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Explore what's involved when musicians create a performance from musical notation in this free online course.
13 hours, 9 minutes
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Would you like to know more about what musicians do in rehearsals and performances? Would you like to learn different techniques for listening to and understanding music?
This free course provides a general introduction to how to understand a musical score, and insights into what professional musicians do with the notation that these contain. You'll learn how to connect the notation you see with the music you hear, from short familiar melodies to a full orchestral score.
Focusing on works by Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven and Mahler, we'll introduce you to a pianist, a small chamber group and a conductor who will explain how they create memorable performances from the notes on the page.
Requirements
This course is intended for anyone with an interest in music. You do not need to be able to read musical notation or play an instrument.
Course learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:
- Understand the reasons for different musical notations
- Understand the relationship between notation and performance
- Navigate printed music
- Listen to a simple musical example alongside its notation.
Course Currilcum
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- Introduction 00:15:00
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- Types of musical score 00:20:00
- How do musical scores work? 00:30:00
- Some things notations do 00:10:00
- What should a musical score capture? 00:10:00
- The ear-eye connection 00:15:00
- Introducing pitch and rhythm 00:05:00
- A little bit of history 00:15:00
- Working with neumes 00:15:00
- Guido of Arezzo 00:20:00
- Introduction 00:15:00
- Melody and harmony 00:10:00
- Texture 00:15:00
- Texture in big band jazz 00:10:00
- Discussing Mozart 00:15:00
- Comparing notes: the kaleidoscope of piano textures 00:10:00
- Introduction 00:10:00
- Instrumental colour 00:10:00
- New textures 00:10:00
- Instrumental tone colour 00:07:00
- Layering and balancing sounds 00:05:00
- Layered textures 00:20:00
- The Trout revisited 00:10:00
- Introduction 00:25:00
- A conductor discusses: developing a performance 00:07:00
- Mahler – what to look out for 00:20:00
- Keeping track – Mahler Symphony No.1, third movement 00:25:00
