Classical Music Course

Lesson 1 • Defining Classical Music

Establishes what classical music is, distinguishing it from folk, popular, and sacred traditions. Provides the conceptual anchor for all subsequent historical and analytical study.

Lesson 2 • Historical Periods Overview

Maps the major eras from Medieval through Contemporary, with approximate dates and defining characteristics. Gives students a chronological framework for organising composers and works.

Lesson 3 • Core Musical Terminology

Introduces essential Italian, German, and French terms used in scores and programme notes. Enables students to read and discuss music with precise, professional language.

Lesson 4 • Listening Strategies and Active Hearing

Trains focused, analytical listening distinct from passive enjoyment. Students practise identifying structural landmarks and expressive devices in short excerpts.

Lesson 1 • Key Signatures and Scales

Covers major and minor key signatures, the circle of fifths, and scale construction. Prepares students to identify tonal centres and mode in any score.

Lesson 2 • The Stave, Clefs, and Pitch

Introduces the five-line stave, treble and bass clefs, and pitch placement. Establishes the visual grammar needed for all subsequent score-reading work.

Lesson 3 • Reading an Orchestral Score

Introduces score layout, transposing instruments, and how to follow multiple staves simultaneously. Builds the skill of tracking a full ensemble from a single page.

Lesson 4 • Dynamics, Articulation, and Expression Marks

Decodes the performance instructions printed in scores beyond pitch and rhythm. Students learn to translate notation into expressive interpretive decisions.

Lesson 1 • Keyboard and Continuo Instruments

Addresses harpsichord, organ, fortepiano, and modern piano as both solo and ensemble instruments. Traces the keyboard's evolving role from Baroque continuo to Romantic soloist.

Lesson 2 • String Family

Covers violin, viola, cello, double bass, and harp construction, range, and technique. Establishes the backbone of the orchestra as the foundation for orchestration study.

Lesson 3 • Woodwind Family

Examines flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and their relatives in terms of tone colour and expressive range. Connects woodwind characteristics to their roles in classical textures.

Lesson 4 • Percussion Family

Distinguishes pitched from unpitched percussion and surveys timpani, xylophone, snare, and cymbals. Highlights percussion's structural and colouristic roles in the orchestra.

Lesson 1 • Fugue and Contrapuntal Forms

Analyses subject, answer, countersubject, and episodes in Baroque fugal writing. Builds the contrapuntal literacy needed for Bach and later polyphonic works.

Lesson 2 • Rondo and Composite Forms

Covers the rondo principle and its combination with other forms in multi-movement works. Students trace refrain-episode alternation in Classical and Romantic finales.

Lesson 3 • Sonata Form

Provides a detailed map of exposition, development, and recapitulation with tonal implications. Sonata form is the central analytical tool for Classical and Romantic instrumental music.

Lesson 4 • Binary and Ternary Forms

Introduces two- and three-part structures as the building blocks of larger forms. Students practise labelling sections in Baroque dances and Classical character pieces.

Lesson 1 • Orchestral and Vocal Genres of the Era

Surveys the symphony, concerto, opera seria, opera buffa, and oratorio as defined in these two periods. Connects genre conventions to the social and institutional contexts of performance.

Lesson 2 • Major Baroque Composers and Works

Profiles Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Monteverdi, and Purcell through representative works. Students apply form and notation skills to analyse specific Baroque compositions.

Lesson 3 • Classical Style and Aesthetics

Identifies the shift to balanced phrase structure, homophonic texture, and Enlightenment ideals. Shows how Classical style differs from Baroque in melody, harmony, and form.

Lesson 4 • Major Classical Composers and Works

Focuses on Haydn, Mozart, and early Beethoven through symphonies, string quartets, and concertos. Students trace sonata form and Classical style in specific movements.

Lesson 1 • Romantic Opera and Music Drama

Covers Italian bel canto, Verdi's dramatic realism, and Wagner's music drama with leitmotif technique. Connects operatic developments to broader Romantic aesthetic goals.

Lesson 2 • Romantic Aesthetics and Philosophy

Examines the Romantic emphasis on emotion, nature, the supernatural, and the artist as genius. Connects literary and philosophical Romanticism to musical expression and programme music.

Lesson 3 • Major Romantic Composers and Works

Profiles Beethoven's late works, Schubert, Brahms, Schumann, Chopin, and Liszt through key compositions. Students apply harmonic and formal analysis to representative Romantic scores.

Lesson 4 • Harmonic Language and Chromaticism

Analyses the expanded harmonic vocabulary of the 19th century, including chromatic chords and remote modulations. Shows how harmonic tension drives Romantic emotional intensity.

Lesson 1 • Atonality and the Second Viennese School

Traces the dissolution of tonality in Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern and the development of twelve-tone technique. Students analyse row construction and serial procedures in representative works.

Lesson 2 • Impressionism and Post-Romanticism

Analyses Debussy and Ravel's use of whole-tone scales, parallel chords, and modal colour. Positions Impressionism as a bridge between late Romanticism and 20th-century modernism.

Lesson 3 • Minimalism and Contemporary Trends

Analyses minimalist repetition in Reich, Glass, and Adams alongside postmodern and spectralist approaches. Connects contemporary compositional strategies to the broader arc of 20th-century music.

Lesson 4 • Mid-Century Avant-Garde Movements

Covers serialism, musique concrète, electronic music, and chance composition from 1945 to 1975. Students evaluate how each movement challenged traditional notions of pitch, time, and notation.

Lesson 1 • Writing Programme Notes and Essays

Teaches the conventions of programme notes, liner notes, and analytical essays for professional contexts. Students draft and revise a complete programme note for a chosen work.

Lesson 2 • Harmonic Analysis Techniques

Applies Roman numeral analysis, functional harmony, and voice-leading principles to full movements. Builds the analytical precision needed for advanced score study and writing.

Lesson 3 • Comparing Performances and Recordings

Develops criteria for evaluating tempo, articulation, dynamics, and interpretive choices across recordings. Students write comparative reviews using precise musical vocabulary.

Lesson 4 • Formal and Motivic Analysis

Combines form diagrams with motivic tracking to reveal compositional logic across a complete work. Students produce annotated score analyses showing structure and development simultaneously.