America’s Musical Heritage
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Narrated by:
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Professor Anthony Seeger
About this listen
America is an undeniably musical nation. From vaudeville and jazz to country music and blues, hearing the sounds of the American spirit is a truly unique way to appreciate centuries of American history in all its complexity.
Now, learn how to listen to the music of America with new ears. Produced in collaboration with Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, proprietor of the vast treasury of American vernacular music, these 12 lectures explore more than 200 years of music that will open your ears to a different side of the American experience.
Professor Seeger reveals the origins of the American music industry; the impact of instruments like the piano and the banjo; and the myriad ways music has shaped American wars, dances, elections, and public demonstrations. You’ll learn the secret histories of songs, including “The President’s March”, “Amazing Grace”, and “We Shall Overcome”, You’ll also hear informative interviews and eclectic performances from scholar-musicians, and sample original recordings that reflect the incredible richness of the American musical experience.
This is a rich and rewarding course that offers new ways for you to experience both music and American social history. You’ll discover new tunes to hum, new rhythms to tap your feet to, and new musical avenues to explore on your own.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
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Story
Every day of your life is spent surrounded by mysteries that involve what appear to be rather ordinary human behaviors. What makes you happy? Where did your personality come from? Why do you have trouble controlling certain behaviors? Why do you behave differently as an adult than you did as an adolescent?Since the start of recorded history, and probably even before, people have been interested in answering questions about why we behave the way we do.
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I wanted to like this course
- By Diane Tincher on 08-06-18
By: Mark Leary, and others
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The Life and Writings of C. S. Lewis
- By: Louis Markos, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Louis Markos
- Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins
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What can we still learn from C.S. Lewis? Find out in these 12 insightful lectures that cover the author's spiritual autobiography, novels, and his scholarly writings that reflect on pain and grief, love and friendship, prophecy and miracles, and education and mythology.
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Basically a collection of sermons
- By Richard on 11-20-13
By: Louis Markos, and others
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America After the Cold War
- The First Thirty Years
- By: Patrick N. Allitt, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Patrick N. Allitt
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
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The 30 years of contemporary US history following the fall of the Soviet Union tend to get short shrift, perhaps because this period of history is still being written, or perhaps because the end of the Cold War is a natural stopping point, an inflection point when one story ends and something new - something unpredictable - begins. Nonetheless, events of today have been profoundly shaped by the past several decades, and one must understand this recent history to understand the world today.
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Very consistent
- By J B Tipton on 05-05-20
By: Patrick N. Allitt, and others
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A Day's Read
- By: The Great Courses, Emily Allen, Grant L. Voth, and others
- Narrated by: Arnold Weinstein, Emily Allen, Grant L. Voth
- Length: 18 hrs and 25 mins
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Join three literary scholars and award-winning professors as they introduce you to dozens of short masterpieces that you can finish - and engage with - in a day or less. Perfect for people with busy lives who still want to discover-or rediscover-just how transformative an act of reading can be, these 36 lectures range from short stories of fewer than 10 pages to novellas and novels of around 200 pages. Despite their short length, these works are powerful examinations of the same subjects and themes that longer "great books" discuss.
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Stories not included, only discussed
- By Julie Jester on 01-15-16
By: The Great Courses, and others
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The Iliad of Homer
- By: Elizabeth Vandiver, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Vandiver
- Length: 6 hrs and 4 mins
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For thousands of years, Homer's ancient epic poem the
Iliad has enchanted readers from around the world. When you join Professor Vandiver for this lecture series on the Iliad, you'll come to understand what has enthralled and gripped so many people. Her compelling 12-lecture look at this literary masterpiece -whether it's the work of many authors or the "vision" of a single blind poet - makes it vividly clear why, after almost 3,000 years, the
Iliad remains not only among the greatest adventure stories ever told but also one of the most compelling meditations on the human condition ever written.
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Vandiver never disappoints
- By Machteacher on 07-23-13
By: Elizabeth Vandiver, and others
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The Ethics of Aristotle
- By: The Great Courses, Father Joseph Koterski S.J.
- Narrated by: Father Joseph Koterski S.J.
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
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In this 12-lecture meditation on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, you'll uncover the clarity and ethical wisdom of one of humanity's greatest minds. Father Koterski shows how and why this great philosopher can help you deepen and improve your own thinking on questions of morality and leading the best life. The aim of these lectures is to provide you with a clear and thoughtful introduction to Aristotle as a moral philosopher.
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Father Joseph is awesome!
- By DeeDeen on 04-08-17
By: The Great Courses, and others
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The Foundations of Western Civilization
- By: Thomas F. X. Noble, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Thomas F. X. Noble
- Length: 24 hrs and 51 mins
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What is Western Civilization? According to Professor Noble, it is "much more than human and political geography," encompassing myriad forms of political and institutional structures - from monarchies to participatory republics - and its own traditions of political discourse. It involves choices about who gets to participate in any given society and the ways in which societies have resolved the tension between individual self-interest and the common good.
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Not Engaging or Very Interesting
- By Tommy D'Angelo on 03-05-17
By: Thomas F. X. Noble, and others
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The Search for Exoplanets: What Astronomers Know
- By: The Great Courses, Joshua N. Winn
- Narrated by: Professor Joshua N. Winn
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
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As recently as 1990, it seemed plausible that the solar system was a unique phenomenon in our galaxy. Thanks to advances in technology and clever new uses of existing data, now we know that planetary systems and possibly even a new Earth can be found throughout galaxies near and far.
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Fun across the universe
- By Mark on 01-08-16
By: The Great Courses, and others
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No Excuses: Existentialism and the Meaning of Life
- By: Robert C. Solomon, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Robert C. Solomon
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
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What is life? What is my place in it? What choices do these questions obligate me to make? More than a half-century after it burst upon the intellectual scene - with roots that extend to the mid-19th century - Existentialism's quest to answer these most fundamental questions of individual responsibility, morality, and personal freedom, life has continued to exert a profound attraction.
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Good for even a non-existentialist
- By Gary on 07-24-15
By: Robert C. Solomon, and others
What listeners say about America’s Musical Heritage
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- KP
- 10-15-20
A good overview of American music during a certain time period.
As someone with only a general knowledge of American music from listening to the radio or the top charts on itunes I feel like I learned quite a bit. The title is maybe a little too comprehensive and general. This audiobook gives some background on the lesser known parts of older American music like election music and even a short section on Native American pow wow music. I realize that there would be lots of royalty and licensing issues involved with much of the commercial hit songs so don’t expect an overview of jazz, rock, or hip hop. Still I enjoyed this audiobook and learned quite a bit from it.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Sher from Provo
- 01-22-22
Very entertaining
I didn’t think I would learn as much as I did! For example, what makes a rag a rag? Anyone? Anyone? It is a piano piece that, in addition to having a particular “flavor,” (late 19th to early 20th century) it has to have (interesting and complex) rhythms that are different in each hand. Think “The Entertainer” by Scott Joplin.
This was a fun romp through our American musical heritage, which admittedly is not nearly as long as many other countries have, but is still long enough to give us quite a history. The teacher of this Great Course was Dr. Anthony Seeger, nephew of the very famous Pete Seeger, and if you don’t know who he is, you are just too young. Look him up. Dr. Seeger brings a lot of great history and knowledge about our musical past with him. It is well worth listening to.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Chris B.
- 04-25-22
Decent class, but terrible execution
Like all courses the speed is far far too slow and requires you to crack the playback speed up. The added pain here is that the lecturer plays sound bites of the music, which isn't artificially slowed down.
This leaves you constantly flipping the playback speed back and forth or just skipping the song bites. Or suffering through a artificially slow lecture.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Roberto
- 08-09-20
Too much talking - too little music
This audiobook is VERY boring. Too much talk, too little value music. The first lesson is just praise to the Smithsonian and the lecturer's work with oh, so many boxes and tapes. The second lecture is pure talk about the war music, without music examples (only one), Etc,Etc. Stephany, the invited speaker from Stanford, speaks so slowly that you can fall asleep between one word and the other. This is a lecture from a guy who loves to hear himself talking.
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4 people found this helpful