#1 Origins of Music: From Ancient Rituals to Medieval Chant
Explore the earliest music-making—bone flutes, Greek modal theory, and the rise of Gregorian chant and neume notation.
We do not grow old as long as we strive to improve ourselves.
Explore the earliest music-making—bone flutes, Greek modal theory, and the rise of Gregorian chant and neume notation.
Discover how Renaissance composers wove multiple voices together, invented the madrigal, and used the printing press to spread music.
Enter the age of counterpoint and basso continuo, where Bach perfected fugue and Handel moved audiences to tears with Messiah.
Discover how Classical composers perfected sonata form, the symphony, and the string quartet in an era of elegance and balance.
Follow Beethoven through three compositional periods as he transformed Classical forms into vehicles of personal and universal drama.
Survey the 19th-century Romantic era, from Chopin's piano poetry to nationalist symphonic poems that gave voice to oppressed peoples.
Explore Wagner's revolutionary concept of Gesamtkunstwerk, his use of leitmotifs, and his lasting influence on film music and harmony.
Trace the African American musical traditions—from slave spirituals and field hollers to the blues scale and early New Orleans jazz.
Examine how Stravinsky, Schoenberg, and Bartók broke the rules of tonality and invented new musical languages for the 20th century.
Follow jazz from Louis Armstrong's Hot Five recordings through big band swing to the bebop revolution of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.