Music Appreciation - The Italian Baroque (Code MA9)
Tuesdays 10.00am to 12.00pm
5 meetings each of 2 hours from Tuesday 6th May 2025
Tutor: John Winter
Cost: £40 - a face-to-face course
Location: Function room, Plough & Harrow
The period between 1600 and 1750 produced some of the greatest Italian artists, architecture, poets and of course, music. It was a time of great splendour with the choral music at St. Mark's Venice and elsewhere, and an era which saw the development of the harpsichord, the violin and the flute as shown in the smaller-scale works of Corelli, Vivaldi and their contemporaries. Italy also had a great influence on the English madrigal and later, on Händel. Each state had its own strengths and weaknesses, composers were considered to be servants and were expected to obey their employers. How did they ever manage to write such fine music?
As well as recorded examples, we hope to provide some 'live' performances.
Please note: There may be a half-term break. If so, this will be on Tuesday 20th May 2025.
English Literature - The Celtic Contribution (Part 3) (Code EL3)
Thursdays 2.00pm - 4.00pm
10 meetings each of 2 hours from Thursday 1st May 2025
Tutor: Michael King
Cost: £80 - a face-to-face course.
Location: Charles Hill Room, Harpenden Trust @ 130 Southdown Road
Some of the finest writing in English over the past century, or so, has come from writers of Celtic birth or origin. The course will examine a variety of texts, in fiction, poetry and drama from Wales, Scotland and Ireland, exploring ideas of the Celtic experience, for their own intrinsic value and also for what they articulate about identity and nationhood, within the context of the United Kingdom.
Writers to be considered will range from early 20th century figures such as W. B. Yeats, James Joyce and Lewis Grassic Gibbon, through R.S and Dylan Thomas, Edna O'Brien and Seamus Heaney, to contemporary writers such as Ali Smith and Clare Keegan. Poems by Seamus Heaney, the novel Brooklyn
by Colm Toibin and a selection of Scottish poems and short stories.
Please note: There may be a half-term break. If so, this will be on Thursday 29th May 2025.