THE COMPLEAT GARGOYLE - Graham School of General Studies ...

20th-Century Music
This course counts as a Music Genre
course for the Language of Music
Certificate Program.
Twentieth-century music is no
longer “contemporary” music; it
is becoming possible to put this
complex and multifaceted century
into context. We can now examine
with reasonable objectiveness the
influence and permanence of a
diverse range of composers, from
the once-radical (Schoenberg,
Varese) to the once-reactionary
(Rachmaninov, Copland) to
the various “isms”: primitivism
(Prokiviev, Orff), neoclassicism
(Stravinsky, Les Six), minimalism,
postminimalism, and neospirituality
(Reich, Adams, Gorecki).
Also included will be those figures
defying classification, such as
Shostakovich, Britten, Bartok, and
Hindemith.
John Gibbons
See bio under The Life and Works of
Mozart.
Course Code LAMUTC
Section 12S1
Spring 2012
Gleacher Center
$345 Early registration ends
March 21
$375 Regular registration
Thursdays
March 29–May 17
10 am–12:30 pm
Teacher Recertification CPDUs: 20
Beethoven
This course counts as a Focused
Music Study course for the
Language of Music Certificate
Program.
This course will examine the evolution
of Beethoven’s music; in addition
to the music itself, we will focus
on the sociological, political, and
philosophical interactions between
Beethoven’s work and the turbulent
events of his era, such as the French
Revolution and the Napoleonic
wars. Ultimately, the course aims
to foster the acquisition of a deep
sense of context for the listener, and
to provide students with the skills
and strategies needed for a deeper
understanding of serious music.
John Gibbons
See bio under The Life and Works of
Mozart.
Course Code LAMUBV
Section 12S1
Spring 2012
Gleacher Center
$115
Saturday
April 28
10 am–4 pm (one-hour lunch break)
Teacher Recertification CPDUs: 5
Wagner’s Ring, Part Two
Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelungen
is unparalleled in the history of
musical art, in terms of length,
complexity, grandeur of design, and
sheer intensity of emotional expression.
To understand, appreciate,
and reflect upon the significance
of Wagner’s grand epic opera, this
second of two courses (which can
be taken on its own) will examine
how the Ring cycle influenced Verdi,
Debussy, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mahler,
Richard Strauss, and Philip Glass,
to name a few. The emphasis will be
on how the great conductors have
succeeded in realizing these beneficiaries
of Wagner’s genius.
Raymond Ciacci
Mr. Ciacci is the dean of students
and director of the MLA program, as
well as a lecturer in the Humanities
Collegiate Division in the College at
the University of Chicago. He holds a
PhD from the University of Chicago.
Course Code BPOWRT
Spring 2012
Gleacher Center
$415 Early registration ends
March 21
$445 Regular registration
Section 12S1
Mondays
April 2–June 18 (no class May 28)
6–9:15 pm
Section 12S2
Wednesdays
March 28–June 6
10 am–1:15 pm
Teacher Recertification CPDUs: 33
Humanities Arts
Brahms and the Passing of
the Romantic Era
This course counts as a Focused
Music Study course for the
Language of Music Certificate
Program.
Brahms’s traditional approach
to harmony, rhythm, and melody
concealed an acutely progressive
and enduring reconciliation of
classic and modernist perspectives—no
surprise for a figure
who lived in both Napoleonic and
Freudian times. Our musical
studies will include the haunting
and comforting Requiem, the
celebrated ungainliness of the piano
works, the attenuated grandeur of
the symphonies, and the autumnal
melancholia of the chamber works.
We will also discuss the lively Viennese
atmosphere, including Brahm’s
celebrated feuds with musical peers.
John Gibbons
See bio under The Life and Works of
Mozart.
Course Code LAMUBP
Section 12U1
Summer 2012
Gleacher Center
$345 Early registration ends June 13
$375 Regular registration
Tuesdays
June 19–August 7
10 am–12:30 pm
Teacher Recertification CPDUs: 20
Great Conductors
This course counts as a Music Genre
course for the Language of Music
Certificate Program.
This course offers an overview of
some of the great and frequently
notorious conductors of the
historical and modern eras. Especially
useful for those who collect
recordings, this course will educate
participants in perceiving the essential
characteristics that distinguish
different interpreters of symphonic
and operatic repertory. The richly
anecdotal and highly eccentric
nature of the subject will not be
ignored, but the enormous difficulties
of producing meaningful performances
will be examined as well.
John Gibbons
See bio under The Life and Works of
Mozart.
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