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Mrs Eleanor Purce
From 1976 to 1980 I had piano lessons from Eleanor Purce at Keele University. She had been a pupil of the great Alfred Cortot and as his writing on music did not include his method she decided to write her own version of how she taught based on the wisdom he passed on to her. …
Music in the Classical Age
Music in Time II – Music in the Classical Age 1750-1805 The course provided students with an understanding of how western classical music styles and techniques evolved during the period 1750-1805. We concentrated on the “Classical” era of the sons of Bach, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven and examined the development of new types of composition…
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Vaughan Williams and Holst Two great friends who pioneered a new English style with varying success. Not just the composers of Greensleeves and the Planets, Vaughan Williams and Holst followed Elgar’s lead as two of the standard bearers of the English Musical Renaissance. Both were from Gloucestershire but they met as students at the Royal…
Joseph Haydn
Haydn and the English Although it happened late in his life Haydn’s association with the English had a huge impact on his music not least the 12 Symphonies, chamber and piano music he wrote for his two visits but his discovery of Handel’s oratorios on those visits had an enormous impact on his later choral…
Edward Elgar
Elgar – his life and works This course was run to coincide with the Elgar Year celebrations. The first English composer since Handel to gain an international reputation, Elgar remains one of the best loved of all English composers but his character is as much a mystery as the theme from his Enigma Variations. 2007…
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart’s Finale This was a detailed examination of Mozart’s last 12 months in which he wrote some of his greatest works (including the Clarinet Concerto, the Magic Flute, La Clemenza di Tito, Ave Verum Corpus, the Requiem, the last Piano Concerto and the last two String Quintets) but struggled financially and professionally. I ran this…
