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Music in Vienna: A Four Part Course with Gilles Gubelmann

Music in Vienna: A Four Part Course with Gilles Gubelmann


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Can't make this time? A video recording will be sent to all participants after each event.

During this four-part course, we will explore the influence of many Musical masterminds in Vienna, Austria – the absolute heart of musical life in Central Europe’s Golden Age. We will meet and greet with the ideals and projects undertaken by romantic composers such as Schubert, Brahms, and Bruckner.

Starting with the music servicing the ideas of absolutism and the counter-reformation, our discussion will examine the period of enlightenment – beginning with Mozart. We will not only discuss the day’s best composers but examine the political and social background which directly influenced the music industry for centuries. The second half of the 19th C. witnesses an incredible intellectual and artistic boom within the liberal Jewish community which finally has reached equal civic rights to the rest of the population. Here we pause to think of Mahler, Zemlinsky, and their contemporaries.

Following the proclamation of the Republic in 1918, we examine the experiment of atonal and twelve-tone music and parallel to that the “silver“ period of operetta. The racial laws will put a dramatic end to it. A few composers will start a new life in the USA and some will become star composers in Hollywood – our course will follow them across the pond and we will conclude our discussions with a few examples of contemporary music.

Led by an expert in Music History, Gilles Gubelmann invites you on a unique journey through centuries of Music, illustrated by many examples, which is designed to provide an understanding of the evolution and transitions in the European music industry up to the contemporary era – and how Vienna was established as one of the most important Music centers in the World.

Lecture One: Representation

  • From Baroque to the so-called Vienna classic period, Music servicing absolutist power and the counter-reformation.
  • Music as part of the education of the monarchs.
  • The emperor-composers
  • First considered employees, composers and musicians become independent in the last quarter of the 18th C. (We mention a.o. Antonio Cesti, Fux, Gluck, Haydn, and Mozart)

Lecture Two: Transition

  • Beethoven as a pivot between the classic period and Romanticism. As a revolutionary composer, he prepares the way for entire generations of future composers. His breaking through compositions.
  • Schubert – The Lied composer and his social and political background.
  • The Strauss dynasty, the illusion of happiness.
  • The romantic symphony composers, Brahms and Bruckner

Lecture 3: Experimentation

  • Mahler, Zemlinsky and the “Second Viennese school“
  • Atonal and twelve tone (dodecaphonic) music with Schönberg, Berg, and von Webern
  • Second generation of Operetta composers

Lecture 4: Concluding and Renewing

  • Racial laws, the end of an era
  • Composers in exile, Oscar nominations for the film music of Viennese composers in Hollywood,  f.ex. Max Steiner with “King Kong“, “Gone with the wind“ and “Casablanca“
  • Contemporary music in Vienna and we conclude with a unique Viennese institution, the Synchron stage

Swiss artist Gilles Gubelmann studied piano and dance at the Geneva Conservatory. He then worked for many years as an expert for arts and antiques in an important Swiss Auction House (Koller Auctions) where he was director of the Department of Antique Furniture and Decorative Arts. He realised a dream and moved to Venice where he started working as a painter and as an opera set and costume designer all over Europe, and also deepening his knowledge of art history and architecture. Settled now in Vienna, Gilles continues his artistic activities, works as a lecturer at the University of Music and Performing Arts and highly enjoys uncovering the rich cultural and artistic heritage of Vienna to curious travellers.

 

How does it work?

This is a four-part series held weekly and hosted on Zoom. Please check the schedule for the specific dates and times for each lecture.

Is there a reading list in advance?

Though the course is open to participants with no background on this topic, there are suggested readings for further investigation. You will receive this soon after course registration.

How long are the lectures?

Each lecture is 90 minutes long with time for Q&A.

How much is the course?

The course is $140 for four lectures.

Is a recording available?

Yes. If you need to miss a lecture, you will be sent a recording after the event.

This conversation is suitable for all ages.

90 minutes, including a 30 minute Q&A.

Customer Reviews

Based on 5 reviews
80%
(4)
20%
(1)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
K
Kris Shapar (Stuttgart, DE)
Well presented, learned much

Guest did not leave comment

S
Stephen Zaima (New Paltz, US)
great overview

Tour de force of examples throughout our classes,

J
James Wright (Vancouver, CA)
Out with a Whimper not a Bang?

Must confess I enjoyed the three previous sessions more than the fourth. I enjoy contemporary music but felt most of the work and composers chosen were pretty obscure (except Korngold and Steiner of course).

J
James Wright (Vancouver, CA)
no title

Guest did not leave comment

J
James Wright (Vancouver, CA)
Translations, Please

I am enjoying Music in Vienna very much, and have learned much. It would be very helpful if Mr. Gubelmann would use video clips that had English translations: Surtitle or subtitles.

Customer Reviews

Based on 5 reviews
80%
(4)
20%
(1)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
K
Kris Shapar (Stuttgart, DE)
Well presented, learned much

Guest did not leave comment

S
Stephen Zaima (New Paltz, US)
great overview

Tour de force of examples throughout our classes,

J
James Wright (Vancouver, CA)
Out with a Whimper not a Bang?

Must confess I enjoyed the three previous sessions more than the fourth. I enjoy contemporary music but felt most of the work and composers chosen were pretty obscure (except Korngold and Steiner of course).

J
James Wright (Vancouver, CA)
no title

Guest did not leave comment

J
James Wright (Vancouver, CA)
Translations, Please

I am enjoying Music in Vienna very much, and have learned much. It would be very helpful if Mr. Gubelmann would use video clips that had English translations: Surtitle or subtitles.