Description

From the Temple through the Middle Ages

Have you wondered about the roots of sacred music and wanted to learn more? This history of early sacred music and the forces that shaped it takes you deep into Old Testament times, ancient Greece and Rome, Medieval kings and conquests, and the establishment of Christianity in the Western World.

8+ hours of video on 6 DVDs, plus Text and a book of Quizzes and Assignments.

Suitable for .05 High School credit hours in Fine Arts, History, Humanities.

Filmed on Location across Europe and the Holy Land

Professor Carol takes you to Aachen, Athens, Canterbury, Castellammare di Stabia, Cluny, Eisenach, Haifa, Jerusalem, Kizhi, Milan, Moscow, Paris, Prague, Rome, Speyer, St. Petersburg, Strasbourg, and Yaroslavl to make the history come alive.

Additional Instruction and Commentary from Experts

Professor Carol Reynolds (PhD, Musicology) is joined by Jeremy Adams (PhD, Medieval History), Christopher Anderson (PhD, Sacred Music), Michael Dodds (PhD, Musicology), Israeli Archeologist Yuval Edden, Peter Mooz (PhD, Art History), Christopher Perrin (PhD, Theology), John Trapani (PhD, Philosophy), Sister Margaret Truran (PhD, Music), and the monks of St. Louis Abbey in Creve Coeur, Missouri.

Musical Performances filmed on location for this Course

We collaborated with the Ring Around Quartet, a group of Italian musicians specializing in medieval and Renaissance music, to film much of the music for this course in a 13th-century church on the outskirts of Milan. We turned to Synaulia for authentic recreations of the music of Ancient Greece and Rome. This group, known for creating the period music for the film Gladiator, arranged for us to film their performances at the Villa San Marco, an archeological site on the Bay of Naples that was buried along with Pompeii in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D.