Six Masterpieces from the 20th Century

20th century music got a bad press. An unrelenting focus on atonal music, supported by a group of mostly European composers alienated a large section of Classical music audiences for decades. Atonal and serial music was only one strand - there were numerous composers who had their own unique voices while still adhering to the basic tenets of tonality - Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Bartok, Ravel, Richard Strauss are a few names that come to mind immediately.

This course addresses this issue by steering clear of serialism and highlights these other musical styles instead.