John Gibbons holds a Ph.D. in music composition from the University of Chicago. He teaches music appreciation classes at the Universality of Chicago’s Graham School and at Newberry Library. He also offers private piano lessons in the Chicago area.
Bonnie Gibbons is a web site developer and SEO with a background in classical music. She might be persuaded to teach a few cello lessons in the Chicago area.
Beethoven’s legacy proved an inspiration and obstacle to the next generation of symphonists, who struggled with the implications of Beethoven’s formal innovations but managed to infuse the symphonic genre with greatly expanded thematic dimension inspired by the philosophy, literature, and even visual arts that shaped their own experience. Our core repertoire will be the symphonies of Mendelssohn (including the Scottish and the Italian Symphonies), Schumann (including the Rhenish), Brahms, Bruckner, and Mahler.
Syllabus
Week 1: In the Shadow of Beethoven - An overview
Beethoven’s ubiquity
Beethoven’s heroic paradigm
Beethoven and the sublime
The heroic sublime
The pastoral sublime
The utopian sublime
Symphonic Responses By:
Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, Bruckner, Tchaikovsky, Suk, Mahler, Strauss, Busoni
Week 2: Berlioz and the program symphony
Symphonie Fantastique (1830)
Harold in Italy (with obbligato viola) (1834)
“Dramatic Symphony” Romeo et Juliette (with chorus) (1839)
Symphonie Funebre et Triumphale (giant wind band) (1840)
Mendelssohn: Reformation, Beethoven Anxiety and Travelogues
Week 3: Schumann: The Master, the Amateur and the Poet
Liszt: The Satanic and Divine
Faust Symphony (1854)
Dante Symphony (1857)
Week 4: “Brahms the Progressive”
Bruckner: Beethoven and God (or is that redundant?)
Due to revisions, the chronology of Bruckner’s symphonies is quite complex. A separate handout will be provided.
Week 5: Mahler: The Agony and the Ecstasy
Symphonies TBD
Strauss and Hindemith
Strauss:
Eine Alpensinfonie (An Alpine Symphony), Op. 64 (1915)
Hindemith:
Mathis der Maler Symphony (1933-1934)
Week 6: Eastern European Tradition
Suk:
Asrael Symphony
Dvorak
TBD
Week 7: The Symphony in All but Name
Strauss’s Ein Heldenlebe
Busoni piano concerto
Week 8: The Heroic Paradigm in the 20th Century
Responses to Beethoven (?) by Sibelius, Nielsen, Britten, Shostakovich, Hartmann, and others TBD
Symphony Since Beethoven Materials
After Beethoven: The Imperative of Originality in the Symphony
by Mark Evan Bonds
The Symphony: A Listener's Guide
by Michael Steinberg
For The Love of Music: Invitations to Listening
by Michael Steinberg, Larry Rothe
Late Idyll : The Second Symphony of Johannes Brahms
by Reinhold Brinkmann
Beethoven and His World
Princeton University Press
Mendelssohn: A Life in Music
by R. Larry Todd
Mendelssohn (Master Musicians Series)
by the late Philip Radcliffe
The Cambridge Companion to Mendelssohn (Cambridge Companions to Music)
Cambridge University Press
Schumann on Music: A Selection from the Writings
by Robert Schumann
Schumann (Master Musicians Series)
by Eric Frederick Jensen
Robert Schumann: Herald of a "New Poetic Age"
by John Daverio
Verdi (Life & Times) (Life&Times)
by Barbara Meier
Crossing Paths: Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms
by John Daverio
Johannes Brahms: A Biography
by Jan Swafford
The Cambridge Companion to Bruckner (Cambridge Companions to Music)
Cambridge University Press
Bruckner (Master Musicians Series)
by Derek Watson
The Essence of Bruckner: An Essay Towards the Undersanding of his Music.
by Anton]. Simpson, Robert. [BRUCKNER
Mahler: A Musical Physiognomy
by Theodor W. Adorno
Richard Strauss: Man, Musician, Enigma
by Michael Kennedy