A Wonderful Piece of Work

I am a big fan of Prof. Greenberg's courses. They aren't just entertainment - his enthusiasm, his knowledge, his ability to contextualise and to direct listening effectively have, simply, revealed to me a world of music that would have otherwise remained hidden. Spending many hours with him through these courses has made my life better. Anyway I have been absolutely busting to hear him do a 20th Century overview and here it is at last!

First off - there is very little actual music in these lectures; he explains at the start that the cost of licensing the work of not-long-dead composers means he can't play you the recorded excerpts as he goes along, as you will be used to in his other courses. However, he provides a wonderful coursebook in the PDF file with URLs to some brilliant videos - so the music (and more) is only a click away. I note that one reviewer above has declared that you don't get these with the course on Audible - this is incorrect; they are in the PDF file in your audible library alongside the course download link and it all works fine. So aside from some piano examples he plays himself (and a few snippets of his own music) - it is all Bob. That is why 'story' is only getting 4 stars up above; if the music had been in there it would have been incredible and, as it is, I found myself coming down on the side of Charles Ives - screw copyright, music belongs to everyone. Gimme!!! Anyway the links are there and they are great.

Prof. Greenberg's overview itself is, for my money, much better than Alex Ross 'The Rest is Noise' from the point of view of actually making the music accessible. There are a couple of reasons for this I think. Firstly, I love Greenberg's willingness to stick his neck out and tell you his opinion. He loves and he hates, and the ongoing drama of who or what will be celebrated, or, alternatively, given both barrels makes this worth the price of admission alone. Secondly, I think the music truly gets centre-stage here in a way that it does not in Alex Ross' very interesting book. There is cultural, historical, and biographical overview here as well but this course is principally about the music - which I think is borne out in what the course consciously omits (Shostakovitch for example) as well as what it devotes entire lectures to. It is selective. The selections for listening/watching in the links are obviously chosen with care and I was delighted to discover much of this music (most of it to be honest) for the first time. Thirdly, Greenberg's being a prolific contemporary composer himself feels more important in this course, than in any of his previous. This course brings us 'up to speed' and so there is more of a sense than ever that this stuff (from Stravinsky's Rite of Spring onwards) is what contemporary composers are still wrestling with as they try to figure out what it is that they do or should do next. I thought Prof. Greenberg's frank account of his career (nay, his life!) as a composer in one of the final lectures was great - very honest, very amusing, and quite moving.

Don't miss this course - it is special.

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9 people found this helpful

Vivid and fascinating

This really is not the type of music I would normally get in to, but this open-minded and varied story of the development of modern literate music opened me up to a whole range of new influences, ranging from Gamelan music to Schoenberg and Bartok. It was s great experience. I wish though that it was easier accessing the many URLs to which Greenberg refers. They can be found in the pdf but accessing the right page in the pdf whilst listening on my phone is fidgety. Anyway, the many listening recommendations are essential for a full enjoyment of the course so make sure you actually access these.

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1 person found this helpful

Amazing sounds, astounding music brought to life

Professor Greenberg makes an interesting and profound point at the beginning of this book. It goes something along the lines of "we are now approximately one fifth of the way through the 21st century and most people haven't yet come to terms with the music of the 20th century". And how right he is. So much of it is bewildering and extraordinary and complex and obtuse. It is also beautiful and amazing and sublime and, yes, challenging and rewarding.
I listened to this having already heard the Professor's excellent "How to Listen to and Understand Great Music" and was particularly intrigued by the final chapters on 20th century music. I have been interested in 20th century music for a while and had already heard early Stravinsky works such as Right of Spring and Firebird and had tried to listen to Edgard Varese, Anton Webern and Pierre Boulez which I enjoyed but found "difficult" shall we say.
There is no doubt that it is a tough gig presenting this book. Not only is some of the music completely un-describable (Collon Nancarrow anyone!) but the Professor is further hindered in that, unlike his other courses, this one has no music. What? I hear you cry? No music! Well, the story is that because many of the composers on here have not been dead for 75 years (some of them are still alive) the royalty fees for putting excepts of music on the course would be prohibitively expensive. However, Professor Greenberg has helpfully put a series of URL links on his website with the pieces he describes in the course. This means that you do have to put a bit more effort in to fully appreciate what is going on here but, believe me, it is worth it.
I had never really listened to the music of Arnold Schoenberg before hearing this course thinking that it would be "too difficult". I am now converted. It has also opened my ears to the later works of Stravinsky and the "new pluralism" of Rouse, Ades and Kernis and for that I am thankful.
The only negative I can think of for this course is that it has cost me a fortune buying some of the recordings so I can have them to listen too. I have spent many pounds so far on the Complete Works of Schoenberg, the Complete Works of Webern and some Pierre Boulez that I had not heard before. I like the piece at the end where the Professor talks about his own musical tastes and it seems he is, after all, a fairly regular guy. Fairly.
This is a truly exceptional course covering some of the most extraordinary sounds.

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2 people found this helpful

Best heard on great courses directly

It's not my type of music but as Mr Greenberg is one of my favourite professors at the great courses I thought I would give it a go. It starts very well and mid way I thought there would be more on rock and jazz but I had to give up on the last few lectures with the obscure composers. On audible one doesn't get the URL so listening to the music is more complicated but overall I still think he's very funny and entertaining

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1 person found this helpful

Another great course.

Dr. Robert Greenberg inspires again, but the lack of soundbites is a shame. Having to find the mentioned url's is annoying.

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Fabulous

As with all Dr Greenburg’s courses this is just superb.

Content delivery and indeed performance is just wonderful.

Highly recommended

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Another stunningly good course!

This was unsurprisingly brilliant. Robert Greenberg's courses are so reliably first class. The connection between historical and musical development was enlightening.

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Very disappointing

I was really looking forward to this course but it was a massive disappointment. His choice of what to include was verging on bizarre. Nancarrow and other obscure Americans are given time but not Shostakovich (his argument for excluding Russians is very weak) or many other amazing composers who produced truly great music. This course should have a different title.

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11 people found this helpful