From being the ruler of an obscure German electorate George I suddenly became king of on the most powerful nations in the world in his fifties. He was never popular in his new kingdom but established a constitutional monarchy which has survived to today. This course was run at the City Lit on Saturday 16th…
Orpheus – Life after Death Unlike other Greek Heroes Orpheus was basically peaceful. He braved the Underworld and was one of the Argonauts. Ever since he has been a major influence for artists and composers. This course was run at the City Lit on Saturday 3rd March 2018. We studied the Greek Myths surrounding Orpheus…
This course was run at the City Lit on Saturday 20th October 2012, looking at the four coronations in the twentieth century and the music performed at them to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee. The four coronations between 1902 and 1953 came at interesting times and produced new music that reflected those times. We shall look…
Handel fell in love with England on his first visit writing music for Queen Anne herself. He was reconciled with George I partly with his Water Music Suite and wrote the coronation music for George II. It is an examination of how closely his music and career was bound up with the British royal family…
Handel fell in love with England on his first visit writing music for Queen Anne herself. He was reconciled with George I partly with his Water Music Suite and wrote the coronation music for George II. It is an examination of how closely his music and career was bound up with the British royal family…
Music for the Mass – A Thousand Years of Choral Music From its early origins in the Middle Ages, the Mass has inspired some of the greatest music by the greatest composers. This course examined the chronological development of the Mass and the Requiem by composers from the Middle Ages to the Present Day from…
Beethoven’s String Quartets A detailed examination of all the quartets, often with scores, placing them in context with comparisons to other works being written at the same time. Possibly the greatest composer of string quartets, the pinnacle of chamber music, Beethoven wrote 16 masterpieces in this genre over his whole career. Each week we analysed…