
Lecture 23: Review of Musical Style
Craig Wright closes out Yale's Listening to Music course with a review session built around ear training rather than lecture. He plays musical excerpts spanning Gregorian chant through Modernist works and asks students to identify the historical period from stylistic clues alone: texture, harmony, rhythm, instrumentation. The class works through Gregorian chant first, then moves to exercises distinguishing Classical from Romantic music and Modernist from Classical writing, with Wright guiding students toward the specific features (parallel organum, functional harmony, chromaticism, formal balance) that mark each era. A final listening exercise closes the session, asking students to apply everything covered across the course to a new, unidentified piece. The format is Socratic and example driven throughout, useful as a compact refresher on how to date a piece of Western music by ear rather than by title or composer name.