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Good overall intro to Classical Music. First three weeks gives an overview of music theory, the rest of the course reviews in broad strokes the various periods of the history of music highlighting the advances and changes seen in each. There are attempts made throughout to tie the music history to historical signposts of visual and other art (less so to historical events, to its detriment). I have no special music background and never seriously played an instrument yet found the course fairly easy to follow. My tenuous grasp of music theory (acquired from those first three weeks) did not really limit me although had it been stronger I would have gotten more out of the course. But it was not essential. I think the teaching was a bit uneven - I appreciated the focus and pace (ie not too fast) but I thought some of the videos were plodding and the visuals static and unexciting. I read one of the reviews noting that Professor Wright's style was as if Mr. Rogers was teaching music history. Unfortunately I found this true in his pacing and delivery of information. The course itself fails to "sing", it tends to plod. It seems fairly basic and not particularly sophisticated; I would say that it fulfills its role as an introduction to music history for freshmen in college but failed to bring particularly intriguing insight to music that might excite an older student (like me - freshman year was 49 years ago for me). I am sure that Prof Wright can bring far more to the topic than this course would suggest. I was amused to hear him break into very credible Philip Glass (well, I can't play at all so he does far better than I ever could with all the music he plays). And talk about his friendship to John Adams. To sum up however: I enjoyed the course and it will be the basis of further learning - the point to an introduction!

Professor Wright is knowledgeable and passionate about his field. His lectures cover a lot of ground and provide a fascinating introduction to classical music. I enjoyed the course and learned a great deal. I especially enjoyed the lectures on the evolution of the piano.

A couple of things are less than ideal.

-Foreign-language pronunciation is often approximate at best

-Mistakes on transcripts are left un-corrected. (Just one example: the lecture on the national anthems - Germany and Austria do not share the same melody for their anthems.)

-Some of the quizzes are fine. Some questions, however, test small details which have very little if nothing to do with the main points of the lecture. (I'm not talking about the listening quizzes which some participants complained about in the forums. Those are actually appropriate in my opinion.)

A very good course that allowed me to occupy myself during this COVID situation, but also to enrich my musical background and knowledge as I never knew of many technical terms before nor of the various differences with the music currents. Allowed me to discover many artists and know their specific contributions to the musical culture of our world.

My two criticisms would be the overabundance of quizzes in the course and their small ponderation points. Would have preferred one quiz at the end of each week offering either 10% or 15% of ponderation. Furthermore, the triad (diminished, augmented, major, minor) identification test was very frustrating and annoying. Would have preferred if such questions had been put inside another quiz that questioned other topics.

Apart from that, a very good course I encourage you all to participate.

An excellent course that taught me (Swiss retiree with moderate keyboard experience and knowledge of classical music) a great deal of very interesting background information. It has given me a thorough overview of the periods and composers in the history of music and insights into the lives of the composers and the artists and general public of the various times. Additionally it has provided very useful inputs on the form and shape of music composition which will prove useful as I write my own simple works using MuseScore for music notation and playback. I plan next to follow the NUS course on "Composing Like Mozart." Hearty thanks to Professor Craig and the whole Yale Broadcast Center team - fantastic experience!

I have taken this course before. If I remember rightly it was a longer course (11 weeks?) and the pacing felt good. It seems it has been compressed into a 9-week course, with some weeks having quite a heavy workload demand and the whole course feeling slightly crammed and rushed.

I realise that perhaps the longer the course, the higher the dropout rate, but I think people who made it to 7-8 weeks of the old course would continue it to completion, while for this course I found myself scrambling for time almost weekly -- I wonder if in fact the dropout rate wouldn't be higher at this kind of pace.

Content-wise the course was excellent -- stimulating, clear, engagingly presented.

Overall I loved the course and found Dr. Wright to be very engaging. I learned a lot and truly enjoyed the experience. The only reason I did not give 5 stars is that I found the course too technical at times. As a "non-music" participant I found the deeper dives into the technical aspects of the music to be confusing and a bit beyond my understanding. I do not read music, nor do I play an instrument so it was easy to get lost in the jargon. I actively listen to and enjoy a wide variety of music across the classical spectrum, including opera. This course will definitely enhance my listening experiences because it gave me context that I did not previously bring to them.

Muy buen curso en general. Me encantó el Análisis previo de lo que es la música y luego comenzar con la historia de la música. El estudio hasta el romanticismo estuvo genial, podrían haber añadido a Scarlatti, pero no todo se puede. Si creo que podrían haber dividido el Romanticismo en 2 etapas, Alto y bajo Romanticismo porque lo que obtuvimos de Chopin, Liszt, Dvorak, Brahms y Rachmaninoff fue decepcionante. Ni hablar de la falta de Ravel y de Shostakovich. Teniendo en cuenta todo, fue un buen curso y aprendí muchas cosas sobre música clásica. También cabe mencionar que Craig fue un anfitrión cálido y entretenida e hizo el curso más ameno de ver.

I think it is a nice course, which helps you appreciate classical music more. Somehow, I feel the explanation of classical music up to Beethoven is stronger or at least less boring than the explanation after Beethoven period. nevertheless a fantastic work and I really enjoyed it. Thank you Professor Wright.

Es muy completo y en general las clases son amenas

Me permitió aprender mucho y reforzar conceptos

solamente no fueron muy claros los conceptos técnicos, octavas, semitonos, etc. para quien no sabe estos aspectos de la música es dificil comprenderlos.

muchas gracias por permitirme esta aproximación

The course material was great. The transcriptions were awful ... I quick review by the instructor would've caught easy and copious errors. Someone seriously needs to spell / content check them for error. That took a quality Yale course down a few notches for me. I expected better.

I really appreciated the clear division of all periods. It made sense and was enjoyable to take. My only complaint is that it isn't more in depth. It is very good for an introductory course and has increased my desire to keep researching this subject. Thank you Professor Wright.

Me gustó mucho el curso. Me pareció que hace una buena introducción a teoría de la música y luego a su historia. Es mucha información y por momentos se hace difícil recordar todos los conceptos que se han ido explicando, pero sirve para tener un primer acercamiento a la temática.

A well designed, informative, course with an excellent teacher. One comment: when playing musical examples, it would have been helpful if the instructor's comments had been put in text on the screen rather than having the instructor talk over the music.

O curso é esplêndido, o professor fala detalhadamente sobre todo o processo da evolução da música, e os exemplos são muito bem postos. Infelizmente só não dou 5 estrelas pois o link para a leitura acompanhada não está atualizado, e eu não pude acessá-lo

Really great introductory course! I wish it could have been a bit longer on the modern and postmodern periods - they felt relatively short compared to the other ones...maybe introduce more artists and let us listen to more pieces?

Excellent panorama of classical music.

I specially like the lesson about Mozart and the "Dark side of Mozart", and what was said about the social evolution of the musicians.

A great course. Perfect for beginner. I really enjoyed the journey of Western classical music from the Middle Ages to the present day.

Thank you very much. I learned a lot.

Muy buen curso, aunque, en mi opinión, sería bueno incluir más preguntas con audio en los quizes para evaluar más la parte auditiva y no tanto el recordar datos.

Very informative and helpful in learning how to listen to classical music as well as what to listen for when you are attending a musical concert.

no puedo ver el curso en idioma castellano. Ni siquiera en subtitulos. como se puede arreglar porque no veo ninguna opcion

now I have a new view and better dimension of classical music. thanks to Yale University, thanks to coursera.

Great course! I learned a lot, discovered new music and the way mr. Wright presents the content is very good.