Music History Courses in London and Online
City Lit offers an extensive programme of online music history and music appreciation courses with a focus on Western classical music, Folk, Jazz, Rock and Pop. There are new topics each year across a growing range of music styles and traditions.
To find out more about music history classes and to read our year-long selection of courses, please see the blog post Music history: your guide to our programme which lists our full programme of classes ordered by term, and by day of the week. You may then click on each title to read the full course outline.
Our staff are all professional musicians who teach, write, broadcast, lecture and perform widely. In recent years they have worked with BBC Radio 3, Gramophone magazine, Birkbeck (University of London), The Open University, Oxford and Cambridge University Press, Early Music, The Orchestra of the age of Enlightenment, The Wigmore Hall and the Aldeburgh Festival.
Many of our students learn for pleasure but some also come to enhance their careers: recent examples include board members of music charities, marketing and administration professionals from orchestras and gap-year students considering university entrance.
Feel free to browse our programme and do email us at music@citylit.ac.uk with any questions.
- Music history bookclub: The Thorn of the Honey LocustCourse start date: Fri 25 Apr 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Edward BreenThe music history book club meets towards the end of each term to discuss novels and biographies with musical themes and references relevant to the music history programme.Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £19.00 Concession £19.00 - Exploring classical music: module 3
Course start date: Mon 28 Apr 2025 (and 2 other dates)Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Edward BreenDo you want to know more about Western classical music? Explore selected topics and key works in Romantic and modern music on this informative 10-week course. Ideal for people with no specialist knowledge. NB: Break week 5 & 26 May 2025.Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £143.00 Concession £125.00 - Music in the 21st century: the first 25 years Course start date: Tue 29 Apr 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Edward HendersonWe are now 25 years into the 21st century. This course is a guide to concert music and new composition of the century so far.Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £99.00 Concession £99.00 - Exploring classical music: module 1 Course start date: Thu 1 May 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Neil LuckDo you want to know more about Western classical music? Explore selected topics and key works in Medieval to (early) Baroque music on this informative 10-week course. Ideal for people with no specialist knowledge. NB: Break week: 20 Feb 2025. - Exploring opera 3 Course start date: Thu 1 May 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Pauline GreeneJoin us to explore the history of opera over three enjoyable terms. In this third term we’ll explore Verdi, Wagner and the early 20th century. NB Brreak week: 29 May 2025.Full fee £249.00 Senior fee £199.00 Concession £174.00 - Operas in production Course start date: Thu 1 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Pauline GreeneLooking at operas coming up in this season, we will discuss their composition, context, controversies and style, and then hear the story of the opera through musical examples. Break week: 29 May 2025
NB Break week: 29 May 2025.Full fee £239.00 Senior fee £191.00 Concession £167.00 - Music and the Jungian psyche Course start date: Fri 2 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Nadia PerezAn invitation to consider music and the psyche from a Jungian perspective. Investigate how we listen to and make meaning of music, both literally and with a symbolic attitude. Study and discuss different aspects of music and link them to Jungian principles, such as musicking and active imagination.Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £119.00 Concession £104.00 - Stage and screen: A Midsummer Night's Dream Course start date: Fri 2 May 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Pauline GreeneShakespeare’s play takes us into a complex world of an aristocratic wedding, a bickering human love-triangle, a blundering group of well-meaning yokels, and above all a shimmering, wondrous realm where the fairy King and Queen play out other-worldly drama, catching everyone else in their gossamer web. With this as our starting-point, we look at how composers, librettists, choreographers, lyricists and filmmakers have interpreted the story in multiple ways, adapting it for their own time and circumstances. Break week: May 30th, 2025.Full fee £249.00 Senior fee £199.00 Concession £174.00 - Topics in medieval music Course start date: Fri 2 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Edward BreenAn introduction to Western music written during the middle ages. Beginning with the fall of the western Roman Empire in the 5th century and ending in the early 15th century, we'll explore music for church, banquet and dance. Break week: 30 May 2025.Full fee £249.00 Senior fee £199.00 Concession £174.00 - Beethoven: an introduction to his music Course start date: Tue 3 Jun 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Edward HendersonLudwig van Beethoven is one of the most important composers in the Western classical canon. Come and discover more about this most famous of Austro-German composers on a short introductory course.Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £149.00 Concession £149.00 - Improvisation in classical music Course start date: Fri 13 Jun 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Lindsey FillinghamSurvey the history of improvisation in Classical Music from Plainsong to Paganini on this short music history course. Break week: no lesson on 27th June.Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £99.00 Concession £69.00 - Music, sound, and the moving image Course start date: Thu 17 Jul 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Neil LuckThis course explores key ideas about music for the screen, covering a broad range of examples, techniques, and ideas.Full fee £89.00 Senior fee £89.00 Concession £62.00 - Classical music: an introductionCourse start date: Mon 21 Jul 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Pauline GreeneAre you interested in finding out more about classical music but not sure where to start? This taster course will introduce you to the history of music through a careful choice of works. - Great composers: Louise Farrenc Course start date: Thu 24 Jul 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Trish ShawDiscover the musical life and work of Louise Farrenc (1804–1875), the celebrated French pianist, composer, teacher and scholar. Learn about her delightful chamber music, her important piano etudes, and her impact on French music and culture in the 19th century.Full fee £39.00 Senior fee £39.00 Concession £39.00 - Opera appreciation: an introductionCourse start date: Thu 24 Jul 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Pauline GreeneWhat is opera? And how do you approach watching and listening to it? Explore the ostentatious, sometimes overwhelming, world of opera through study of two major works and styles.Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £69.00 Concession £69.00
Can't see a course you want?
Add this category to your waiting list to set up alerts and we will update you when new courses are released online.
Add me to waiting list