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Music

Autumn Term: October 2011 - December 2011
Spring Term: January 2012 - March 2012
Summer Term: April 2012 - June 2012

 

Javanese Gamelan Music
Come and play the bronze gongs and metallophones of Gamelan Sekar Petak!
A gamelan is a musical ensemble from Indonesia, typically from the islands of Bali or Java. Gamelan ‘Sekar Petak’ (‘White Rose’) first came together at the University of York in 1981 and is the first purpose-built gamelan in a British university. No musical experience is required to learn traditional central Javanese repertoire or to help create and realise new pieces. Experienced musicians may also find the gamelan deeply interesting; its rich sonorities, musical structures and tuning systems are unrelated to any traditions of Europe and the West. All sessions will be hands-on, any theory being picked up through practical activities, and it is anticipated that the course will culminate in an informal performance for friends and family.
John Jacobs BA
Term: Autumn
Day: Tuesday
Start Date: 11 October 2011
Time: 7: 30-9:30pm
No. of weeks: 10
Full fee: £67.00

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Exploring Opera
Many composers are famous for just one great opera - such as Bizet (Carmen), Mascagni (Cavalleria Rusticana), Tchaikovsky (Eugene Onegin), Humperdinck (Hansel and Gretel), Leoncavallo (I Pagliacci), Gounod (Faust), Ponchielli (La Gioconda) and Giordano (Andrea Chenier). Even the keenest opera-goers might find it difficult to name even two or three other operas by these same composers. This course will explore all of these great operas, but also looks further at others by the same composers in order to consider whether they deserve to be rescued from obscurity and performed alongside the more famous operas. There are many unjustly-neglected gems to be discovered. All the sessions will be illustrated by extracts from the operas on CD and DVD. The lectures are suitable for newcomers to opera and opera enthusiasts alike.
Roger Witts BA
Term: Autumn
Day: Wednesday
Start Date: 12 October 2011
Time: 1.15-3.15pm
No. of weeks: 8
Full fee: £53.50

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In The Bleak Midwinter: the English Carol
Carols are as essential to our Christmas as mince pies and turkey. Yet their origins lie in medieval dance and many of the carols we consider typically English have been adapted from foreign sources. More still have sprung from the rich tradition of folksongs that had little or nothing to do with Christmas, since Yuletide was originally a heathen festival. Temporarily banned by the Puritans, they emerged more strongly than ever after the Civil War. Hymn-carols from the Victorian era have gone some way towards shaping our Christmas traditions. Over the last century, inspired by such observances as the ‘Nine Lessons and Carols’ at King’s College, Cambridge, composers have developed a rich vein of art carols. The Christmas garden, transplanted from elsewhere, is now inextricably overgrown with the holly and the ivy of England, making our mid-winters quite the opposite of bleak. The course explores the carol in all its colours.
Martin Dreyer BA BMus
Term: Autumn
Day: Thursday
Start Date: 24 November 2011
Time: 10.15am-12.15pm
No. of weeks: 4
Full fee: £27.00

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Spring Term: January 2012 - March 2012

 

The English Musical Renaissance (1895-1945)
For nearly a century and a half after the flowering of Purcell and Handel, music in England went into the doldrums. Only at the very end of the Victorian era did two major figures emerge, each from outside the musical establishment. Elgar and Delius took different routes, one building on the dying embers of Empire, the other turning towards the continent. They fertilised the soil in which others could thrive. The next generation included Vaughan Williams, the greatest symphonist this country has produced, and Holst, who in turn were followed by Walton, Tippett and Britten, along with a host of lesser lights, many with specialised talents. The course will examine the roots of this resurgence and its main currents. Emphasis will be on the composers’ music rather than their lives, with copious recorded examples. The only prerequisites are curiosity and keen ears.
Martin Dreyer BA BMus
Term: Spring
Day: Wednesday
Start Date: 25 January 2012
Time: 10.15am-12.15pm
No. of weeks: 8
Full fee: £53.50

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Don Giovanni: Romantic Hero or Vile Seducer?
Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni is one of the most popular operas ever written - but the complex character at the heart of the story has always been a controversial figure. Is he the great seducer who sweeps women off their feet with his charm and his elegance? Is he just a cheap thug taking advantage of women’s vulnerability? Or is he an agent of evil sent to destroy lives and happiness, who eventually begins to fail in his mission and has to be recalled?
Mozart was not the only composer to explore this story; this study day examines other Don Giovanni operas by Righini, Gazzaniga, Pacini and Dargomyzhsky and the plays and short stories by Tirso de Molina, Pushkin and Merimée which inspired them, as well as the real life adventures of Mozart’s librettist Lorenzo da Ponte and his friend Casanova. DVDs and CDs of performances will illustrate the story.
Roger Witts BA
Term: Spring
Day: Saturday
Start Date: 25 February 2012
Time: 9.30am-4.30pm
No. of weeks: 1
Full fee: £35.00

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Summer Term: April 2012 - June 2012

 

Orchestration 101
This is a basic course in orchestration. It is aimed at people that run amateur ensembles and choirs and are interested in arranging their own compositions or popular tunes to be played or sung by their ensemble. The course covers listening skills, good notation practice, instrumental techniques and possibilities, and inventive orchestration. Music we study will follow the whole range from Brahms to The Beatles and through orchestration exercises the ultimate aim will be to produce an arrangement to be performed by an ensemble. Requirements for the course include a basic knowledge of musical notation.
Edward Caine BA MA
Term: Summer
Day: Monday
Start Date: 23 April 2012
Time: 7-9pm
No. of weeks: 10
Full fee: £67.00

Unfortunately this course has been cancelled

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The Songs of Schubert
Brahms famously observed that ‘there is not a song of Schubert’s from which one cannot learn something’; for Schubert is the undisputed master of the German lied. From the simplest ballad, through a host of styles including the ‘through-composed’ and the near-operatic, not forgetting the two great song cycles, Schubert drew a treasure-house of glorious melody. He preferred the poetry of Goethe and Schiller, but could also find inspiration in lowlier talents. His topics include every aspect of the natural world along with some unusual human and mythical characters. The course will examine how Schubert took on the frail shoots of the 18th Century lied and developed them into glorious flowers, well over 600 of them. There will be a wealth of recorded illustrations by some of the greatest singers of our day. No specialist knowledge is required.
Martin Dreyer BA BMus
Term: Summer
Day: Saturday
Start Date: 28 April 2012
Time: 9.30am-4.30pm
No. of weeks: 1
Full fee: £35.00

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Gustav Holst: Forgotten Genius
There has hardly been a composer more tainted by the ‘one-trick-pony’ taunt than Gustav Holst. The huge popularity of The Planets has largely overshadowed the rest of his remarkably distinctive output. A close friend of Vaughan Williams and influenced, like him, by the English folksong revival, he developed a unique personal style that defies an easy label. From the openly romantic fields of A Somerset Rhapsody and Egdon Heath to the larger canvases of A Choral Fantasia, his four chamber operas, and the Double Concerto, we hear his more formal side. It is balanced by the private warmth and wit of his chamber music and songs. An essentially quiet man who was nevertheless an inspirational teacher and a major influence on Britten and Tippett, Holst’s reputation is long overdue for rehabilitation. This exploration of his music will surely also rekindle enthusiasm for a singular personality.
Martin Dreyer BA BMus
Term: Summer
Day: Saturday
Start Date: 12 May 2012
Time: 9.30am-4.30pm
No. of weeks: 1
Full fee: £35.00

Enrol and Pay at the Online Store

 

Last Updated: April 16, 2012 | Iain Barr (ijb3@york.ac.uk)

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