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.
- The Sydney Opera House at 50: a musical historyCourse start date: Tue 12 Dec 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Trish ShawThe Sydney Opera House is one of the architectural wonders of the modern world, with its dramatic white sails soaring above the sun-dappled waters of Sydney Harbour. 50 years after the Opera House's official opening in October 1973, come and learn how this magnificent structure came into existence, and what is means to musical culture in its own country and throughout the world.Full fee £29.00 Senior fee £29.00 Concession £29.00 - Exploring the music of Fanny MendelssohnCourse start date: Tue 9 Jan 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Katy HamiltonThe elder of two brilliant composer siblings, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel was a child prodigy and prolific composer who was unable to pursue a glittering public career as her brother did. We explore her life and her work, her aspirations, her relationship with her family, and her artistic output. ** This course has a scheduled break week: 30 Jan 2024.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £119.00 Senior fee £95.00 Concession £77.00 - Exploring classical music: module 2Course start date: Tue 16 Jan 2024 (and 2 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Karen BetleyDo you want to know more about classical music history? Explore selected topics and key works in Baroque to Classical music on this highly informative 10 week course. Ideal for people with no specialist knowledge. NB: This course has no scheduled break week.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £135.00 Concession £110.00 - The music of fin-de-siècle ViennaCourse start date: Tue 16 Jan 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Karen BetleyVienna in the late 19th and early 20th centuries acted as a musical magnet, attracting to it composers as diverse as Mahler, Schoenberg and Richard Strauss. Join us as we explore the music of those who were living and working in Vienna at this time, and the ideas that influenced them. NB: This course has no scheduled break week.Full fee £219.00 Senior fee £175.00 Concession £142.00 - Exploring classical music: module 4Course start date: Tue 16 Jan 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Edward HendersonThis course offers a (very) brief history of Western art music during the 20th century. Suitable for classical music enthusiasts as well as near beginners. Each week we will look at a key work of classical music from the twentieth century and use it as a jumping off point to discuss the important historical and aesthetic developments that affected composition in the modern era. NB: no break week term 2, 2024. - Exploring classical music: module 1Course start date: Tue 19 Sep 2023 (and 2 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Neil LuckDo you want to know more about classical music? Explore selected topics and key works in Medieval to (early) Baroque music on this highly informative 10 week course. Ideal for people with no specialist knowledge. Break week: 24 Oct 2023.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £135.00 Concession £110.00 - Exploring the music of SmetanaCourse start date: Tue 20 Feb 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Katy HamiltonWe’ve probably all heard Vltava in concert, and perhaps seen The Bartered Bride – but the worklist of Bedrich Smetana includes many more operas, instrumental pieces, chamber works and songs, and he is often regarded as the ‘inventor’ of Czech national music. In the year of his 200th birthday, we explore his life and compositions.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £119.00 Senior fee £95.00 Concession £77.00 - The symphony: a short historyCourse start date: Tue 23 Apr 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Edward HendersonExplore the history and development of the symphony from JC Bach to Beethoven and into the twentieth century. Break week: 28 May 2024.Full fee £219.00 - Music notation: a brief historyCourse start date: Tue 23 Apr 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Edward BreenHow did our current system of Western staff notation develop and how have manuscripts, printed scores and software all contributed to its versatility? Suitable for those with only have basic notation-reading skills. Scheduled break week: 28 May 2024.Full fee £219.00 Senior fee £175.00 Concession £142.00 - Exploring classical music: module 3Course start date: Thu 21 Sep 2023 (and 2 other dates)
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Edward BreenDo you want to know more about classical music history? Explore selected topics and key works in Romantic and modern music on this highly informative 10 week course. Ideal for people with no specialist knowledge. Break week: 26 Oct 2023.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £135.00 Concession £110.00
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