Music Appreciation

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moktan

moktan

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"This course fosters the development of aural skills that lead to an understanding of Western music. The musical novice is introduced to the ways in which music is put together and is taught how to listen to a wide variety of musical styles, from Bach and Mozart, to Gregorian chant, to the blues."
One can download transcripts, audio (MP3), low bandwidth (more than 100MB) or high bandwidth (more than 500MB) videos of classroom sessions.
Meant for those with absolutely no knowledge of musical theory, these classes provide a firm grounding in music appreciation.

Open Yale Courses | Listening to Music
 
Fascinating stuff.

I never was a good student, doing the right stuff at the right time, but will at least be dipping in to this. Even just watching the introductory lecture is worthwhile.

EDIT: wow, listened to the second section too. Amazing stuff. How music works!
 
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Watched the third part yesterday evening. Whilst I suspect that there will come a point at which, without being there, having access to the course materials and doing the work, it may become impossible to follow --- but I'm sticking with it until that happens :)

moktan, this is really great stuff: thanks again for the link
 
awesome stuff moktan. Thanks for sharing the link. Just finished the first section. Great 50 minutes of listening. Good quality too.
 
I am a little apprehensive to go through this course. The only two ways my brain understands music are 'Good' and 'Not so good' and I like it that way. Would appreciate thoughts from anyone else who thinks similarly and what they think of this course. I'd hate it if I start analyzing music too much...
 
i don't think the information that one gleans from the 'course' will in any way diminish ones 'enjoyment' of music.
but it does systematise one's approach and also helps develop an empathy towards what a composer is attempting.
i would look at it like this. one appreciates paintings. now imagine reading Gombrich's The Story of Art. the information puts various approaches towards art into perspective. now, with that extra bit of knowledge you 'know' why manet's The Balcony looks like it does.
to quote an extract.. "..compared to theirs (portraits by Da Vinci, Rubens, Velazquez) Manet's head looks flat. The lady in the foreground does not even have a proper nose. We can imagine why this treatment looked like sheer ignorance to those not acquainted with Manet's intentions. But the fact is in the open air, and in the full light of day, round forms sometimes do look flat, like mere coloured patches. It was this effect Manet wanted to explore. The consequence is that as we stand before one of his pictures it looks immediately real than any old master".
I think in one of the lectures he talks about an 'obscure' piece inspired by a wheel. the music is just sound. but then he explains by drawing a visual picture about what is being sonically attempted. the bass rumble that one hears first and which heralds the approach of the 'wagon' (?), then the doppler effect of increased pitch as the sound draws nearer and the lowering of pitch as it recedes into the distance etc.
if one fears that the lectures may be too analytical and would sap the 'fun' out of music, then i guess those fears are unfounded.
 
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How to fly a plane? How to do brain surgery? How to compose music?

The fact that my first-and-foremost source of joy in music happens in heart and soul is witnessed by my being one of the few Chennai rasikas who does not understand raga, and doesn't mind that he doesn't.

But I have an immense curiosity about music, from theory of harmony through to how does it feel to hold a particular instrument. Why do certain kinds of melody produce certain effects? What's blue about the blues? Wow, on a certain note --- but why did landing on that note cause wow?

Actually, I even found myself thinking about some of the the things in the lectures so far in a carnatic concert this evening!
 
Oh, I understand that it would not diminish the joy I derive from a piece I would listen to. However, being the intellectual slob that I am in certain matters, combined with the fact that I would start (over)analyzing the technicalities of a piece instead of just letting myself washed over by music and being lost, my comment was more of a loud thought whether I should take the effort. Ofcourse more than that, I was interested to see if anyone else had the same train of thought and if it had changed at all after reading the articles. Sorry if this sounds incongruent...
 
Not at all incongruent. There are times, for me, when intellectual enquiry just gets in the way, and other times when something in a music just makes me think, if only for a moment in passing.

Western musical notion was the world's first example of a graph: a grid with time on one axis and pitch on the other. Who knew? I didn't!

Rhythm is tough, mostly because I never could get the hang of all this half-note, quarter-note stuff. It just amazes me that people can sight read (ie sit and play music they never even saw before) all those squiggly line. However, at least (being that graph) it goes up and down, and one can see it going up and down. In this respect, it is easy to internalise than Sa Ri Ga Ma. On the other hand, I get on better with Ta Ka Di Mi ThaRiKiTha ThaKaJuNo than with dots on lines.

The basics of scales was a little easier to take in. Coming up next for me: what makes a melody beautiful. I'm looking forward to that, but will save it for tomorrow.
 
It's also interesting to note that in western music, minor key music evokes moody, dark, melancholic feelings, whereas major key music is happy and uplifting. But why is it like that? Could there be any scientific basis to those evocations? The lecture has an almost anti-climactic take on this.
 
Hard to believe that something like this is made available for free on the net. I am in the middle of Lecture 2 and what little of the lecture I was able to understand has made me appreciate classical music / music better.

This link is a great find. Thanks Moktan for sharing.
 
moktan said:
It's also interesting to note that in western music, minor key music evokes moody, dark, melancholic feelings, whereas major key music is happy and uplifting. But why is it like that? Could there be any scientific basis to those evocations? The lecture has an almost anti-climactic take on this.
Click to expand...
The answer was interesting: because we have become to conditioned to feel this way. Apparently nobody did until about 500 years ago, and, in traditional, and even modern, Jewish music, they still don't.

I remember N Ravikiran, talking about ragas, and how certain ragas were "supposed" to have certain moods, saying that a particular raga was supposed to be dark, in a minor-key way, but look... he played a jolly tune in that raga.
I saw this just today morning: Why Music Gives You The Chills
Click to expand...
I know someone whose job is research in how music affects the brain. Wow, what kind of a job is that? :D To get a research jobs, not only in a scientific field, but in one that also interacts with the arts and is not particularly commercial, and to be able to work in such a field that one loves, I guess those people must be absolutely top-rank academics. I've only met him once, but I see his posts on rasikas.org.
 
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I'm up to lecture 20, only three to go --- and it's like getting to the end of a really good book, you know it's soon going to finish, and you know you'll miss it :)
 
Thad E Ginathom said:
I'm up to lecture 20, only three to go --- and it's like getting to the end of a really good book, you know it's soon going to finish, and you know you'll miss it :)
Click to expand...

A mini-review without revealing the plot, when you have a few minutes to spare, would be very much appreciated. :) I am quite tempted to start the course myself...
 
An hour spent watching the introductory lecture will be better than any mini-review I can write! I'd say it is worth it for anybody, unless they have absolutely no interest whatsoever in Western classical music --- and even if they start out that way, they may find they have developed some within a few sessions!

It introduces technicalities, but it is not heavily technical. As an example, it will not leave you able to discuss dozens of different complex harmonies, but it will leave you with a better understanding of how important two or three of them are!

It is about listening to music, it is not a series of music lessons. It puts Western classical in historical context, and, to some extent, in world context.

Craig Wright is very good at presenting this material and making it accessible. I always enjoy seeing people who have that combination of understanding and love for their subject, combined with the ability to communicate it. I can watch people like that even if I have no interest in the subject at all, eg Feynman and physics.

Oh dear ... I did just write that mini-review! :lol:
 
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