Professor Wright introduces the course by suggesting that "listening to music" is not simply a passive activity one can use to relax, but rather, an active and rewarding process. He argues that by learning about the basic elements of Western classical music, such as rhythm, melody, and form, one learns strategies that can be used to understand many different kinds of music in a more thorough and precise way -- and further, one begins to understand the magnitude of human greatness. Professor Wright draws the music examples in this lecture from recordings of techno music, American musical theater, and works by Mozart, Beethoven, Debussy and Strauss, in order to introduce the issues that the course will explore in more depth throughout the semester. 00:00 - Chapter 1. Introduction to Listening to Music 03:23 - Chapter 2. Why Listen to Classical Music? 12:14 - Chapter 3. Course Requirements and Pedagogy 21:11 - Chapter 4. Diagnostic Quiz 33:56 - Chapter 5. Pitch 42:04 - Chapter 6. Rhythm

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 Orchestra
13. Fugue: Bach, Bizet and Bernstein
14. Ostinato Form in the Music of Purcell, Pachelbel, Elton John and Vitamin C
15. Gregorian 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, Berlioz, Mahler and Shostakovich
21. Musical Impressionism and Exoticism: Debussy, Ravel and Monet
22. Modernism and Mahler
23. Review of Musical Style

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.