Music as a Mirror of History

by Robert Greenberg

Listening Length: 18 hours and 22 minutes
In the worlds of painting and literature, it's easy to see where history and art intersect. In Picasso's Guernica or Tolstoy's War and Peace, it's evident how works of art mirror and participate in the life of their times, sometimes even playing roles in historical events. But what about music?

In Music as a Mirror of History, Great Courses favorite Professor Greenberg of San Francisco Performances returns with a fascinating and provocative premise: Despite the abstractness and the universality of music - and our habit of listening to it divorced from any historical context - music is a mirror of the historical setting in which it was created. Music carries a rich spectrum of social, cultural, historical, and philosophical information, all grounded in the life and experience of the composer - if you're aware of what you're listening to. In these 24 lectures, you'll explore how composers convey such explicit information, evoking specific states of mind and giving voice to communal emotions, all colored by their own personal experiences. Music lovers and history enthusiasts alike will be enthralled by this exploration of how momentous compositions have responded to - and inspired - pivotal events.

Ranging widely across the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, you witness historical moments such as the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, the Austrian-Ottoman conflict, the Hungarian nationalist movement, the movement for Italian unification, the economic ascent of the US, the Stalinist regime in the USSR, and World Wars I and II. Across the arc of the course, you'll see how these events were felt and expressed in the music of Mozart, Beethoven, Berlioz, Brahms, Verdi, Wagner, and many others, including modern masters such as Janáček, Górecki, and Crumb, and you'll hear superlative musical excerpts in each lecture. Join us for an unparalleled look into the power and scope of musical art.

Genres: History, Music, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Reference, Art, American

19 pages, Audible Audio

First published January 1, 2016

About the author

Robert M. Greenberg is an American composer, pianist and musicologist. He has composed more than 50 works for a variety of instruments and voices, and has recorded a number of lecture series on music history and music appreciation for The Teaching Company.

Greenberg earned a B.A. in music, magna cum laude, from Princeton University and received a Ph.D. in music composition from the University of California, Berkeley. He has served on the faculties of UC Berkeley, Californiz State University, East Bay, and the San Franciso Conservatory of Music, where he was chairman of the Department of Music History and Literature as well as Director of the Adult Extension Division. Dr. Greenberg is currently Music Historian-in-residence with San Francisco Performances.

Reviews

[Melindam · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The true musical composition is the composer. (...) The creator and his or her creation are not divisible. A creation, whatever it might be, is to some unique degree a reflection of its creator, who in turn is shaped by the time and place in which he lives. The individual composer, an individual composition, a particular time an place, together they constitute a symbiotic indivisible trifecta, an indissoluble menage-a-trois.
At the most general level a composer's environment shapes his musical style, that is the generalised musical vocabulary, an expressive parameters of his work. But sometimes specific historical events shape the creation and content of a piece of music and that's what this survey is about. Music written in direct response to contemporary historical events." Robert Greenberg

This has been both an edifying and an amusing collection of 24 lectures: more history in general than music(al) history in particular. You do not have to be a great musical afficionado to enjoy them.

Robert Greenberg has chosen different historic events/settings/periods and tells about them in some detail (always clearly referencing his extensive sources during the lectures themselves or in the pdf accompaniment of the lectures) connecting them to a given composer and their particular work and shows how the events shaped/influenced the creation of these works and how the works themselves reflect the life and times of the composers.

He debunks possible legends surrounding the works and their creators and most definitely entertains, while he educates. During the lectures, we can listen to parts of the music to underscore the points Greenberg is making, which is a great plus.

Here is the list of the lectures:

1. Music and History, Madrigals and Maps
2. Handel: Water Music (1714)
3. Mozart: The Abduction from the Harem (1782)
4. Haydn: Mass in the Time of War (1797)
5. Beethoven: The Farewell Sonata (1810)
6. Beethoven: Wellington's Victory (1813)
7. Berlioz/de L'Isle: "La Marseillaise"(1830)
8. Chopin: Etude in C Minor, Op.10, No. 12 (1831)
9. Glinka: A Life for the Tsar (1836)
10. Strauss Sr.: Radetzky March (1848)
11. Brahms: Piano Quartet in G Minor Op. 25 (1861)
12. Gottschalk: The Union (1862)
13. Verdi: Nabucco (1842)
14. Wagner: The Ring (1876)
15. Dvorak: From the New World Symphony (1893)
16. Balakirev: Symphony No. 1 (1898)
17. Janacek: Paino Sonata I.X. 1905 (1907)
18. Rimsky-Korsakov: The Golden Cockerel (1907)
19. Holst: Ode to Death (1919)
20. Berg: Wozzcek (1922)
21. Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13 (1962)
22. Copland: Symphony No. 3 (1946)
23. Gorecki Symphony No. 3 (1976)
24. Crumb: Black Angels (1970)

[Barbara K · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this course up recently when I couldn’t settle on which book I wanted to read next. The general topic is close to my heart - as an undergraduate I majored in history with a minor in music history, and seeing connections between the two came to me readily. Oddly enough, all these decades later I remember writing a paper on Leos Janacek - one of the composers Greenberg highlights - that did double duty for courses in both programs.

As it happens, I thoroughly enjoyed Greenberg’s course. I could quibble over a few things, such as his tendency to lapse a bit more into colloquialisms than I care for, and at one point I found myself wishing that he would assume that listeners could remember the details of Napoleon’s campaigns in Italy from one lecture to the next so that it wasn’t necessary to repeat them.

But overall I found it time well spent. Much of Greenberg’s subject matter was familiar to me at some level, but most of his commentary on 20th century music was new. (He seems especially knowledgeable about European history in the 19th and 20th centuries.). Although I can’t claim to be a fan of Shostakovich’s music, Greenberg’s observatIons on the composer’s machinations to stay alive, and out of Stalin’s gulags, was informative and gave me another image of the man.

Mostly, though, the course was a refreshing opportunity for me to revisit a subject I haven’t given a whole lot of thought in nearly 50 years. It reminded me of how much my understanding of European and Russian history was enhanced by studying music history.

Two closing notes: the subject matter is western concert music. Not Asian music and not pop culture. And overall, Greenberg is a very engaging presenter. It’s easy to see why his Great Courses are so popular.

[11811 (Eleven) · Rating 5 out of 5]

95% history, 5% music. It still helps to have a healthy interest in both to appreciate their interaction. An outstanding series of 24 lectures. College is so overpriced. Sign me up for more of The Great Courses.

[H (trying to keep up with GR friends) Balikov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Those of us who have enjoyed Robert Greenberg’s lectures on composers of music may find this a bit different. While teasing out the threads of a composer’s life and works, Greenberg has often commented on what were the big events going on during a particular period of composition. Here, he reverses the process.
These lectures cover over twenty composers but Greenberg digs deep into each historical period to give us his insights on the critical factors. We start with Handel, Mozart and Haydn and end with Copland, Gorecki and Crumb…a total of almost three centuries of Western civilization.

Here are the lectures:
Music and History, Madrigals and Maps. . . . . .

Handel: Water Music (1714). . . . . . . .

Mozart: The Abduction from the Harem (1782). . . .

Haydn: Mass in the Time of War (1797). . . . . .

Beethoven: The Farewell Sonata (1810). . . . . .

Beethoven: Wellington’s Victory (1813) . . . .

Berlioz/de L’Isle: “La Marseillaise” (1830). . . . .

Chopin: Étude in C Minor, Op. 10, No. 12 (1831). . . .

Glinka: A Life for the Tsar (1836). . . . . .

Strauss Sr.: Radetzky March (1848). . . . .

Brahms: Piano Quartet in G Minor, Op. 25 (1861). . .

Gottschalk: The Union (1862). . . . . . . . .

Verdi: Nabucco (1842). . . . . . . . . . .

Wagner: The Ring (1876). . . . . .

Dvořák: From the New World Symphony (1893). . . . .

Balakirev: Symphony No. 1 (1898). . . . . . . .

Janáček: Piano Sonata I.X.1905 (1906). . . .

Rimsky-Korsakov: The Golden Cockerel (1907). . .

Holst: Ode to Death (1919) . .

Berg: Wozzeck (1922). . . . . .

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13 (1962). . . .

Copland: Symphony No. 3 (1946). . .

Górecki: Symphony No. 3 (1976). . . .

Crumb: Black Angels (1970)

I don’t know how someone who hasn’t been “attending” Greenberg’s lectures on the great composers would evaluate this. I have spaced my delving into this collection with some additional exposure to the history of each period and some further appreciation of the corresponding composer.

I find that, as any historian, Greenberg has been selective and that, often, there is more to the “story.” Yet, I have had a great sense of enjoyment from almost all of the lectures and might revisit some of them in the future. Either you like Greenberg as a lecturer, or you don’t. Some may find his stream of consciousness approach a bit challenging and his playing for laughs a bit unsettling. Not me.

[Johnny Malloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best thing I have "read" in a long time. 24 lectures from Robert Greenberg: each one dealing with the broad historical context surrounding a piece of music. The survey moves mostly sequentially starting roughly around 1700 with Handel moving to London and closing with the Vietnam War and George Crumb's Black Angels.

A possible complaint might be that the entire series is focused solely on western music - it is a collection of Eurocentric composers (if you broadly include Russians and Americans). I also sometimes find the sound engineering to be poor, especially when Greenberg plays the piano.

But for me - when it comes to history - context is everything. These lectures are concise, informative, well-framed articulations of context for each piece. As others have reviewed, the lectures are 90% history and 10% music. But you can always listen to the pieces before and afterward. The thrust of the lectures is not to break down the music technically but rather to understand the pieces as they were understood by the listeners of the time.

Greenberg is always excellent - funny, smart, witty, and insightful. This is the best one from him that I have experience so far.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've spent the last week of self isolation with the company of the narration of Robert Greenberg, learning about the connections between classical music and the history in which many pieces were written. I love history, and classical music, but I have rarely looked into the context of specific pieces before this. Greenberg is brilliant at bringing the history of each piece to life - and it's a lot of history! This is almost a survey history course, covering major events from the Tudors to the Vietnam War. I almost should have spaced out my listening a little better. There was just so much information to take in. But I couldn't help bingeing because it's easy to hang on Greenberg's every word. I was particularly intrigued by the lectures on Copland, Gottschalk, Mozart, and Wagner. I would certainly welcome a volume 2, as the professor mentions in lesson 1.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will be forever grateful to this for introducing me to Górecki’s Symphony No. 3.

[Gaili Schoen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have loved every one of Robert Greenberg's Great Courses until this one. It should be entitled Music as a Mirror of War, as it focused almost exclusively on battles and wars, with a little music thrown in. Some of the later segments such as the Arron Copeland segment were interesting, but most were incredibly boring focusing on details of the battles that made my mind wander. I was hoping that this "History" would include intellectual, social and cultural histories, but no, it was all about war. I will continue to buy his other survey courses and biographies as they are always incredibly good. In my estimation he missed the mark with this one.

[Noah Goats · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've loved studying history since I was a teenager, but it's only been in the last year or two that I have become interested in classical music. Robert Greenberg has combined the two subjects beautifully in this course. Music isn't created in a vacuum and Greenberg shows how the great artists have been influenced by historical events. (Julian Barns's novel about Dimitri Shostakovich, The Noise of Time, is also a great exploration of this subject). Greenberg is articulate, knowledgeable, and has an infectious enthusiasm for his subject, making this course a very enjoyable and informative listen.

[Just Plain Neddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shouty Music Dude always delivers. I love this guy's lectures.

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Greenberg is not only very informative, but he is also just really funny. “...at its most extreme, conflict means war, the most exceptional folly in which our species can indulge, with the exception of paying full retail, which has never, to my knowledge, inspired a piece of music. Perhaps some day I will write that piece.” He provides an educational and entertaining account of these classical musical pieces closely linked to historical events, some famous, others less so.

One place where this series of lectures sometimes struggles is, surprisingly…too much history. Greenberg is a historian of music, and where he shines at his brightest is when he talks about the history of music. What I thought was weak are the parts where his discussions of history veer far, far from the music. His discussion of whether or not Neville Chamberlain was guilty of something more nefarious than stupidity is off topic, and frankly, Greenberg is not an expert on the period, so his conclusions seem shaky. Likewise, his discussions of Russian history, which he has a personal stake in, as his parents fled the Russian pogroms, often times get too far from the music.

He needs to focus more on music history and less on history history.

[Richard Ritenbaugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was amazed by the first three-quarters of this course, and then Greenberg started into the modern-era music, touching on weird and dissonant "music" as it related to twentieth-century history. Not for me. But the greater part of the course is great!

[Gabriela Chiribau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scholarly, witty and irreverent.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

A journey through the past three centuries of European and American history as reflected in classical music.

The history is fascinating and filled with insights into the emotional states of the people and the times. I was blown away with the depths of Greenberg’s empathy for his subjects. He has clearly thought deeply about these things and cares. I appreciate that.

The musical samples, on the other hand, were kind of boring (Especially the opera). I guess I’m just not much of fan of classical music. I did enjoy the excerpts from Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man. That was kind of stirring and cool.

All and all, it was worthwhile. The Great Courses usually are.

[Victor N · Rating 4 out of 5]

I grew up with Classical music and still love listening to most of the greats, but my knowledge of classical music history was/is very lacking, so this was wonderful. I have also found a new level of appreciation for Shostakovich, Janáček and Dvořák.

[Mack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great lectures by Robert Greenberg pair music and history in often surprising but always interesting and deepening ways.

[Gillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great lecture series. Highly enjoyed and would return to again for the puns, jokes, and well versed historical takes.

[Illiterate · Rating 1 out of 5]

These lectures are mainly derivative political histories with surprisingly little musicology.

[Aurel Lazar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This might have been one of the most incredible Great Courses classes I've taken so far. Rarely has something I've consumed given me such an incredible insight into the world around me, and given me a new passion for an entire genre of art. While this series is mostly history, with periodic snippets of music, the presentation and organization was incredible, and truly opened my eyes to why music is the way it is.

Greenberg tries to establish a historical frame of reference for major compositions in Western Music, and goes above and beyond to make that frame detailed and well fleshed out. He dives deeper than dates and places into situations and cultural reasoning that could have driven the actions of European and American History.

I feel like I'll have to relisten to this one again, simply because of how incredible the journey from the madrigals of the 1500s to the avant garde of the late 1900s has been .

[Rosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Etukäteen odotin kurssin käsittelevän sitä, miten eri musiikkityylit peilaavat historian aikakausia. Kävi ilmi, että kurssi keskittyykin suurien linjojen sijasta siihen, miten tietyt historian tapahtumat ovat vaikuttaneet tiettyihin säveltäjiin ja inspiroineet heitä säveltämään tiettyjä teoksia. Kurssin painopiste on historiassa eikä niinkään musiikissa. En sano, että tämä tekee kurssista huonon, mutta se ei vain ole sellainen kuin odotin.

Luennoitsija Robert Greenberg kertoo asiat mielenkiintoisesti, selkeästi ja viihdyttävästi. Jokaiseen luentoon kuuluu luonnollisesti myös otteita teoksista, joita niillä käsitellään, mikä tauottaa Greenbergin puhetta mukavasti. Luennot ovat 45 minuutin mittaisia eikä asiapitoista juttua mielestäni jaksaisikaan yhtäjaksoisesti kuunnella keskittyneesti yhtään pidempään.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this course. It combined great passions of mine: storytelling about extraordinary lives, the background to extraordinary musical compositions, and a big picture sense of human history.

Admittedly, this is the story of European history predominantly because this is the story of classical music as originally a European art form, although of course it is something now that is far greater, grander, and more global. But that’s fine! Greenburg is a great narrator, sometimes slightly over the top, but then I’m a clenched, a white, Englishman.

Thoroughly recommend this.

[Riq Hoelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love history, classical music and the work of Greenberg, but somehow the three do not really go well together. The historical treatement is too superficial and often goes into folklore and the like while the musical connection is too slight and the amount of music too small.

Greenberg states that the two best national anthems are La Marseillaise (of France) and that of Austria, "by Haydn". However, this is an error. The Austrian national anthem was composed by Holzer. The nation that uses a Haydn composition is Germany.

[Alex Shrugged · Rating 5 out of 5]

This audio course was amazing, but long. I almost gave it 4 stars, but decided it deserved more. The professor has produced an amazing amount of musical material surrounding historical events. He said that he could probably produce a second course in continuation and I believe it.

He only includes music that was composed during or shortly after the events in history that the professor describes. The composer was reacting to what was happening to his country/people/homeland/himself. That excludes Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, which was written in 1880. Tchaikovsky didn't like the piece anyway though it is what he is remembered most for.

The professor gets a little jokey when he presents the history portion of each lecture. The history is required to provide a context to the music. The professor talks as if he is your dorm room buddy trying to summarize his history lessons for you. It's not too bad and it kept me interested. This is followed by the actual music piece and or opera produced by the particular composer. I recognized some familiar tunes that are now included in modern TV and movie soundtracks.

Unfortunately the professor missed the opportunity for a humor in Lecture 9. As he was speaking about the Tsar Boris Godunov of Russia who ruled during the Time of Troubles, 1598–1613, the professor could have mentioned that centuries later a children's TV show "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle" featured a character named Boris Badenov in mockery of the Tsar who was so hated and blamed by his people for the Time of Troubles.

In any case, I really liked this course. I have enjoyed others from the same professor and I look forward to the many other courses he has available.

Contents

Lect 01 Music and History, Madrigals and Maps (45:07)
Lect 02 Handel: Water Music (1714) (43:25)
Lect 03 Mozart: The Abduction from the Harem (1782) (43:23)
Lect 04 Haydn: Mass in the Time of War (1797) (43:36)
Lect 05 Beethoven: The Farewell Sonata (1810) (45:04)
Lect 06 Beethoven: Wellington's Victory (1813) (46:01)
Lect 07 Berlioz/de L'Isle: “La Marseillaise” (1830) (44:20)
Lect 08 Chopin: Étude in C Minor, Op. 10, No. 12 (1831) (45:46)
Lect 09 Glinka: A Life for the Tsar (1836) (43:12)
Lect 10 Strauss Sr.: Radetzky March (1848) (44:49)
Lect 11 Brahms: Piano Quartet in G Minor, Op. 25 (1861) (41:30)
Lect 12 Gottschalk: The Union (1862) (46:31)
Lect 13 Verdi: Nabucco (1842) (44:40)
Lect 14 Wagner: The Ring (1876) (45:28)
Lect 15 Dvorák: From the New World Symphony (1893) (46:48)
Lect 16 Balakirev: Symphony No. 1 (1898) (47:58)
Lect 17 Janácek: Piano Sonata I.X.1905 (1906) (46:35)
Lect 18 Rimsky-Korsakov: The Golden Cockerel (1907) (44:40)
Lect 19 Holst: Ode to Death (1919) (47:38)
Lect 20 Berg: Wozzeck (1922) (44:35)
Lect 21 Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13 (1962) (46:59)
Lect 22 Copland: Symphony No. 3 (1946) (49:39)
Lect 23 Górecki: Symphony No. 3 (1976) (49:10)
Lect 24 Crumb: Black Angels (1970) (47:35)

[Jim Razinha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learn a lot from Dr. Robert Greenberg. I've listened to many several of his lectures and I like his energy, character, and accessibility. I liked this series but it should more properly be called History With Some Reflected Music. Greenberg selected pieces from famous composers such as Berlioz, Beethoven, Mozart, Verdi, Wagner (paralleled a book on Wagnerism I slogged through), and some lesser known (to me, at least) composers such as Gottschalk, Balakirev, Gorecki, Janáček.

Greenberg examines the context of the compositions - sometimes when they were composed, and sometimes of what they were composed about (sometimes both), their historical significance, reception, influence, longevity. Detailed history, Greenberg provides his sources for further reading. Of course, his musical knowledge is considerable. What what doesn't get as much of is more than snippets of the pieces (noted above), but this is still rife with excellent jumping off points for further exploration, such as...

His last lecture introduced me to George Crumb’s Black Angels. It was written in 1971 and is a commentary on the troubles of the world after WWII, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, and evening the Cold War. Decidedly odd, I urge you to check it out here, with the score. Wild.

[Pat Flewwelling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would have enjoyed this series 100% if only one word had been added to the title: Western. Western Music as a Mirror of History? Music as a Mirror of Western History? I still would have listened to the series, but I was under the impression that History, in this case, would have meant World History.

The individual lectures themselves were fascinating and important lessons in history, with excellent sidebars, but the scope of the series was restricted to an exclusively Western perspective: UK and Europe, Russia, United States. Even the nod to the Korean and Viet Nam Wars were from an American standpoint and featured a musical piece composed by an American.

I would also argue that it's an exclusively male overview, but unfortunately, I don't have background enough to know if there were recognized contemporary female composers (at least, any that were allowed scholarly or artistic attention, given...well...Western history). I was really hoping to learn more about whether there were any female composers, especially in historical context. Again, adding "Western" to the title would have helped set my expectations.

In short, it's as disappointing as going to a "World History" class and only learning about Egypt, Greece, Rome and Charlemagne. Important? Yes. Interesting? Yes. "World"? No.

[Sonia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m so happy to have finally moved this from my ‘currently reading’ shelf on Goodreads! I purchased this 18 hour course around 6 months ago and have been slowly chipping away ever since. I have a bachelors degree in music and masters in secondary music education and even I found this pretty heavy going at times. I’d agree with what other have said, it’s definitely more like 5% music, 95% history. It’s not what I was expecting but I enjoyed the series of lectures regardless. To be honest, the little bits and pieces that were unrelated to music were some of my biggest take aways. I never knew that despite Paris being the first European city to have electric street lights this is not where it got it’s name ‘the city of lights’. This came from the ‘age of enlightenment’ that saw many prolific poets, philosophers etc emerge from the city. I did particularly enjoy the lecture on Radetzky March (lecture 10) and to my surprise the lecture on Wagner (lecture 14). The supplemental PDF was a great resource too. I enjoyed Professor Greenberg’s presentation and will most likely listen to some of these lectures again in the future.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let me start with an unbiased statement: I love every course he has recorded. He can do no wrong.

I am also very interested in history, and so naturally I gravitated toward this title. While, as some reviewers have pointed out, most of the lectures focus on war, and the structure is heavily skewed toward discussions of history (rather than the music itself), this is an intelligent and much-needed sort of course.

Far too often, disciplines are studied in a vacuum. Being able to connect different disciplines (in this case, music and history) helps one see how the disciplines speak to one another. Greenberg's course does this brilliantly.

Also, I enjoyed that some of the composers selected were less-known to mainstream audiences. Some of these composers, I will be seeking out. And for the A-list composers, he discusses works that might be lesser known. In what could be a survey of recycled material, Greenberg makes a smart, engaging, original thought exercise. Highly enjoyable for fans of classical music, history, and the humanities.

[Carlos · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a while to adjust to what these lectures were actually about instead of what I wanted them to be about. I had wanted an overarching analysis of how musical developments matched historical ones. This was not Greenberg’s aim. He provides the listener with several case studies, loosely connected and in rough chronological order, on the impact of the historical context in the lives and works of several composers. Roughly ranging from the 18th to the 20th century, he takes the reader through the major European and American historical events, from the French Revolution, German and Italian Unifications, both WW’s, the Cold war and ends with the Vietnam war. In each case he reaches as far back as necessary to provide a deeper historical context to the events at hand and samples the music he describes. While not as musically focused as I expected, I was pleased to find it covering the last few hundred years of Western history fairly well and even making some interesting novel connections across historical events.

[Alissa McCarthy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The premise of this series is that despite the abstractness and the universality of music - and our habit of listening to it divorced from any historical context - music is a mirror of the historical setting in which it was created. Music carries a rich spectrum of social, cultural, historical, and philosophical information, all grounded in the life and experience of the composer - if you're aware of what you're listening to. Starting with well-known composers like Handel and Beethoven, it moved forward in time to composers I'd never heard of including the Russian Balakirev, Czech Janáček, and American Crumb, all of whom had something to say and did so in sometimes beautiful, sometimes prickly ways.

[Yaaresse · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm pretty sure Professor Greenberg is Lewis Black's younger, more musically inclined, slightly less profane, secret brother. They look alike, sound alike, have similar speech patterns and hand gestures. It's uncanny.

I loved this course, and will seek out more of his courses. These were informative, fascinating, and entertaining. That I could sit, riveted, through works that I don't even like and never once think about fast-forwarding through those parts attests to Dr. Greenberg's teaching skills.

To date, I've listened to or watched close to 50 Great Courses. As far as learning new things and holding my interest through every single presentation, this is my new favorite.