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Robert Schumann
Schumann and Schumann This course examined the music and careers of Robert and Clara Schumann, how they were entwined and the influence on each other. The course was run thematically with the first week being an overall chronology and then each week concentrating on one type of music such as Piano Muisc, Songs, Choral, Orchestral…
Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov
The Mighty Handful The lives and music of Balakirev, Cui, Borodin, Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov examining how they came together and how their careers overlapped. In 1867 the critic Stasov wrote a review of the Pan-Slav concert organised by Mily Balakirev: “God grant that our Slavonic guests may never forget today’s concert; God grant that they…
Zoltan Kodaly
Kodaly and Budapest This study was part of a longer course studying the history and culture of Budapest. We concentrated on Kodaly’s choral works and how they fitted in with the tradition of Hungarian choral works initiated by his greatest predecessor, Liszt. We compared Liszt’s Hungarian Coronation Mass with Kodaly’s similarly celebratory Buda Castle Te…
Michael Tippett
Britten, Walton and Tippett Three of the greatest British composers of the twentieth century had very different attitudes to music but all attempted to write in many different media such as opera, choral, orchestral and chamber music. Among the operas studied were Midsummer Marriage, King Priam, Peter Grimes, Billy Budd, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Albert Herring,…
Maurice Ravel
Unravelling Ravel A study of his life and music and that of his contemporaries. Maurice Ravel was a very private man who wrote some of the best-loved music of the twentieth century although he always dismissed Bolero as merely an academic exercise – but then he never saw Torvill and Dean. Works studied include Pavane pour…
Max Bruch
Brahms and Bruch This was a comparative study of the two greatest German instrumental and choral composers of their day whose reputations have not fared equally well. Johannes Brahms and Max Bruch were two of the most celebrated composers in late nineteenth century Germany. Bruch predicted that his fame would fade as Brahms’s grew. Although…
