Great Masters: Brahms-His Life and Music

Great Masters: Brahms—His Life and Music is a course that links the complexities of this enduring Western composer with his electrifying works through biographical information and musical commentary. Join award-winning composer and Professor Robert Greenberg on an examination of how Brahms found unique ways of combining the formal complexity of older Classical genres with the melodic inventiveness, harmonic sophistication, and expressive richness of the Romantic Age. Among the many aspects of Brahms's life and career you explore are why he took 21 years to complete his first symphony; how he single-handedly started a second "golden symphonic age" in music; and how he breathed new life into chamber music at the age of 40.