Music History & Appreciation

This is the one course on our list where you need no instrument, no prior training and no intention of ever performing. It is for people who listen to music and would like to hear more in it.

Why it is taught in groups

Music history is the only subject we teach exclusively in groups, and that is deliberate. Much of the value is in the discussion — hearing what somebody else noticed in a piece you have just listened to together, and arguing about it. That does not happen in a one-to-one lesson.

What you will learn

• Where it began — the long line from plainchant through to the present
• The periods — Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Modern, and what distinguishes each
• Critical listening — training the ear to identify period, instrumentation, texture and form
• Context — why composers wrote what they wrote, for whom, and under what constraints
• Repertoire — a working familiarity with the pieces that matter

For instrumentalists

Players sometimes treat this as an optional extra. It is not. A student who knows what a Classical-period phrase is supposed to do will play a Mozart sonata better than one who does not, and no amount of practice substitutes for that understanding. Historical and stylistic knowledge is examined in the higher practical grades for exactly this reason.