
Great Music of the 20th Century
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Narrated by:
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Professor Robert Greenberg PhD
About this listen
The 20th century was a hotbed of musical exploration, innovation, and transformation unlike any other epoch in history. Ranging across the century in its entirety, these 24 lectures present a musical cornucopia of astounding dimensions - a major presentation and exploration of the incredible brilliance and diversity of musical art across a turbulent century.
Using a chronological approach, you'll explore the fascinating gamut of 20th-century musical "isms", from impressionism and fauvism to serialism, stochasticism, ultraserialism, neoclassicism, neotonalism, and minimalism as well as the inclusivity and synthesis within concert music that embraced Western historical styles, folk and popular music, jazz, rock, Asian, Latin American, and other influences in the service of heightened musical expression. Through the panoramic view of the course, you'll discover the genius of composers such as Debussy, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Webern, Bartok, Ligeti, Riley, and many others.
Far more than simply a series of lectures, the program comprises a huge and many-sided resource for discovering the endless riches of 20th-century concert music across the globe. The phenomenal range of genres and composers covered and the wealth of suggestions for specific works make this a reference that could easily inspire years of musical exploration and glorious listening.
This remarkable inquiry opens the doors to an extraordinary spectrum of contemporary masterpieces that await discovery and deep listening. Within these unique and riveting lectures, Professor Greenberg offers you the keys to understanding and deep enjoyment of a revolutionary, visionary, and magnificent era in music. In Great Music of the 20th Century, you'll experience the living, evolving, and superlative musical art that so vividly and unforgettably speaks to the life of our times.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2018 The Teaching Company, LLC; 2018 The Great Courses (P)2018 The Great CoursesListeners also enjoyed...
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A little disappointed.
- By Sher from Provo on 10-19-19
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Classical Music for Dummies, 2nd Edition
- By: David Pogue, Scott Speck
- Narrated by: Paul Heitsch
- Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Classical Music for Dummies is a friendly, funny, easy-to-understand guide to composers, instruments, orchestras, concerts, recordings, and more. Classical music is widely considered one of the pinnacles of human achievement, and this informative guide will shows you just how beautiful and rewarding it can be. You'll learn how Bach is different from Beethoven, how Mozart is different still, and why not all "classical" music is actually Classical if it's really Baroque or Romantic.
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It's Fine
- By I. Donovan on 03-31-23
By: David Pogue, and others
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Music Is History
- By: Ahmir Khalib Thompson, Questlove
- Narrated by: Questlove
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
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Best-selling author and Sundance award-winning director Questlove harnesses his encyclopedic knowledge of popular music and his deep curiosity about history to examine America over the past 50 years. Choosing one essential track from each year, Questlove unpacks each song’s significance, revealing the pivotal role that American music plays around issues of race, gender, politics, and identity.
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This would be better read than listened to
- By HomeChef on 11-05-21
By: Ahmir Khalib Thompson, 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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The Great Ideas of Philosophy, 2nd Edition
- By: Daniel N. Robinson, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Daniel N. Robinson
- Length: 30 hrs and 11 mins
- Original Recording
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Grasp the important ideas that have served as the backbone of philosophy across the ages with this extraordinary 60-lecture series. This is your opportunity to explore the enormous range of philosophical perspectives and ponder the most important and enduring of human questions-without spending your life poring over dense philosophical texts.
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A Hard Review to Write
- By Ark1836 on 11-20-15
By: Daniel N. Robinson, and others
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The Jazz Standards
- A Guide to the Repertoire
- By: Ted Gioia
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 21 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Written by award-winning jazz historian Ted Gioia, this comprehensive guide offers an illuminating look at more than 250 seminal jazz compositions. In this comprehensive and unique survey, here are the songs that sit at the heart of the jazz repertoire, ranging from "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Autumn in New York" to "God Bless the Child," "How High the Moon," and "I Can't Give You Anything But Love." Gioia includes Broadway show tunes written by such greats as George Gershwin and Irving Berlin, and classics by such famed jazz musicians as Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, and John Coltrane.
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Great info, but not ideal in audio format
- By Patrick on 08-30-14
By: Ted Gioia
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Beethoven
- Anguish and Triumph
- By: Jan Swafford
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 39 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Jan Swafford's biographies have established him as a revered music historian, capable of bringing his subjects vibrantly to life. His magnificent new biography of Ludwig van Beethoven peels away layers of legend to get to the living, breathing human being who composed some of the world's most iconic music.
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Huge book - musical reader appreciates best
- By DMgraphicGlass on 01-20-15
By: Jan Swafford
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The Philosopher's Toolkit: How to Be the Most Rational Person in Any Room
- By: Patrick Grim, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Patrick Grim
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Original Recording
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Taught by award-winning Professor Patrick Grim of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, The Philosopher’s Toolkit: How to Be the Most Rational Person in Any Room arms you against the perils of bad thinking and supplies you with an arsenal of strategies to help you be more creative, logical, inventive, realistic, and rational in all aspects of your daily life.
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This should NOT be an audio book
- By Brooks Emerson on 03-21-20
By: Patrick Grim, and others
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Johann Sebastian Bach
- The Learned Musician
- By: Christoph Wolff
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 21 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Although we have heard the music of J. S. Bach in countless performances and recordings, the composer himself still comes across only as an enigmatic figure in a single familiar portrait. As we mark the 250th anniversary of Bach's death, author Christoph Wolff presents a new picture that brings to life this towering figure of the Baroque era. This engaging new biography portrays Bach as the living, breathing, and sometimes imperfect human being that he was, while bringing to bear all the advances of the last half-century of Bach scholarship.
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Has all the boring details...
- By L. Jensen on 05-14-19
By: Christoph Wolff
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What to Listen for in Music
- By: Aaron Copland
- Narrated by: Tim Campbell
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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In this fascinating analysis of how to listen to both contemporary and classical music analytically, eminent American composer Aaron Copland offers provocative suggestions that will bring listeners a deeper appreciation of the most viscerally rewarding of all art forms.
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Started common, ended uncommon
- By Sher from Provo on 06-05-24
By: Aaron Copland
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Life & Works - Franz Schubert
- By: Jeremy Siepmann
- Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann, Tom George, Peter Yapp, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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The life of Franz Schubert has been a gift to romantically inclined biographers: the beautiful, brilliant, modest boy who sprang to fully fledged genius at the age of sixteen; the quintessential ‘artist in a garret’, entirely consumed by his art and living a hand-to-mouth existence in Vienna (home of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven); the gentle, cheerful, convivial young man who prized friendship almost as highly as music itself; the unworldly poet from whom great music poured like water from a fountain; the unrecognized master who died almost penniless at the age of 31.
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Very well done
- By Jeffrey Keimer on 09-16-14
By: Jeremy Siepmann
What listeners say about Great Music of the 20th Century
Highly rated for:
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- Robert A. Fritchey
- 01-13-19
We need no longer be afraid!
Professor Greenberg once again hits it out of the park. I first purchased his independent course on music of the 20th century, then got The Great Courses version when it eventually became available. NOTE: This format is slightly different than his other courses. Because of the extreme expense of licensing any music of the last 75 years or so, the musical samples are referred to in URLs to go and seek on your own, mostly on YouTube, but to some other sites. If a link doesn't work, check Prof. Greenberg's site (In the course guide) for an alternate, or just look up the piece on your own. It's worth it! There is a LOT covered here. Some of this music you might not like at all. Some you may be intrigued by, or understand WHY it's important, but not really care to listen to it. Some of it you may not like at first but, as you delve into it, it will open up and reward you in ways that may even surprise you. And, of course, you'll surely find something new to love here. I've discovered several of my new favorites in this course that I know I'd never have encountered otherwise. And, as always, Prof. Greenberg ties everything back to the times, the history, the events and people who shaped this weird and perpetually evolving thing we call 'culture.' Give yourself some time after each lecture to explore the pieces and composers he mentions, then to branch out to explore other works, to think about, to feel, to listen to with an open mind and open ears. Then go on to the next lecture, and think how each style and school of composition grows out of, or in opposition to, what came before. Then, keep exploring, with a broader perspective and, hopefully, greater interest and understanding. Rock, Jazz, 'concert' music, pop, etc, it all came from something before it, and it's all going somewhere still. Get on board for the ride!
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- Quinn
- 06-05-18
Happy to overlook lack of musical examples
Greenberg clearly states at the outset of this course that a Greenberg course on 20th century music with musical examples wouldn’t have been possible. There’s no use whining about it. Other than the lack of musical examples, it’s the Greenberg you know and feel slightly ambivalent toward because he read Berlioz’s writing in a condescending voice, but you’re grateful for him anyway.
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- Renee Despres
- 11-01-23
Superb!
Professor Greenberg is a genius of a teacher. Authoritative and engaging, disciplined in his research and funny all at once. I love what he has to say and I love his own music and those of others. Thank you RG for opening so many doors.
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- Ben
- 09-17-18
thrilling lectures sometimes not fit for beginners
thrilling lectures on the different genres of orchestral music and their rapid transitions durring the 20th cen., with many powerful historical insights. it is fit for listeners with solid music vocabulary.
not recommended before listening to "how to listen and understand great music". not fit for listening while driving, since all the music is linked and not played on lecture.
some links lead to tracks that no longer exist on YouTube, and it can be frustrating.
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- A P BRAUN MD
- 07-01-18
Great lecturer No music to be heard
This course would be greatly enhanced if the musical segments (urls) were available to listen to during the lectures
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- bobdc
- 07-20-19
Wonderful and informative
People complain about the lack of musical examples as if it were Greenberg's fault, but he clearly explains that licensing the examples would have pushed the budget for this course to a point where the course wouldn't exist. I'm very glad it does exist, because in addition to providing good context for many composers I had heard of, I learned about some great composers that I had been unaware of.
A lot of the URLs he provides for performances don't work anymore, but I created a Spotify playlist that covers just about all of the musical examples at https://open.spotify.com/user/bobdc/playlist/550CvxhGzH2QC3vwfzrrvE?si=xuQa8JMySfaTzNfeR30azg .
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36 people found this helpful
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- C. Cobb
- 04-03-18
Excellent
Now I am beginning to understand the great music of the 20th century, thanks to Bob Greenberg. Dude has a talent for teaching.
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- Sher from Provo
- 03-25-19
Good course, not my favorite.
Other than having to stop the narrative to listen to the musical excerpts and then start the book again, this was a great course. I know the YouTube stuff could not be helped, it was just awkward. But it was worth it. I learned a lot from this course, and even came to like Schoenberg—as a man, and even as a composer to a point. No one will ever love 12 tone music. Nevertheless, there is some interesting stuff in this course. It will be of great interest to see what happens with the arts and music in particular in the future. Greenberg was not quite as entertaining as he is in other courses, I’m sure that is at least in part due to the unfamiliarity of the content, but he was still very interesting and informative. As a bonus, I loved learning more about Greenberg and his journey as a composer.
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- James S. Liao
- 06-16-22
No sound clips
As explained at the beginning, the economic issues in acquiring rights to play sound bites did detract from the overall enjoyment of this audiobook. But it is still worthwhile.
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- Kindle Customer
- 03-23-18
I miss the music
I listen to audio books in the car as I travel. I also listen as I walk/hike. I am disappointed that the music is not included. I can't check the URLs while I listen to the audio book.
I like Professor Greenberg's courses..up until now. I own several and have listened more than once to them.
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8 people found this helpful