How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, 3rd Edition
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How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, 3rd Edition
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Narrated by:
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Robert Greenberg
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Written by:
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Robert Greenberg
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The Great Courses
About this listen
Great music is a language unto its own, a means of communication of unmatched beauty and genius. And it has an undeniable power to move us in ways that enrich our lives - provided it is understood.
If you have ever longed to appreciate great concert music, to learn its glorious language and share in its sublime pleasures, the way is now open to you, through this series of 48 wonderful lectures designed to make music accessible to everyone who yearns to know it, regardless of prior training or knowledge. It's a lecture series that will enable you to first grasp music's forms, techniques, and terms - the grammatical elements that make you fluent in its language - and then use that newfound fluency to finally hear and understand what the greatest composers in history are actually saying to us.
And as you learn the gifts given us by nearly every major composer, you'll come to know there is one we share with each of them - a common humanity that lets us finally understand that these were simply people speaking to us, sharing their passion and wanting desperately to be heard. Using digitally recorded musical passages to illustrate his points, Professor Greenberg will take you inside magnificent compositions by Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Verdi, Wagner, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, and more. Even if you have listened to many of these illustrative pieces throughout your life - as so many of us have - you will never hear them the same way again after experiencing these lectures.
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 164
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 436
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 202
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 172
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What listeners say about How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, 3rd Edition
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2019-09-29
A true masterpiece!
The performance of this work is entertaining enough without also introducing witty writing AND amazing content. This is a must for anyone trying to go deeper into their understanding and appreciation of western classical music.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rami N. Basha
- 2023-10-26
Great!
I greatly enjoyed it. Thank you; such an amazing production; please, do more courses like this one.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- L. RENAUD
- 2021-06-14
Fantastic
Robert Greenberg is so entertaining with the history and anecdotes related to music and time period. It puts all of it into perspective. The explanation of music theory, tempo, terminology was very informative. Thank you. It made me appreciate music even more. Have a great day!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Phil Redekopp
- 2018-10-13
Very Engaging
Having never practised or studied music, this survey course was both relatively simple, and challenging enough to keep me hooked. The Prof is very engaging, and peppers the material with humor, context, and helpful analogy. All this, and excellent praying and delivery (I initially mistook him for Alec Baldwin).
Well done All!
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amir Afshar
- 2021-10-08
I would give 10 stars if I could
This is a great, thorough, and full of humor course. Dr. Greenberg has done a phenomenal job. absolutely recommend to anyone who would like to learn about the music history and how it has been evolved.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- mcgr
- 2020-12-22
Great course
One of the best courses out there! Interesting, entertaining, and a must for any music listener.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Scott McRae
- 2022-06-11
Listening sparked my passion for classical music
I first heard this lecture series almost six months ago, and it prompted me to start listening in a much greater breadth and depth to the classical repertoire, a listening experience infused with a new joy and profundity of understanding. This survey course, almost 50 lectures long, does a heroic job of covering the various compositional elements, stylistic periods, important composers and foundational pieces of orchestral music, and never feels drawn out or repetitive. There is a vast amount of content Dr. Greenberg conveys, liberally leavened, as one might expect, with samples of the music under discussion.
I must admit, it did take a while to get used to Prof. Greenberg's presentation persona of jocular bonhomie, a style that felt forced, though probably developed from a career trying to keep students awake and engaged through lectures. While initially irritating, I acclimatised eventually and found it less distracting as the series progressed and never so offputting that it took away from the educational content.
Overall, an excellent foundational course for appreciating and understanding the Western musical canon. I'm glad I listened to it and glad I continue to bring some of the music I learned about here into my life.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2021-04-03
A must listen
Absolutely well done, entertaining, and only leaves one wanting more...a must listen for any music lover.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- SS
- 2019-02-27
Factual inaccurate garbage.
Greenberg invents many stories in order to buttress ideological arguments intended to debase and deconstruct western classical music. Another academic hack of the usual type.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Peter
- 2020-03-15
Great info but too cutesy
Great music and great ideas don't need attempts to use anachronisms and sweeping unsupported judgments to make them relevant. I listen to lectures because I want to learn, not because I want to be entertained by the speaker's cleverness. That being said, despite Greenberg's annoying approach, this is a useful lecture series.
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