Welcome to the course "Gustav Mahler & Richard Strauss: German Orchestral Music of the Early 20th Century"

      Course Description


                Following the mid-19th century innovations of New German School composers 
         Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner, further developments by Anton Bruckner (1824 - 1896), 
         Gustav Mahler (1860 - 1914), and Richard Strauss (1864 - 1949) led German Romantic 
         orchestra music into the 20th century.  Understand how their advances in orchestral tonal 
         colors, harmonic suspension, and tonal ambiguity influenced 20th century modernism.  

                The course includes an introduction to the orchestral music of Liszt and Wagner as 
         well as biographical information, historical context, and an overview of the ouvre of
          each composer.  

                 For a course on the remaining great German late-romantic composer, see "The Music 
        of Johannes Brahms" in this catalog.  

Course Syllabus

    Session 1:  Course Introduction

                       What came before our guys?

                       The Symphonies of Anton Bruckner 

    Session 2:    The Symphonies of Anton Bruckner (continued)

                         The Symphonies of Gustav Mahler

    Session 3:     The Music of Gustav Mahler (continued)  

                          The Music of Richard Strauss

    Session 4:      The Music of Richard Strauss (continued)