Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and the 19th Century Orchestra
3-5 hours a week • Start today
Individual Course
Course Length
3 weeks
3-5 hours a week
Featuring faculty from:
Harvard Faculty of Arts & Sciences
Enroll as Individual
Certificate Price:
$ 149
Enroll as Individual
Certificate Price:
$ 149
Learn about Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, a Romantic symphony that ushered in an era of narrative program music.
Six years after the premiere of Beethoven’s monumental Ninth Symphony, composer Hector Berlioz sought to make use of the symphonic genre, but on his terms. Indeed, he wrote not only a five-movement symphony but also a narrative program to accompany and explain the symphony. This music course introduces students to the music and programmatic elements of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, illuminating a new direction for nineteenth-century music. The course’s grand finale is a live performance of the entire symphony by the Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra. Harvard’s Thomas Forrest Kelly (Morton B. Knafel Professor of Music) guides learners through Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, highlighting Berlioz’s compositional process, his innovative orchestration, and the reception of his controversial piece of narrative instrumental music. The course will be delivered via edX and connect learners around the world.
Self-Guided
edX
Explore stylistic features of Romantic music, including program music.
Understand technical details of composition and orchestration in the 19th century.
Appreciate cultural context and performance circumstances of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique.
These courses can be bundled together to receive a certificate at a discounted price.
3-5 hours a week • Start today
3-5 hours per week • Start today
3-5 hours per week • Start today
3-5 hours per week • Start today
Your Instructor
Morton B. Knafel Professor of Music, Harvard University
Thomas is the Morton B. Knafel Professor of Music at Harvard University. He received his B.A. from UNC-Chapel Hill, and his Ph.D. from Harvard. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an honorary citizen of the city of Benvento, and a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Artes et Lettres of the French Republic.
Ways to take this course
A Verified Certificate costs $99 and provides unlimited access to full course materials, activities, tests, and forums. At the end of the course, learners who earn a passing grade can receive a certificate.
Alternatively, learners can Audit the course for free and have access to select course material, activities, tests, and forums. Please note that this track does not offer a certificate for learners who earn a passing grade.
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