Lecture Description
A brief foray into the formal characteristics of contemporary popular music is used to launch this lecture on musical form. After a discussion of the "verse-chorus" form often used in popular music, Professor Wright proceeds to take students into the realm of classical music, focusing particularly on ternary form and sonata-allegro form. Throughout his detailed explanation of sonata-allegro form, he also elaborates upon some harmonic concepts describing, for example, the relationship between relative major and minor keys. This lecture draws its musical examples from 'N Sync, Mozart, and Beethoven. 00:00 - Chapter 1. Verse-Chorus Form in Popular Music 05:56 - Chapter 2. Introduction to Form in Classical Music 12:18 - Chapter 3. Ternary Form 18:00 - Chapter 4. The Sonata-Allegro Form in Mozart's "A Little Night Music" 36:19 - Chapter 5. The Sonata-Allegro Form in Beethoven's Fifth Symphony
Course Index
- Introduction
- Introduction to Instruments and Musical Genres
- Rhythm: Fundamentals
- Rhythm: Jazz, Pop and Classical
- Melody: Notes, Scales, Nuts and Bolts
- Melody: Mozart and Wagner
- Harmony: Chords and How to Build Them
- Bass Patterns: Blues and Rock
- Sonata-Allegro Form: Mozart and Beethoven
- Sonata-Allegro and Theme and Variations
- Form: Rondo, Sonata-Allegro and Theme and Variations (cont.)
- Guest Conductor: Saybrook Orchestra
- Fugue: Bach, Bizet and Bernstein
- Ostinato Form in the Music of Purcell, Pachelbel, Elton John and Vitamin C
- Gregorian Chant and Music in the Sistine Chapel
- Baroque Music: The Vocal Music of Johann Sebastian Bach
- Mozart and His Operas
- Piano Music of Mozart and Beethoven
- Romantic Opera: Verdi's La Traviata, Bocelli, Pavarotti and Domingo
- The Colossal Symphony: Beethoven, Berlioz, Mahler and Shostakovich
- Musical Impressionism and Exoticism: Debussy, Ravel and Monet
- Modernism and Mahler
- Review of Musical Style
Course Description
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.