Grasp how the Ring's human and godlike characters represent the ills of industrial societies, and how Wa...
46 min
15: Dvorak: From the New World Symphony (1893)
Explore the extraordinary industrial and economic rise of the United States in the 19th century, a phenomenon celebrated in the Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893, one of the most spectacular world's fairs ever held. Witness the historic participation of Antonin Dvorak, and uncover the impact on American music of Dvorak's residency in the U.S., which produced his symphony entitled ...
47 min
16: Balakirev: Symphony No. 1 (1898)
Delve into the 19th-century movement within Russia to create a distinctively Russian national art. With his Symphony No. 1 as a point of reference, learn how Mily Balakirev personified the quest for an authentic Russian musical aesthetic. Observe how this quest reflected a geopolitical conflict within Russia between pro-Western and "Slavophile" schools of thought, and see how Balakirev gathered ar...
48 min
17: Janacek: Piano Sonata I.X.1905 (1906)
The life and music of composer Leos Janacek were profoundly shaped by the longtime enmity in Czech lands between the Germans and the Czechs. Study the history of German/Czech relations dating from the 17th century, and witness the Czech national revival of the 19th century, of which Janacek was a passionate advocate. Learn how the events of a political demonstration in 1905 inspired ...
47 min
18: Rimsky-Korsakov: The Golden Cockerel (1907)
This lecture reveals Rimsky-Korsakov's classic opera, The Golden Cockerel, as daring political commentary, directly reflecting the events surrounding the first Russian Revolution. Study the opera's fairy-tale plot, in parallel with the drama of Russia's devastating military encounter with the Japanese in 1905, and anti-Tsarist rebellion within Russia. Hear key excerpts from the opera, and observe ...
45 min
19: Holst: Ode to Death (1919)
Gustav Holst's luminous Ode to Death responded to the immeasurable suffering of World War I. Learn about the underlying causes of the conflict, and grasp how the horrific human cost of the war reflected a tragic clash between archaism and modernity. In Ode to Death, experience the melding of Holst's music with Walt Whitman's elegiac text, and study the musical means whereby Holst evokes a haunting...
48 min
20: Berg: Wozzeck (1922)
In assessing Berg's operatic masterwork, investigate the aftermath of World War I in Germany and its imprint on the opera-a psychological climate of rage, disillusion, and alienation in the wake of the war's barbarity and hypocrisy. Observe how Berg's own wartime experience linked him with the life of Franz Wozzeck, the opera's protagonist. In excerpts from the opera's first and third acts, hear h...
45 min
21: Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13 (1962)
Take the measure of the terrors of the Stalinist regime in Soviet Russia, and uncover how many people, including Dimitri Shostakovich, were forced to lead double lives. Learn about the composition of the Symphony during the post-Stalin "Thaw," a less repressive period, and consider the composer's use of texts by courageous poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko. In the Symphony's powerful textures, grasp how th...
47 min
22: Copland: Symphony No. 3 (1946)
Trace the Depression-era movement of populism in American art, based in the notion that high art should speak to the broad, general population, and learn how Copland's Symphony No. 3 captured the euphoric mood of the country following victories over the Depression, fascism, and Japanese imperialism. Note also how the artistic politics of the postwar decades relegated the Symphony to temporary obsc...
50 min
23: Gorecki: Symphony No. 3 (1976)
As context for this modern symphonic masterpiece, investigate the nearly inconceivable atrocities committed against Poland during World War II by Hitler's and Stalin's regimes, encompassing efforts by both aggressors to destroy Polish nationhood. Learn about Henryk Górecki's life in wartime and in the repressive era that followed, and hear the sublimely beautiful "Symphony of Sorrowful Song...
49 min
24: Crumb: Black Angels (1970)
Conclude with George Crumb's passionate anti-war string quartet. Trace the backdrop of its writing in the political climate and policy decisions that led the U.S. into the quagmire of the Vietnam War. Observe how the attempted U.S. policy of "containment" unraveled tragically in the face of the implacable will of the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. In the extraordinary sonic textures of Black Ange...
51 min
