The Nineteenth-Century Symphony
- Course Code
- MUSC 0130
- Course Type
- Tutorials
- Subject Credit
- Course Availability
The symphony is one of the most important genres of Western art music and the nineteenth-century symphonies of Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Bruckner, Mahler and Sibelius dominate the genre. This course offers the opportunity to examine core works from critical historical and analytical perspectives but you will also be encouraged to reach outside the central canon, exploring works by lesser known composers such as Franz Berwald, Amy Beach and C V Stanford. You will explore the symphony as an object of musical-cultural practice, examining ideas and critical concepts such as gender, accessibility, identity and nationalism. You will also explore contemporary debates about performance and interpretation. By the end of the course, you will have an essential grounding in the analysis and historical context of the nineteenth-century symphony and some of the cultures that it encompasses.