Music history

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.

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  1. Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £149.00 Concession £149.00
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  2. Full fee £39.00 Senior fee £39.00 Concession £39.00
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  3. Great composers: Gilbert and Sullivan
    Course start date:  Tue 5 Aug 2025

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Katy Homden
    Creators of arguably the most popular and enduring opera in the English language from the 19th century, this course will introduce you to Gilbert & Sullivan’s musical legacy via biographical study and operatic highlights. tutor: Katy Homden
    Full fee £59.00 Senior fee £59.00 Concession £59.00
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  4. Exploring the music of Richard Strauss
    Course start date:  Tue 16 Sep 2025

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Katy Hamilton

    From the heady waltzes of Der Rosenkavalier to the awe-inspiring opening of Also sprach Zarathrustra, come and delve into the life and works of the brilliant – and controversial – composer and conductor, Richard Strauss.

    Full fee £269.00 Senior fee £215.00 Concession £188.00
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  5. Exploring opera 1
    Course start date:  Tue 16 Sep 2025

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Pauline Greene
    Join us to explore the history of opera over three enjoyable terms. In this first term we’ll explore the ideas that fuelled origins of opera and the wonderful world of Baroque opera seria. NB Break week: 29 Oct 2025.
    Full fee £269.00 Senior fee £215.00 Concession £188.00
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  6. Listening to the 20th century 1
    Course start date:  Tue 16 Sep 2025

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Edward Henderson
    Using Alex Ross’s 'The Rest is Noise' as a guide, we'll investigate art music in the first half of the 20th century. This module covers Mahler’s last symphonies, fin de siècle Paris and the Ballet Russes, and Expressionism and the Second Viennese School. Break week: 28 October 2025.
    Full fee £269.00 Senior fee £215.00 Concession £188.00
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  7. Great works: Mendelssohn's Octet
    Course start date:  Tue 2 Dec 2025

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Katy Hamilton
    Study the history and form of this famous work in a short, enjoyable music history class.
    Full fee £29.00 Senior fee £29.00 Concession £29.00
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  8. Great musicians: Berio and Berberian
    Course start date:  Tue 2 Dec 2025

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Trish Shaw
    Composer Luciano Berio and singer-composer Cathy Berberian were the power couple of contemporary music in the 1950s and 1960s, collaborating to discover new sounds and musical techniques and structures in works from Tema: Omaggio a Joyce and Sequenza III to Stripsody.
    Full fee £59.00 Senior fee £59.00 Concession £59.00
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  9. Michael Tippett: an introduction to his music
    Course start date:  Tue 13 Jan 2026

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Katy Hamilton

    Michael Tippett was a British composer like no other, with interests in everything from Purcell and Beethoven to rock music and American spirituals. Come and discover the life and works of this unusual, brilliant, witty and beautiful musician.

    Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £119.00 Concession £104.00
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  10. Listening to the 20th century 2
    Course start date:  Tue 13 Jan 2026

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Edward Henderson
    Using Alex Ross’s The Rest is Noise as a guide this course investigates art music in the second half of the twentieth century. This module covers the music of the Cold War culture wars, American experimental music, Minimalism and the use of technology. Break week: 17th February 2026.
    Full fee £269.00 Senior fee £215.00 Concession £188.00
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  11. Exploring opera 2
    Course start date:  Tue 13 Jan 2026

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Pauline Greene
    Join us to explore the history of opera over three enjoyable terms. In this second term we’ll explore the innovations of Mozart, the impact of the French Revolution and the early Romantics. break week: 17 Feb 2026.
    Full fee £269.00 Senior fee £215.00 Concession £188.00
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  12. Florence Price: an introduction to her music
    Course start date:  Tue 24 Feb 2026

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Katy Hamilton

    Florence Price is one of the most important African-American composers of the early twentieth century. Come and explore the extraordinary life and musical legacy of this brilliant musician whose works are only just being ‘rediscovered’, 70 years after her death.

    Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £119.00 Concession £104.00
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  13. Full fee £269.00 Senior fee £215.00 Concession £188.00
    Rating:
    95% of 100
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  14. Music in the Weimar republic
    Course start date:  Tue 21 Apr 2026

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Katy Homden
    Discover the colourful landscape of music in Germany between the wars. Break week: 26 May 26.
    Full fee £269.00 Senior fee £215.00 Concession £188.00
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  15. Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £99.00 Concession £99.00
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