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Robert Greenberg
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The Teaching Company: How to Listen to and Understand Great Music: Complete Set - 48 Audio CDs with Course Guidebooks (The Great Courses: Fine Arts and Music, Course # 700) Unknown Binding – CD, January 1, 1998

by Robert Greenberg (Author)
2.8 2.8 out of 5 stars 10 ratings
A music history and appreciation course, all in one. In these 48 lectures, Professor Greenberg discusses music from the ancient world to the modern day. According to The Teaching Company, "This course can permanently enrich your life." Lecture Titles (abbreviated): Introduction Sources—The Ancient World and the Early Church The Middle Ages Introduction to the Renaissance The Renaissance Mass The Madrigal Introduction to the Baroque Style Features of Baroque Music and a Brief Tutorial on Pitch, Motive, Melody, and Texture The Rise of German Nationalism in Music Fugue Baroque Opera, Part 1 Part 2 Baroque Sacred Music, Part 1—The Oratorio Part 2—The Lutheran Church Cantata Baroque Instrumental Forms, Part 1—Passacaglia Part 2—Ritornello Form and the Baroque Concerto The Enlightenment and an Introduction to the Classical Era The Viennese Classical Style, Homophony, and the Cadence Classical-Era Form—Theme and Variations Minuet and Trio I-Baroque Antecedents Minuet and Trio II Rondo Sonata-Allegro Form I, Part 1 Part 2 Classical-Era Form—Sonata-Allegro Form II Classical-Era Orchestral Genres—The Symphony The Solo Concerto Classical-Era Opera—The Development of Opera Buffa Mozart and the Operatic Ensemble The French Revolution Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67, Part 1 Part 2 Introduction to Romanticism Formal Challenges and Solutions in Early Romantic Music—Miniatures—Lieder and Chopin Program Symphony—Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, Part 1 Part 2 Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera—Bel Canto Opera Giuseppe Verdi Nineteenth-Century German Opera—Nationalism and Experimentation Richard Wagner The Concert Overture, Part 1 Part 2 Romantic Nationalism—Post-1848 Musical Nationalism Russian Nationalism The Early Twentieth Century and the Modernist Movement—An Introduction The Search for a New Musical Language—Debussy Stravinsky Schönberg
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  1. Print length
    359 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    The Teaching Company
  4. Publication date
    January 1, 1998
  5. ISBN-10
    1565853717
  6. ISBN-13
    978-1565853713
  7. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ The Teaching Company (January 1, 1998)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Unknown Binding ‏ : ‎ 359 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1565853717
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1565853713
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4.3 pounds
  • Customer Reviews:
    2.8 2.8 out of 5 stars 10 ratings

About the author

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Robert Greenberg

Robert Greenberg

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Robert Greenberg was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1954, and has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1978. Greenberg received a BA in music, magna cum laude, from Princeton University in 1976. His principal teachers at Princeton were Edward Cone, Daniel Werts, and Carlton Gamer in composition, Claudio Spies and Paul Lansky in analysis, and Jerry Kuderna in piano. In 1984, Greenberg received a Ph.D. in music composition, With Distinction, from the University of California, Berkeley, where his principal teachers were Andrew Imbrie and Olly Wilson in composition and Richard Felciano in analysis.

Greenberg has composed over fifty works for a wide variety of instrumental and vocal ensembles. Performances of his works have taken place in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, England, Ireland, Greece, Italy and The Netherlands, where his Child's Play for String Quartet was performed at the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam.

Greenberg has received numerous commissions and awards. His music is published by Sheet Music Plus, Fallen Leaf Press and CPP/Belwin, and has been recorded on the Innova label. A number of his recent works can be seen/heard on his YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/robertgreenbergmusic.

Greenberg has performed, taught and lectured extensively across North America and Europe. He is currently music historian-in-residence with San Francisco Performances, where he has lectured and performed since 1994. For fifteen years Greenberg was the resident composer and music historian to National Public Radio’s “Weekend All Things Considered” and “Weekend Edition, Sunday” with Liane Hansen.

Since 1993, Greenberg has recorded nearly 650 lectures on subjects musical for The Great Courses, formerly The Teaching Company. Available on both CD and DVD formats and in book form, the courses have garnered wide praise. His webTV show, “Scandalous Overtures”, can be seen on Ora.TV.

Greenberg’s book, How to Listen to Great Music, was published by Plume, a division of Penguin Books, in April, 2011. His webcourses "Mozart in Vienna" (16 lectures) and "The Music of the Twentieth Century" (18 lecturers) can be sampled and purchased on his website at RobertGreenbergMusic.com.

In February 2003, The Bangor Daily News (Maine) referred to Greenberg as being the Elvis of music appreciation, an appraisal that has given more pleasure than any other.

Robert Greenberg is a Steinway Artist.

For more information (as if this wasn't enough!), or to read my weekly blog "Music History Monday", or to sample my webcourses please visit my website at RobertGreenbergMusic.com.

Customer reviews

2.8 out of 5 stars
2.8 out of 5
10 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Lee Topham
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2016
Verified Purchase
A great comprehensive treatment of music. An unforgettable experience. I listened to each CD twice.
2 people found this helpful
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Burch Seymour
2.0 out of 5 stars Don't waste your money
Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2011
If you really want to hear this, please check your local library, then be prepared to fact check what Dr Bob says. For example in his discussion of fugues, he states twice, emphasizes, then enumerates all possibilities for a three voice fugue, the "rule" that voices MUST be the highest or the lowest when they state the fugue subject for the first time. Too bad he wasn't around in 1700 to explain that "rule" to Sebastian Bach. Six of the WTC fugues don't follow it, the first contrapunctus of the Art of Fugue doesn't follow it. Other examples in JSB's works are easy to find.

Of course Dr Bob doesn't seem to like Baroque music at all. In the lecture introducing baroque music, his audio examples include Beethoven and Tchaikovsky. Huh? In his first lecture on Baroque opera he spends minutes talking about pluralizing Italian nouns. Why? In the intro to the course he laments leaving out topics due to time constraints, yet he wastes time on pointless, or at least over-long, diversions. He then spends more minutes giving the background, text, setting the scene and such to introduce his musical selection, which is from Verdi's Aida. What? He couldn't find a baroque opera to illustrate his points in a lecture about baroque opera.

His discussion of the German language in relation to vocal music is, quite honestly, offensive. He speaks a phrase in German using an exaggerated pronunciation that one would expect in a WWII-era Three Stooges cartoon, but certainly not in a serious discussion of music history. His analysis of language as it relates to melody is, IMO, completely bogus. Sure, German has some harsh sounds, but I could do a silly pronunciation of - Confutatis maledictis, flammis acribus addictis, and make the same point about Latin - a language that he thinks good for singing.

I could go on, but that makes the point. Full disclosure, I've listened to the first 10 CDs and am not sure that I'll continue. If I can point to things that I know are wrong because I have some familiarity with a topic, it makes me suspect that I cannot trust anything that he says.
25 people found this helpful
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David Ira
3.0 out of 5 stars Some good material but a little "over the top"
Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2007
Greenberg does cover a lot of ground and has some interesting things to say. Personally, I find his lecture style a little offputting. He goes overboard in attempting to be dramatic and popular in style. He often repeats things for emphasis. Let me repeat....he often repeats things for emphasis! Like that. Often I find myself disagreeing with his musical statements. Nevertheless, I have learned some good things from his CDs.
25 people found this helpful
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M. Odurih
1.0 out of 5 stars Don't waste your money...
Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 2011
I have to confess that I haven't suffered through the entire set of lectures, but I've heard enough to know that we have totally wasted our money buying this set. Greenberg clearly enjoys listening to himself as he reads from his notes, mispronouncing many words as he attempts flowery language and tedious lists of definitions and descriptions. But the real problem with his lectures is that he describes familiar pieces in ways that will ruin them for you, and are simply his own opinions and vivid images (of Beethoven belching and farting, for example, or Mozart's thematic tensions). There's far too little attention to the important features of the music itself and far too much listening to Greenberg enjoying the sound of his own animated voice and tired expressions. Save both your money and time, and spend your $$$ on some excellent music instead.
8 people found this helpful
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Love To Read
5.0 out of 5 stars An Entertaining and Intense Lesson in Music Appreciation
Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2012
For someone who knew very little about music except my great enjoyment of it, this lecture series was an amazing find. The Professor, with his colorful style, combined history of the periods, biography of the composers and the technical differences of the genres with very informative and entertaining lecture. The time flew with each cd because it was never boring. One of the other reviewers mentioned the Professor's repetition of statements for emphasis. Rightfully so! Aren't many standard college courses boring and the students' interest often drops off after fifteen minutes or so of lecture? With this series, one had time to drift into and out of their own thoughts about what he said and come back to a relevant repetition without having to rewind. There's so much information being taught that unless one is a student of music, it is so valuable to be reminded of prior subject matter in order to build on the previous lesson and not lose one's way as is often the case with a typical university lecture.

This was a huge boost in my knowledge of European history, a newfound appreciation of the great compositions, and a well-deserved tribute to the composers.
3 people found this helpful
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Quaker
1.0 out of 5 stars Be careful. This is an old edition.
Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2013
This course has been revised and updated twice by Robert Greenberg and The Great Courses. You want the 3rd Edition, not this one.
9 people found this helpful
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Kelly
5.0 out of 5 stars Greenberg is the best I've ever come across
Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2006
This is the best course I've ever had the privilege to be exposed to and I recommend it to anyone. Greenberg is a RARE talent. Although the course is enormous, it's a fascinating journey the listener takes...you truly learn "To listen to and understand great music" perhaps APPRECIATE would make the title too cumbersome, but it doesn't make it less true. Anyone can benefit from this course and all can learn the complexities of music with the simplicity of Greenberg style. It inspired me to start playing again and seeking great music instead of trendy stuff I'd been exposing myself to regularly. This is a milestone in education. Do not miss it.
22 people found this helpful
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