How to Listen to and Understand Great Music

Die Symphonie (detail) by Moritz von Schwind, from Schwind: Eine Auswahl aus dem Lebenswerk des Meisters in 114 Abbildungen. (Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt,1922).

Robert Greenberg is a composer and music scholar who lectures extensively throughout North America and Europe. He attended Princeton where he earned a B.A. and continued his education at the University of California Berkeley, receiving his Ph.D. in music composition in 1984. His music has been performed in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, England, Ireland, Italy, Greece and the Netherlands. He was a professor at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music for 20 years and was the creator, host, and lecturer for the San Francisco Symphony’s “Discovery Series.” He is also Music Historian-in-Residence with San Francisco Performances, where he has lectured and performed since 1994.

Dr. Greenberg’s energetic, involving lectures on classical music, and composers have been captured by the Teaching Company on CD and video. The San Francisco Public Library owns the series How to Listen to and Understand Great Music and the Great Masters series on individual composers. Though these talks are packed with information--listening a couple of times is a good idea for the beginner--the lively presentation makes them very entertaining as well.

The Art, Music and Recreation Center also has scores and parts for two works written by Robert Greenberg:

Breaths, Voices and Cadenze for string quartet. (Fallen Leaf Press, 1982).

By Various Means for clarinet quartet [clarinet, violin, viola and 'cello]. (Fallen Leaf Press, 1983).