Search Results for 'music'
Music Theory: The Foundation of Great Music
In Music Theory: The Foundation of Great Music, you’ll delve into the inner workings of Western tonal music through 18 enjoyable and revealing lessons taught by Professor Sean Atkinson of Texas Christian University. Professor Atkinson, an eminent music theorist and teacher, makes music theory refreshingly clear and accessible, demystifying the skill of reading music as well as the principles of musical analysis. Using a highly interactive approach, he orients the lessons to an understanding of how music creates its remarkable effects, both formally and expressively, and how this understanding benefits us as listeners and instrumentalists.
America's Musical Heritage
Survey over 200 years of musical sounds and styles that are inextricably linked with the spirit and history of the United States of America.
Music and the Brain
Discover what happens when melody meets the mind in these entrancing lectures on the neuroscience of music.
The Great Works of Sacred Music
Discover the greatest masterworks of the sacred music tradition, from early church music to the modern era, in this engrossing course taught by a professor of musicology.
Understanding the Fundamentals of Music
Enjoy a deeper understanding of music’s compositional structures—even if you can’t read a single note—with this fascinating introduction to the basics of music theory.
Great Masters: Mozart—His Life and Music
A biographical and musical study of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who composed more than 600 works of beauty and brilliance in just over 20 years.
How Music and Mathematics Relate
Gain new perspective on two of the greatest achievements of human culture-music and math-and the unexpected and fascinating connections that bind the two together.
Music as a Mirror of History
Discover the fascinating ways in which great works of music have interacted with historical events, in this eye-opening course taught by a celebrated composer and music historian.
Great Music of the 20th Century
Travel into the lives of the great 20th-century composers and immerse yourself in the era’s sublime musical masterworks.
Chamber Music of Mozart
Examine the music and the man behind it with a music historian as you study and enjoy a variety of chamber works drawn primarily from Mozart's "golden years.” Focus on works that represent the three types of chamber music that Mozart composed.
How Hamilton Revolutionized the Broadway Musical
It took exactly the right mix of circumstances for Hamilton to become the smash hit it did. Join Great Courses favorite, Professor John McWhorter, to look at a history of Broadway musicals and examine why Hamilton has received so much hype—and if it lives up to it.
Great Masters: Mahler—His Life and Music
Delve into the musical study of Mahler, who, along with being a composer, was the greatest opera conductor of his time.
Great Masters: Haydn-His Life and Music
Explore the unqualified musical success of Franz Joseph Haydn with an esteemed music historian.
How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, 3rd Edition
Forever change the way you listen to music with this outstanding course that explores the history, composition, and sublime accomplishments of Western concert music.
Great Masters: Tchaikovsky—His Life and Music
Join celebrated Music Historian Dr. Robert Greenberg to dig into the complicated life of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky and examine how it was a fundamental component to his renowned compositions.
Great Masters: Beethoven—His Life and Music
Dive into this biographical and musical study of Beethoven as it puts the great musician's life into social, political, and cultural context.
The Banjo: Music, History, and Heritage
From campfires to concert halls, explore the audible breadth of this great instrument in The Banjo: Music, History, and Heritage. Taught by GRAMMY®-Award winning artist and MacArthur grant recipient Rhiannon Giddens, the 10 jam-packed lessons take you across time and cultures to uncover the hidden—and surprising—history of the banjo.
The History of Christmas Concert Music
Join acclaimed music historian—and Great Courses favorite—Professor Robert Greenberg to revel in the history and evolution of timeless Christmas tunes.
Great Masters: Brahms—His Life and Music
Explore how Brahms found unique ways of combining the formal complexity of older Classical genres with the melodic inventiveness, harmonic sophistication, and expressive richness of the Romantic Age.
Great Masters: Liszt-His Life and Music
Discover why Franz Liszt was known to be "a continual alternation between scandal and apotheosis."
How the Great Migration Changed America
Between 1910 and 1970, 6 million Black Americans migrated northward from a deeply segregated post-war South. Examine the history and impact of the Great Migration, from the rise of gospel music to the birth of state lotteries, and beyond.
The Symphony
Immerse yourself in the symphony and discover why it is the longest-lived and most expressive of all genres of instrumental music.
Learning to Play Guitar: Chords, Scales, and Solos
Discover the joy of playing, reading, and understanding music from a master teacher, in this hands-on course.
How to Play the Violin
Pick up your bow and confidently fiddle your way through a thorough and accessible beginner’s violin course.
How to Play the Ukulele
Dive into the magical world of this traditional Hawaiian instrument with Michael Poupko, professional musician and instructor. Let Michael’s 20-plus years of playing and teaching music take you from musical novice to master the uke in the 24 easy lessons of How to Play the Ukulele. Come along as he shares with you the skills you need to explore the voice of the ukulele for years to come.
Beethoven's Piano Sonatas
Examine 32 piano sonatas with Great Courses favorite Professor Robert Greenberg as he combines music, anecdotes, and humor to highlight classic pieces.
Great Piano Works Explained
Discover the magnificent works for solo piano in the classical tradition and deepen your understanding and enjoyment of these great creations.
Concert Masterworks
Gain a new level of listening sophistication as you learn to open your ears to a composer's creative intentions.
Bach and the High Baroque
Join Professor Robert Greenberg to explore the emotional power, religious devotion, technical virtuosity, diverse national styles, and sheer genius of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Symphonies of Beethoven
See how Beethoven revolutionized musical composition and created works of unique beauty, power, and depth through the history and analysis of Beethoven's nine symphonies.
How to Listen to and Understand Opera
Discover the great beauty and high artistic achievement of opera with this brilliant course by acclaimed musicologist Robert Greenberg.
The Great Tours: Ireland and Northern Ireland
Explore the passionate history, world-renowned culture, breathtaking landscape, and welcoming people of the Emerald Isle.
How to Play Piano
Experience hands-on lessons from a master piano instructor as you explore the building blocks of music.
How to Sing
Let a master teacher train you in solid singing technique, vocal artistry, and the skills of inspired performance.
England, the 1960s, and the Triumph of the Beatles
Join best-selling biographer Michael Shelden for 12 vibrant lectures on how the 1960s shaped the Beatles—and how the band, in turn, defined the revolutionary spirit of the age.
The Scientific Guide to Health and Happiness
Uncover the essential secrets to a healthy mind and body and empower yourself to take charge of your happiness and life satisfaction. These 24 science-based lessons, taught by Dr. Robin Miller, will introduce you to the many ways that health and happiness are intertwined.
The Great Tours: Iceland
Embark on the adventure of a lifetime with a journey to an unforgettable land of fire and ice—and so much more.
Playing Guitar like a Pro: Lead, Solo, and Group Performance
Discover the legendary playing styles of Eric Clapton, Eddie Van Halen, Django Reinhardt, and more in this course for both musicians and fans.
Travels with Darley: Seasons 3 & 4
Join host and adventurer Darley Newman as she reveals diverse cultures, traditions, and hidden gems through food, festivals, art, history, outdoor adventures, and much more.
Discovering West Africa: Ghana, Senegal, Cameroon
Explore West Africa with adventurer "World Wide Nate."
Going to the Devil: The Impeachment of 1868
Experience a dramatic, often-overlooked period of American history with this unique narrative documentary that delves into the story of the first impeachment.
Physics in Your Life
An award-winning professor brings physics down to earth from everyday examples to universal principles.
Victorian Britain
Examine the strengths and foibles of Victorian Britain with an award-winning professor.
Experiencing America: A Smithsonian Tour through American History
Dive into a rich, visual history of the United States of America, as told using the Smithsonian's one-of-a-kind collection of iconic and symbolic American artifacts.
The Great Tours: Germany and Austria
Uncover the astonishing treasures of Germany and Austria in this expert-led tour, and immerse yourself in the region’s enthralling history, resplendent cities, wonders of architecture, cultural traditions, romantic landscapes, and more.
A New History of the American South
Relive the unforgettable drama of the American South with an award-winning professor.
How to View and Appreciate Great Movies
Unpack the Components that Make Movies “Great” with a Professional Filmmaker.
Understanding the Brain
Go inside the most astonishingly complex organ that has ever existed and learn how it works in this engrossing and surprising course on the human brain.
The Medieval World
What was it like to live during the Middle Ages? Find out with The Medieval World, which offers you a different perspective on this period: one that entrenches you in the experiences of everyday men and women. Medievalist and Professor Dorsey Armstrong draws on history, literature, the arts, technology, science, and more for this 36-lecture tour that will expand your understanding of both the Middle Ages and everything that came afterward: the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and even our modern world.
15: Musical Phrases and Cadences
From: Music Theory: The Foundation of Great Music
This lesson discusses the phrase structure of tonal music. Discover how music unfolds in phrases, segments of musical material that end with a sense of rest or pause, often using a harmonic event called a cadence, which concludes the phrase. Hear how musical phrases operate, and how they are organized into larger units called periods and sentences, which create a musical narrative.
18: Applying Music Theory to Great Music
From: Music Theory: The Foundation of Great Music
Conclude the course as it began, with an encounter with a great piece of music. Hear Clara Schumann’s “Three Romances for Violin and Piano” and test yourself on some of the concepts you’ve studied in the course. Revisit the elements of meter, rhythm, harmonic motion, cadences, key changes, and musical phrases that form the inner structure of great music.
13: Musical Harmony: Seventh Chords
From: Music Theory: The Foundation of Great Music
Seventh chords are another essential component of Western tonal music. Observe how seventh chords (four-note chords) are built on triads (three-note chords), by adding another interval of a third. Learn how seventh chords “resolve” or propel the music forward. Study the five types of seventh chords, how they are used in different musical genres, and hear seventh chords in context.
01: Inheriting America’s Musical Traditions
From: America's Musical Heritage
Use classic children’s music—everything from jump rope rhymes to lullabies—as a fascinating window into America’s musical traditions and how they open up a plethora of musical doors and memories. Also, get an introduction to some of the many incredible treasures contained in the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings series.
12: America’s Musical Gift
From: Great Music of the 20th Century
This lecture explores the rich diversity of American vernacular music, as it influenced and inspired American composers. Take account of the integral impact on America of West African musical forms, and their role in the development of blues, ragtime, and jazz. See how George Gershwin and Aaron Copland synthesized these forms in jazz-tinged masterworks that became icons of American music.
06: Meter: How Music Moves
From: Music Theory: The Foundation of Great Music
Learn how the pulse or beat of a piece of music is organized in the written score, within small segments called measures, with the meter signature indicating how the beats are grouped within the measure. Observe how written musical notes have a rhythmic value, indicating how long each note lasts in time. Practice clapping musical rhythms, to understand how a piece of music moves through time.
12: The Musical Gumbo of New Orleans
From: America's Musical Heritage
What makes the city of New Orleans more musically extraordinary than other American cities? The answer: a rare combination of distinct musical and cultural influences coming together in one place. Professor Seeger closes out this course with an appreciation of the importance of place in American music.
12: Musical Harmony: Triads
From: Music Theory: The Foundation of Great Music
Harmony, where two or more notes sound together, lies at the heart of tonal music. In this lesson, study the structure of chords, combinations of three or more notes heard at the same time, focusing on triads, a group of fundamental three-note chords. Learn about major and minor triads, and the lesser-used diminished and augmented triads, and observe harmony in action in a Bach chorale.
12: Cognitive Benefits of Musical Training
From: Music and the Brain
Probe the ongoing research into the effects of musical training on the microstructure of the brain, which points to cognitive benefits in areas such as speech processing. Focus on how learning to play a musical instrument influences language acquisition and reading ability in children.
16: Hypermeter and Larger Musical Structures
From: Music Theory: The Foundation of Great Music
In listening to music, we sometimes hear the meter differently than the way it’s written on the page. Learn how the concept of hypermeter helps explain this, by showing that when measures of music are grouped into phrases, we often hear a pulse for each measure in the phrase, rather than the pulses within the measure. Explore examples of hypermeter, and how we perceive music as listeners.
09: The Complexities of Musical Rhythm
From: Music and the Brain
Begin your study of musical rhythm by distinguishing periodic from non-periodic rhythmic patterns. Periodicity can be thought of as beat; non-periodicity involves expressive techniques such as timing variations and phrasing. Close by asking whether composers write music in the rhythmic patterns of their native language.
43: Romantic-era Musical Nationalism
From: How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, 3rd Edition
This lecture examines the trend of folkloric musical nationalism during the second half of the 19th century with a brief history, followed by a discussion of musical exoticism. Ultimately, the lecture turns to Franz Liszt, perhaps the most representative instrumental virtuoso/composer of the 19th century, and his composition Totentanz....
04: Music, Language, and Emotional Expression
From: Music and the Brain
What makes a piece of music sound sad? Or joyful? Or angry? Why does music have expressive power beyond words? Explore the different ways that music conveys emotion. Test your own responses to musical passages composed especially for the course.
01: Music as a Mirror
From: How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, 3rd Edition
This opening lecture introduces themes, concepts, and terminology that will be used throughout the series. The nature of concert music as a living, breathing entity and not a fossil of the past is introduced. Important definitions and distinctions are discussed, including: concert music, classical music, popular music, and Western music. The concept of music as a mirror is introduced. Lastly, usin...
01: Music: Culture, Biology, or Both?
From: Music and the Brain
Explore the distinction between music and musicality. While musical styles change, musicality is the stable array of mental processes that underlie our ability to appreciate and produce music. Begin by looking at our capacity for relative pitch perception, asking why we excel over all other animals at this skill.
14: Disorders of Music Cognition
From: Music and the Brain
Turn to cases where music cognition breaks down in disorders such as dystimbria and amusia. General Ulysses S. Grant and novelist Vladimir Nabokov appear to have been affected by amusia. Investigate what they and others with similar deficits miss when listening to music, and explore the underlying cause.
12: Math, Music, and the Mind
From: How Music and Mathematics Relate
Conclude with an eight-part finale, in which you range widely through the territory that connects mathematics, music, and the mind. Among the questions you address: What happens in the brain of an infant exposed to music? Why do child prodigies often excel in the areas of math, music, or chess? And how do creativity, abstraction, and beauty unite music and mathematics, despite being on opposite en...
18: Music: A Neuroscientific Perspective
From: Music and the Brain
Conclude the course by examining the biological significance of music though the lens of neuroscience. Look at five aspects of language that point to biological specialization in humans, and ask whether the same evidence also applies to music. How have we been shaped by nature to enjoy this very special type of sound?
07: Consonance, Dissonance, and Musical Scales
From: Music and the Brain
What brain processes lead people to hear certain intervals as more consonant and others as more dissonant? Evaluate the major theories, one of which traces the phenomenon to the acoustic quality of the human voice. Then examine the structure of musical scales.
11: Nature, Nurture, and Musical Brains
From: Music and the Brain
Use neuroimaging to investigate the ways that brains of musicians differ from those of non-musicians, asking whether the differences are due to nature or nurture - whether they are inborn or the result of experience. Pinpoint brain structures involved in such musical skills as absolute pitch.
17: Understanding Music Lead Sheets
From: Music Theory: The Foundation of Great Music
In jazz and popular music, a lead sheet uses only a melodic line and chord symbols to indicate how to play the song. Listen to a jazz pianist improvise from lead sheets in three popular songs and investigate how chords are written on lead sheets as opposed to classical music scores. Hear the performer talk about the process of playing from lead sheets in spontaneous improvisation.
03: European Empires and American Music
From: America's Musical Heritage
The United States is built on a foundation of pre-existing musical heritages from people who were already in North America before the nation was born. Survey the musical traditions of the British, French, and Spanish empires, as well as influence from Indigenous groups—some of which still endure to this day.
15: Electronic Music and European Ultraserialism
From: Great Music of the 20th Century
Learn how the advent of musical synthesizers and the tape recorder gave rise to both electronic music (using sounds created electronically) and musique concrète (manipulating real sounds with a tape recorder). Witness how Ultraserialism developed within Europe, leading paradoxically to hyper-complex music which in performance sounded random—a fatal problem for listener comprehension.
15: Neurological Effects of Hearing Music
From: Music and the Brain
Consider how the biological effects of listening to music might affect people with a wide range of medical conditions, from those undergoing surgery to premature infants, stroke victims, and Alzheimer's patients. Search for the biological mechanisms that make music a powerful balm for the mind and body.
15: Dissonance-Musical and Financial
From: Chamber Music of Mozart
Mozart completed his String Quartet in C Major, K. 465, the so-called "Dissonant" Quartet, in 1785. This sixth and last of Mozart "Haydn" Quartets exhibits an expressive depth and a dark side that exceeded what was then considered appropriate and tasteful. By the late 1780s, Mozart's "difficult" music so alienated his Viennese patrons that his financial situation turn...
02: Handel: Water Music (1714)
From: Music as a Mirror of History
Discover how music and history intersected in the remarkable career of George Frederick Handel. Trace the extraordinary circumstances in which the German prince George Ludwig of Brunswick-Lüneberg became King George I of England. Learn about his patronage of Handel, whose phenomenal success as a composer in England led to the creation of numerous musical masterpieces written for the English r...
01: Broadway Musicals: Why Hamilton has Captivated the Public's Eye
From: How Hamilton Revolutionized the Broadway Musical
Hamilton revolutionized the Broadway musical like no other show in the history of musicals. The way it was cast, the music choices, the focus on a character who is historically considered a sidekick among the more famous Founding Fathers …these elements were groundbreaking for the genre. Dive into the radical approach Hamilton creators took in developing this modern musical and understand why the timing and circumstances were ideal, making Hamilton a game-changing experiment that paid off in a way that will go down in history.
11: The Musical Benjamin Franklin
From: The Age of Benjamin Franklin
Among Franklin’s lesser known abilities are his musical talents, which made effective use of his rational mind and his quest for understanding the world. After surveying the world of 18th century music, Professor Allison reveals Franklin’s musical prowess, including the invention of a new musical instrument.
16: Come, All Ye Faithful: Music of Christmas
From: The Great Works of Sacred Music
Conclude with a look at the rich tradition of Christmas music. Explore music designed for yuletide religious services, as well as musical works that became associated with Christmas. Learn how 19th-century composers created a beloved legacy of Christmas carols by resurrecting older ones, writing new ones, and making hybrids of old texts and new music....
03: Debussy and le français in Musical Action
From: Great Music of the 20th Century
Investigate the qualities of Debussy’s music that connect it to French art and poetry as well as to the sensuality of the French language. Learn how his landmark work, Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, began musical modernism. Study the wealth of compositional innovations in his piano Prelude #10, and note how his impact on 20th-century music mirrors Beethoven’s in the 19th century.
02: American Revolutionary and Wartime Music
From: America's Musical Heritage
American music has shaped the meaning of war, making it a more shared experience. Take a closer listen to music from the Revolutionary War (“The President’s March”) and the Civil War (“I’m Going Home to Dixie”), as well as anti-war songs including “I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier.”
05: Sacred Music in a Secular World
From: The Great Works of Sacred Music
By the 17th century, fashionable music began to be equated with secular music. Through studying Claudio Monteverdi's masterpiece, the Vespro della Beata Virgini, and Heinrich Schütz's extraordinary Musikalische Exequien, learn how both composers mixed sacred styles with elements from secular genres like opera to create music that was both reverent and modern....
11: The Digital Delivery of Music
From: How Music and Mathematics Relate
What is the technology behind today's recorded music? Delve into the mathematics of digital sampling, audio compression, and error correction-techniques that allow thousands of hours of music to fit onto a portable media player at a sound quality that is astonishingly good. Investigate the difference between analog and digital sound, and explore the technology that allows Professor Kung's untraine...
02: Seeking an Evolutionary Theory of Music
From: Music and the Brain
Darwin believed that musical behavior arose because it gave our early ancestors a biological advantage. But what advantage? Investigate Darwin's theory and other adaptationist explanations for the evolution of music. Then look at two alternatives: invention theories and gene-culture co-evolution theories.
01: The Language of Music
From: Understanding the Fundamentals of Music
Professor Greenberg begins the course with an introduction to one of the musical language's key syntactical elements—"timbre," or the actual sound or tone color of an instrument or instruments—beginning with the string section of the orchestra.
01: 20th-Century Music: Be Afraid No Longer!
From: Great Music of the 20th Century
Look first at the goals of this course, as it will explore the principal trends in 20th-century concert music, and the historical issues and events that shaped them. As background, delve into the history of musical notation as it gave rise to composed music, and take account of the upheavals, political and social catastrophes, and paradigm shifts that affected music in the 20th century.
09: The Banjo: An African Gift to American Music
From: America's Musical Heritage
Follow the story of the banjo, a musical instrument whose development is intertwined with larger American themes of slavery, conflict, struggle, ingenuity, and musical inventiveness. Plus, learn how musical instruments change shape and sound, and deepen your understanding of the ways we interpret cultural and musical ownership today.
06: Musical Building Blocks: Pitch and Timbre
From: Music and the Brain
Focus on two processes that are fundamental to musicality: the perception of pitch and timbre. Pitch allows us to order sounds from low to high. Timbre lets us distinguish two sounds with the same pitch, loudness, and duration. Both pitch and timbre are constructed by the brain and have deep evolutionary roots.
10: The Roots of Country Music in America
From: America's Musical Heritage
Visit the Appalachian region of the Southeast and unearth the roots of “country music” (a term that wasn’t used until the 1950s) in mountain “hillbilly” music. Along the way, consider some of the many tropes of this genre of music, exemplified by a song from 1947 called “Goodbye, Old Paint.”
01: History of Christmas Concert Music
From: The History of Christmas Concert Music
Music historian Robert Greenberg traces the history of holiday songs, carols, compositions, and oratorios. Discover how some of our most beloved Christmas songs got their start, delve into the famous composers associated with holiday music—including Handel, Bach, and Tchaikovsky—and learn the stories behind some of our favorite festive tunes, so that hearing (or singing) them is a deeper and more meaningful experience season after season.
01: Learning the Language of Music
From: Music Theory: The Foundation of Great Music
As an introduction to the language of music, delve into the Russian Easter Overture (1888) by composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Explore how Rimsky-Korsakov achieves the work’s expressive effects, through the textures of different instruments and variations in volume (dynamics), speed (tempo), rhythm, and harmony, to capture the emotions of Easter in the Russian orthodox church.
13: The Development of Human Music Cognition
From: Music and the Brain
Not all aspects of musicality mature in the brain at the same rate. Trace the developing music faculty in infants, who have already learned to recognize their mother's speech patterns and singing while in the womb. Examine research showing that singing is more effective than speech in calming infants.
17: Are We the Only Musical Species?
From: Music and the Brain
We may be the only animal that uses words, but we are not the only animal that sings. Survey music-making among other species, from fruit flies to gibbons, whales, parrots, and songbirds. Analyze the sound structure of their song to learn how it differs from ours.
08: Style Features of Baroque-era Music
From: How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, 3rd Edition
In this lecture we build listening skills and a descriptive vocabulary and discuss style and features of Baroque music. A vocabulary for addressing sound aspects of music is presented, defining and discussing discrete sound, frequency, pitch, melody, motive, theme, and tune. The advent of instrumental music during the Baroque era is examined. Essential musical elements as pulse, meter, scales, and...
19: Revelation Takes Musical Form
From: The Apocalypse: Controversies and Meaning in Western History
Explore Revelation from a completely different perspective: its rich musical heritage. There are many songs within Revelation, and much music has been inspired by it. Examine Handel's Messiah, the hymns compiled by Charles Wesley, and gospel songs such as "Shall We Gather at the River?"
01: Hallelujah, Amen: The World of Sacred Music
From: The Great Works of Sacred Music
Begin by exploring the contexts in which Western sacred music developed, from its use in religious ritual to its emergence in the concert hall as edifying entertainment. Then encounter three distinct eras in sacred music, hearing excerpts from medieval chant, Handel's iconic Hallelujah chorus, and Edward Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius....
05: Music of American Movement and Dance
From: America's Musical Heritage
From square dances (the official state dance in over 20 states) to the waltz (one of America’s earliest dance crazes), investigate the relationship between movement and music in the United States. Discover how the human body can synchronize itself to an external rhythm—a response known as rhythmic entrainment.
08: American Music of Politics and Protest
From: America's Musical Heritage
In the United States, the ties between music and political and protest movements are deep and long-standing. Here, explore political parodies known as “zipper songs” and iconic songs about disenfranchised women, workers, and African-Americans, including “Bread and Roses,” “Solidarity Forever,” and “We Shall Overcome.”
16: Neurological Effects of Making Music
From: Music and the Brain
See how actively engaging in music can enhance communication and movement in patients with a variety of neurological disorders, including aphasia, Parkinson's disease, motor disorders, and autism. Music's connection to multiple brain systems appears to underlie its beneficial effect on these conditions.
02: A Career in Music
From: Great Masters: Tchaikovsky—His Life and Music
According to Tchaikovsky, Mozart's Don Giovanni was the inspiration for his musical career. After a brief turn as a civil servant, he joined the teaching faculty at the new Moscow Conservatory, and in 1868 his First Symphony was premiered. He was the only composer in Russia at that time with the education, craft, and talent to combine the best of Western European compositional technique with his own Russian heritage.
