This week's class: Dance Music (2)

Written, presented and recorded by Barry Rossiter

Music from Franchino, "an Ibiza floor filler", began this class devoted to mixes and remixes for the dance floor. Praga Kahn's "Injected with a Poison" from 1992 was played along with the strange eerie music of The Horrorist with its xylaphone backing and odd narrative. Sequential One's "Pump Up the Bass" and music from Moby were also played and finally, with a nod to the film Gladiator, Hans Zimmer's music took us past the final credits.

Class Favourite: Strength & Honour (Dance Remix) Hans Zimmer

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Class One: An Introduction to Classical Music

Ranging from the gentle tones of John Dowland’s Elizabethan music, played by John Williams on guitar, to the rousing choruses of Carl Orff’s ever popular Carmina Burana, this class introduced a broad range of sounds from 5 centuries of music and included works by Beethoven, Bach, Tchaikovsky and Rimsky Korsokov.

Class Favourite: Fur Elise (Beethoven)

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Class Two: The music of George F. Handel

Beginning with the ever-popular Arrival of the Queen of Sheeba and including extracts from the Music for the Royal Fireworks (with fireworks effects) and the Water Music, this class also included some rousing coronation music and the ever popular Halleluiah Chorus from the Messiah, first played in Dublin.

Class Favourite: Water Music

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Class 3: Rap Music

Presented by David Whelan

The music from this class was mainly rap and came from the Deathrow Record Label. It contained work from Dr. Dre's early years and also recent work from Eminem and D.12. It also commemorated Tupac Shakar who was shot and killed in 1995.

Class Favourite: Changes Tupac Shakar

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Class 4: Dance Music

Presented by Barry Rossiter and Keith Alford

This class was devoted to contempory dance music which ranges from happy-hardcore (Scooter) and ambiant trance (Faithless) to hard-house (D.J. Supreme Vs the Porn Kings.)

Class Favourite: Hardcore Vibes Dune

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Class 5: J. S. Bach

We listened to Bach’s work for solo instruments such as the lute, an earlier version of the guitar, and the harpsichord, an earlier version of the piano. We also heard a gigue and a minuet from two of Bach’s orchestral suites. The class concluded with a complete version of one of the famous Brandenburg Concertos.

Class Favourite: Brandenburg Concerto

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Class 6: Old School rap and Hip Hop

Presented by Clint Kelly

Clint introduced new material from American rap artists ranging from Ice-cube and 2pac to Redman and Eminem. Some of the pieces were slow, some were fast and one was a funny take-off of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Class Favourite: The Next Episode Dr. Dre.

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Class 7: Rock/Metal

Presented by Michael Ormonde

Michael offered a selection of rock and metal music from bands such as Pap Roach, System of a Clown, Kid Rock and others. Songs incleded Chop Suey, American Bad Ass and In the End. Some die-hard anti-rock fans in the class protested about the selection but the overall reaction was positive.

Class Favourite: In the End Linkin Park.

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Class Eight: The Classical Guitar

This class introduced a wide range of music written for the classical guitar. It included a concerto by Vivaldi, some dance tunes by Praetorius and Pipo, the famous tremolo piece, Recuerdos da la Alhambra by Tarrega, and music by Villa Lobos and Rodrigo. The class ended with a classical guitar dance by Pipo played in a rock music manner employing both classical and electric guitar.

Class Favourite: Fantasia para un Gentilhombre Rodrigo.

Class Nine: Rap Music

Presented by Clint Kelly

All the rap music for my class came from Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg's newest album "The Wash". taken from the motion picture. There were various artists featured from D12, Busta Rymes, Xzibit and Dr Dre. There were various tempos in the collection. some with a fast beat and others with a slow relaxed beat.

Class Favourite: Bad Intentions Dr. Dre with Knoc-Turn'al

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Class Ten: Gorecki's Music

Using Tony Palmer's film of the Polish composer Gorecki at home in Poland, interspersed with images of Dawn Upshaw and the London Symphony Orchestra playing his "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs" and historical footage of Nazi atrocities in Auschwitz, the class probed the relationship between music and society and also introduced one of the most influential and popular pieces of recent classical music.

Class Eleven: Mozart and his Music

A mixture of music, melody and magic from the great Austrian composer, the class included his Rondo a la Turca for the piano, extracts from his serenades, symphonies and concerti. It also included a dance with sleighbells and ended when the fat lady sang from his opera The Magic Flute.

Class Favourite: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

Class Twelve: Beethoven and His Symphonies

This class introduced extracts from the 5th symphony (Fate knocks at the Door), the country scene and the storm scene from the 6th symphony (The Pastoral), the rousing frentic finale of the 7th symphony and the famous "Ode to Joy" theme from the 9th symphony (The Choral Symphony).

Class Favourite: 1st Movement of the 5th Symphony

Class Thirteen: Beethoven and His Music for the Stage

This class introduced some of the overtures and opera music which Beethoven wrote. As well as overtures to the plays, Coriolan and Egmont, the class also listened to the overture to Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio. In contrast to Mozart's "fat lady" singing her aria, we listened to the prisoners chorus from Fidelio.

Class Favourite: Egmont Overture.