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America’s Musical Heritage
- Narrated by: Professor Anthony Seeger
- Length: 5 hrs and 56 mins
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Publisher's summary
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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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
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Great Piano Works Explained
- By: Catherine Kautsky, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Catherine Kautsky
- Length: 13 hrs and 14 mins
- Original Recording
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The glorious repertoire for solo piano includes many of classical music’s most beloved masterpieces. In these 24 musically rich lectures, you’ll dig deeply into this magnificent tradition, in an in-depth exploration of the art of listening. With Professor Kautsky’s inspired guidance and expert playing, you’ll highlight key works of each composer, and unpack their structure, the musical materials that drive them, and the specific features that affect listeners so strongly, giving you a clear grounding in how to approach and hear this great music.
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Highly recommended!!
- By Meichiko on 10-27-22
By: Catherine Kautsky, 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
- Original Recording
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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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Books That Matter: The Federalist Papers
- By: Joseph Hoffmann, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Professor Joseph Hoffmann
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Original Recording
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It would be difficult to overstate the influence of The Federalist Papers. Despite their lack of official or legal status, these 85 brilliant essays have served as the single most important guide to the interpretation and application of the US Constitution for more than 230 years. Authored by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, The Federalist Papers offer a detailed blueprint for building a successful democratic republic. Books That Matter: The Federalist Papers gives you the chance to delve into this magisterial blueprint for yourself.
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Not about the Federalist Papers. liberal opinions
- By Spitfire on 12-07-20
By: Joseph Hoffmann, and others
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The Vietnam War
- By: John C. McManus, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: John C. McManus
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
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In The Vietnam War, you will learn about the causes and consequences of the war in Vietnam. You will explore the scope of American intervention from air campaigns to large-scale military operations on the ground. You will survey the history of Vietnam from colonial Indochina onward, getting to know the homegrown ideas, personalities, and politics that would come to shape the conflict. You will reconstruct major military operations like the Tet Offensive and Rolling Thunder.
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information
- By boznremtp on 12-22-22
By: John C. McManus, 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
- Original Recording
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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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Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior
- By: Mark Leary, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Mark Leary
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Original Recording
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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 History of Classical Music
- By: Richard Fawkes
- Narrated by: Robert Powell
- Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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From Gregorian Chant to Henryk Gorecki, the first living classical composer to get into the pop album charts, here is the fascinating story of over a thousand years of Western classical music and the composers who have sought to express in music the deepest of human feelings and emotions. Also available: The History of Opera.
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soothing
- By Anne on 10-29-03
By: Richard Fawkes
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Mozart
- A Life
- By: Paul Johnson
- Narrated by: Robert Ian Mackenzie
- Length: 5 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Liszt once said that Mozart composed more bars than a trained copyist could write in a lifetime. Mozart's gift and skill with instruments was also remarkable as he mastered all of them except the harp. For example, no sooner had the clarinet been invented and introduced than Mozart began playing and composing for it. In addition to his many insights into Mozart's music, Johnson also challenges the many myths that have followed Mozart, including those about the composer's health, wealth, religion, and relationships.
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For a book about Mozart, not much Mozart.
- By LZ on 04-15-15
By: Paul Johnson
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