Music in film, both specially composed and/or appropriated, often determines the character and emotional gravity of the greatest films. Spend six dreary winter afternoons immersing yourself in some of the best movie scores with recordings, video, and expert commentary by John Gibbons. Register online now. Tentative Syllabus

Pioneering a style of unparalleled versatility and expressiveness, Haydn, Mozart, and the early Beethoven created a musical repertory of elegance, wit, optimism, and logic that remains the benchmark of Western musical culture to this day. This class discusses the evolution and achievements of such genres as the Haydn symphonies and quartets, the Mozart concertos and operas, and the early Beethoven instrumental works in historical, social, and musical contexts. Register Here. Download Syllabus

Using Chopin and Schumann, as well as various contemporaries, as the basis for an examination of the Romantic generation, this class seeks to bring this most fascinating and unruly epoch into focus.  Beyond the context of the first half of the nineteenth century, this class also explores the continued resonance of this repertory today.
Register here. | Download Syllabus

The French classical tradition is one of the world's most enduring, from 10th-century Notre Dame polyphony to postwar modernism, while the Spanish tradition offers a rich diversity of Arabic and European influences. Download Syllabus

From fragmentary piano character sketches to massive oratorios, this course will analyze and contextualize the most dramatic era of change in western music history. Four composers, born at the outset of the 19th century, will lead us on this musical hero’s journey. Download Syllabus

Each session in this course examines one crucial operatic masterpiece that transformed western music.
Syllabus

Audio: John Gibbons talks about the 8 operas selected for the course.

This course will examine the most controversial and multifaceted of composers.

Beethoven’s legacy proved an inspiration and obstacle to the next generation of symphonists...

For roughly a century, opera in Italy constituted an authentically popular yet highly sophisticated art form that evolved its own characteristic, organic nature and yet reflected a complex array of aesthetic, social, and political developments. Syllabus

Twentieth-century music is no longer “contemporary” music; it has become yet another complex and multifaceted notch along the continuum of musical history. We can now examine with reasonable objectivity the influence and permanence of a diverse range of composers...

Thursday mornings January 14-March 3. Chicago, IL. Syllabus

A note on the NEXT Tuesday class, Italian Opera from Barber to Turandot - Will it be a rehash of the current class?

Exact contemporaries, Johan Sebastian Bach and George Frederick Handel (both born in 1685) represent the pinnacle of Baroque art. Thursday mornings. Syllabus

this course will examine masterpieces of both composers in these genres and will consider their vital contributions to centuries of music. Tuesday mornings. Syllabus

3-week class, Saturday mornings. Designed for opera newbies and lifelong opera lovers alike, this course explores the genre through the first three works of Lyric Opera’s season.

We will highlight the flamboyant and coloristic compositional techniques of Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov,  the elegance and craftsmanship of Tchaikovsky, and the prescient modernism of Mussorgsky with due attention to the beloved virtuoso performance tradition. Download the syllabus

For Beethoven, the sonata was his laboratory or workshop. It was the genre in which he experimented with his most audacious and original ideas, while the quartet decisively marks the culmination of each of his “three periods.” Schubert’s sonatas and quartets express his utterly complementary character in regard to Beethoven. Download Syllabus

The swashbuckling careers of Liszt, Rubenstein, Louis Moreau, Gottschalk, and Paganini will be placed in the context of the evolution of the virtuoso concerto. Modern-era virtuosos such as Vladimir Horowitz will also be included, as will obscure and contemporary concertos. Syllabus.

This course examines these two composers’ reflections on death, eternity, and redemption in their monumental symphonies and song cycles. Syllabus

This course focuses on the national traditions often omitted in standard musical survey courses. We will introduce the English and closely-related Scandinavian tradition, and the Eastern European tradition of the Czech, Polish and Hungarian masters. Syllabus

Compact and homogeneous, expressive and versatile, the string quartet is the preferred chamber music of composers from Haydn (who invented it as a genre) to the current day. Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Wolf, Janáček, Bartók, and Berg’s quartets will be examined. Syllabus

Vienna and Berlin constituted a veritable maelstrom of ideologies in the era following the Franco-Prussian War. From the café culture of Vienna to the cynicism of Brecht and Weill’s Berlin, these two cities represent the culmination—and, ultimately, the decadence and destruction—of an entire European culture. Syllabus | Register Online

This course will examine the literary and musical awakening of Russia in the mid-19th century, a turbulent time when political upheaval created a synergy between the artistic and political spheres.