On symphony and on the history of music

Listening to Brahms

The Borderland is happy to be organizing a series of sessions devoted to the history of music. One of the topics during the recent school semester was the origin and the history of symphony as a genre.

The first meeting took place in January and was devoted to first symphonies, their structure and its development from the time of Baroque to the beginnings of Romanticism.

Then, in April the participants were introduced to the lives and works of Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelsson. Apart from their music we also listened to the pieces composed by Clara Schumann (Robert’s wife) and Fanny Mendelssohn (Felix’s sister).

Finally, we took a look at the symphonies composed by Johannes Brahms.