Music courses
Music courses. Enhance your appreciation of music with our expert-led courses.
Music is a universal language that has the power to move and inspire us like no other art form. Whether you’re an avid music lover looking to deepen your appreciation and understanding of this art form, or simply someone who loves to listen to music and wants to learn more about it, our Music appreciation courses are the perfect place to start.
We offer a range of courses designed to help you appreciate and understand the great works of music. Led by expert presenters, our courses cover a wide range of topics, including music theory, the history of music, and different music styles and genres. You’ll learn about melody, harmony, rhythm, scales, chords, and how they all work together to create beautiful and enduring works of music.
In our courses, you’ll have the opportunity to explore the rich history and culture of music, from baroque to Beethoven, from impressionism to opera, and beyond. You’ll also learn from industry professionals who are passionate about music and committed to sharing their knowledge and expertise with you.
So why wait? Enrol in one of our Music appreciation courses today and start exploring the world of music. Our courses are open to everyone, so don’t miss out on this opportunity to enrich your understanding and love of this highly accessible art form. Learn music in Sydney with music courses from the University of Sydney – your premier provider of short courses in Sydney and online.
Music of the Fin de Siècle Course: 1884 - 1893
In Part II of this series of courses on Music in Europe in the late Nineteenth Century, we continue to explore and weave together the various nationalist strands of orchestral and operatic music composed in this period, by now universally being referred to as the Fin de Siècle.
We not only see how Brahms dominates the German musical scene after the death of Wagner, but how his protégé Dvorak has established himself as a force to be reckoned with, both in England – composing a series of major orchestral and choral works for the annual English music festivals – and also further afield, accepting a specially-created and highly-lucrative position as head of a new musical conservatory in New York.
We see Saint-Saëns’s neglected opera Samson et Dalila finally take its rightful place at the Paris Opéra, where it rapidly becomes part of the repertoire, and note the huge success of Massenet’s Manon at the Opéra-Comique. We also pay homage to Fauré’s gentler vocal muse through his delightful collections of mélodies and chansons.
Through this decade, the Russian school is dominated by Tchaikovsky, particularly his late sequence of masterpieces comprising the Pushkin opera The Queen of Spades, the ballets Sleeping Beauty and Nutcracker, and the final symphony, the so-called Pathétique. Rimsky-Korsakov also dazzles with his breathtakingly voluptuous orchestration in his ‘symphonic suite’ Sheherazade.
Verdi rounds off a remarkable 50-year career with two magnificent operas based on his beloved Shakespeare – the tragic Otello, and the comic Falstaff – both featuring brilliant librettos by Arrigo Boito. Meanwhile, in the early 1890s, the young Italian school revel in the violence of the new verismo style, launched by Mascagni with Cavalleria rusticana and confirmed soon afterwards by Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci.
In the final lecture we encounter the music of newcomers Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss for the first time.
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