Benjamin W.

Though unappreciated in his own time, Johann Sebastian Bach has ascended to Olympian heights, the verdict of contemporary audiences long since overruled by succeeding generations of music lovers. But what makes his music great? In this series of 32 lectures, a working composer and musicologist brings his exceptional teaching skills to the task of helping you hear the extraordinary sweep of Bach's music. You'll understand the compositional language that enabled him to compose such extravagant, unbridled music while still maintaining precise control of every aspect - beat, melody, melodic repetition, interaction, and harmony.

Masterful control is at the fingertips of all who come to accept the principles of a Zen lifestyle. The cello was designed to be performed with ease. Your experience while performing was meant to be completely free from struggle. Tension, stress, and impatience has no place in the mind of masterful cellists. While emotion is still present, its manifestation within the performance is under constant guidance. This ability to self-regulate the many facets of your physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual selves is what allows you to gain access to masterful cello performance.

This comprehensive series of 84 lectures features three award-winning historians sharing their insights into this nation's past-from the European settlement and the Revolutionary War through the Civil War, 19th-century industrialization, two world wars, and the present day. These lectures give you the opportunity to grasp the different aspects of our past that combine to make us distinctly American, and to gain the knowledge so essential to recognizing not only what makes this country such a noteworthy part of world history, but the varying degrees to which it has lived up to its ideals.