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.
- Great works: White ChristmasCourse start date: Mon 4 Dec 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Pauline GreeneHow did we all become so obsessed with snow in December? From Irving Berlin’s song to its use in several films and on stage, we look at the huge impact of this little ditty which has become the defining image of Christmas for many.Full fee £29.00 Senior fee £29.00 Concession £29.00 - Great artists: Sir Charles Mackerras and Czech musicCourse start date: Mon 4 Dec 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Sir Charles Mackerras was one of most significant and influential artists of the last seventy years. After winning a scholarship to study in Prague in 1947, he became besotted by all things Czech and was determined to become a champion of that country’s music. He later proudly described himself as an ‘honorary Czech’ and was often at his artistic happiest when working with singers and musicians from the Czech and Slovak republics. Tutor: Professor Raymond Holden [external website].Full fee £29.00 Senior fee £29.00 Concession £29.00 - Operatic partnerships of Mozart and StraussCourse start date: Mon 15 Jan 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Although active during two very different historical periods, the operatic partnerships of Mozart and da Ponte and Strauss and Hofmannsthal have much in common. Not only were they seminal in shaping the perception and reception of the lyric theatre during their own lifetimes, but they created a series of theatrical masterpieces that continue to dominate the world’s major operatic stages. Tutor: Professor Raymond Holden [external website].Full fee £119.00 - The essential history of jazz in 20 cutsCourse start date: Mon 15 Jan 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Albi GravenerThrough a selection of 20 iconic albums, we will study the key figures, the innovators and the star soloists of 20th century jazz, as well as some important artists you might be less familiar with. - Greek stories and musical settingsCourse start date: Mon 15 Jan 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Katy Hamilton, Nikoletta ManiotiWe’re used to hearing of books and movies described as ‘timeless classics’ – but what does it mean for a composer to take a Classical myth and use it as the basis for a dramatic musical work centuries after the story was first recorded? Come and explore a range of myths from Homer, Euripides, Ovid and others, and learn how composers from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries brought these tales to life. * this course has no break week.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £189.00 Senior fee £189.00 Concession £123.00 - Transcending the Ninth: symphonic swansongsCourse start date: Mon 22 Apr 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Coming at the end of their often-remarkable creative lives, the ninth symphonies of Beethoven, Schubert, Bruckner, Brahms, Dvorák and Mahler were not only the culminations of their own personal aesthetics, but arguably the summations of the musical, cultural and political zeitgeists from which these composers emerged.
Break weeks: No lessons on bank holiday mondays
Tutor: Professor Raymond Holden [external website].Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £143.00 Concession £116.00 - Conducting WagnerCourse start date: Mon 15 Jul 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Although active during two very different historical periods, the operatic partnerships of Mozart and da Ponte and Strauss and Hofmannsthal have much in common. Not only were they seminal in shaping the perception and reception of the lyric theatre during their own lifetimes, but they created a series of theatrical masterpieces that continue to dominate the world’s major operatic stages. Tutor: Professor Raymond Holden [external website].Full fee £29.00 Senior fee £29.00 Concession £29.00
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