ENCHANTING THE EYE AND THE EAR - 31 JULY

Date: Thursday, 31st July

Tutor: Elizabeth Handley (B.Mus. (Hons), H.Dip.Ed., LTCL, Adv. Cert., RSM) Accredited lecturer, The Arts Society. Programme compiler and music producer,  SABC; assistant impresario. Pre-concert talks for the JPO and Cape Town  Opera. Teaches music and art history, Stockholm and Cape Town. Cruise ships  speaker; lecturer at University of Cape Town Summer School. 

Description: Understanding the art of the past requires certain perceptual skills - techniques  for looking and listening that enable us to understand what the creators intended  to communicate.  

Once acquired, these skills greatly enhance our understanding of, and pleasure  in, great works of art. 

• How to read a painting: the significant details in paintings - interpreting the  symbols, themes and motifs.  

•  Musical instruments featured in paintings: identifying various instruments  no longer in use and hearing what they sounded like.  

•  Textures in art and music: how painters depicted the qualities of objects  and fabrics, while listening to the “warp and weft” (complex polyphony) in  music; how these tricks and techniques were used to great dramatic effect  in the arts.  

• Music inspired by paintings and paintings inspired by music.

Level of course: Suitable for beginners but also intellectually stimulating for adults interested in Western music and art history.

Student requirements: None, apart from bringing a notebook and pen if they wish to take notes. Course notes will be provided.

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The schedule:​ 10am–4pm with four lectures, including breaks for tea and lunch. See full breakdown below.

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Lecture 1: 10–11am

Tea break: 11–11.30am

Lecture 2: 11.30–12.30pm 

Lunch break: 12.30–1.30pm 

Lecture 3: 1.30–2.30pm 

Afternoon tea break: 2.30–3pm

Lecture 4: 3–4 pm