University of Wisconsin-Green Bay

Literature and Styles in Music I

1. By 1700, 16 public theatres
2. Popular taste changes character of opera from a restrained, aristocratic music drama to a display- oriented popular entertainment
   • Recitative (formerly monody) diminished in importance; becomes a vehicle for transferring information
   • Chorus and orchestra play a minor role
   • Emphasis on melodious, bel canto arias which increasingly become highly technical and display-oriented
   • Dramatic concerns increasingly of less importance; plots often incoherent
   • magnificent, elaborate scenery emphasized
3. Opera companies contract with theatre for entire season
   • Advantage: composers, librettists, designers and stage directors assured opportunities to repeat a work and try new approaches
   • Disadvantage: opera company must please a diverse audience, e.g., wealthy aristocratic families and general admission public <;/UL>
   • Major Venetian operas in Middle Baroque ("Heroic Style")
     • Monteverdi's Coronation of Poppea (Librettist: Busenello)
       • One of few middle Baroque operas with dramatic integrity
       • Chorus plays a minor role
       • Wide variety of arias, arioso-passages, madrigal-like duets, comic ariettes
       • Sensitive recitative used for dramatic and emotion climaxes
     • Other major Venetian Composers
     • Cavalli, Legrenzi, Stradella
     • Later generation: Steffani, Provenzale, Lotti, Pallavicino

• Distinctive Neapolitan style begins to emerge at the end of the 17th century
• Characteristics
  • simpler musical texture compared to "heroic" Venetian style
  • emphasis on beauty of bel canto melodic line rather than vocal virtuosity
  • less concerned with dramatic expression; emphasis on "stylized simplicity"
  • typical aria type: Siciliana
    • folk-like melody, usually in minor mode
    • often uses "Da Capo" aria form
    • often features flat 2nd scale degree and Neapolitan Sixth Chord
  • new distinction between different types of recitative
    • Recitativo secco: "dry" recitative; for fast dialogue, accompanied only by harpsichord and bass instrument
    • Recitativo accompagnato or stromentato: more dramatic, accompanied and punctuated by orchestra
  • Frequent use of "Arioso," between aria and recitative
  • Overture: either French Overture or Italian Overture (Sinfonia) form (Fast-slow-fast)
• Major composer: Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725)
  • begins in serious "heroic" style; later changes to simpler Neapolitan style

• Lully combines two of the strongest elements of French culture:
  • the extravagant royal ballet tradition
  • the dramatic integrity of classical French drama (e.g., Racine, Corneille; Quinault as librettist)

• Plots often based on mythological themes with many complimentary references to the King and praise for the nation of France

• this reflects the taste of the King who determines what will be successful and what will not

• French Overture
  • First section: homophonic, slow, majestic; often with "double-dotted" rhythms
  • Second section: usually begins fugally; faster tempo
  • Third section: an abbreviated repetition of the first section or reference to it
• Large choral pieces (often based on chaconnes)
• Spectacular ballet scenes
• Elegant, restrained "Airs"
  • often in Saraband rhythm
  • avoid flashy virtuoso writing for voices
• New concept of recitative
  • recitative style based closely on French declamation
  • comparable neither to Italian secco recitative nor arioso
  • lacking "dramatic" harmony of Italian recitative, but more closely tied to inflection of text (often shifting between duple and triple)
  • French recitative sometimes includes brief "air-like" passages; line between recitative and air often blurred

1. full 5 part texture
2. precision of orchestral ensemble
3. Prominent use of woodwinds (including solo passages)
4. homophonic choruses in dance rhythms
5. popularity of "French Ouverture"

• as in much English Baroque music, Italian and French influences exist side by side with native English elements

• "Miniature" chamber opera written to be performed by girl's boarding school
• Like most English music, shows a variety of influences:
  • French: overture style and homophonic choruses written in dance rhythm
  • Italian: clear differentiation of recitative and aria (although does not exactly duplicate the "secco" style of Italian opera or the careful declamation of French recitative)
  • Indigenous English elements: straightforward style of recitative, unusual harmonic effects, and expressive use of dissonance resulting melody being unusually free of ground bass
• Purcell also known for:
  • Other masques/semi-operas (e.g., The Fairy Queen, The Indian Queen, King Arthur)
    • Sacred music, including anthems for Church of England, Magnificat etc.
    • Other vocal music: odes, including "Come, Ye Sons of Art Away," various songs
    • Instrumental: fantasias for viols, misc. works for keyboard (harpsichord & organ)
  IV Opera in Germany
  A. Shows influence of Italian Bel Canto style and Italian penchant for virtuosity
  B. German style tends to be more thickly textured and contrapuntal
  C. Formally unpredictable: some arias Da Capo
  D. Principle native influence on German opera are the "School Dramas" of 16th and early 17th centuries and early "singspiels"
  E. Major composer: Reinhard Keiser (Hamburg; 1674-1739)
  • Operas: Croesus and The Carnival of Venice
  V Cantata and Solo Song in Italy
  A. Although more intimate than opera and less extravagant, Italian cantatas increasingly resemble a scene from an Italian opera in clear-cut alternation between recitative and aria
  • usually written for solo voice (or 2 or 3 voices) with continuo accompaniment and one or 2 solo instruments
  B. Stress on elegance of Bel Canto lyricism; less emphasis on dramatic effect or flashy virtuosity
  • Thought of as a more refined style for connoisseurs
  • sometimes a vehicle for harmonic experimentation seldom heard in opera
  C. Many opera composers also compose Cantatas
  • Alessando Scarlatti (over 600 cantatas)
    • known for unusual enharmonic progressions
  • Other composers: Cesti, Carissimi, L. Rossi, Legrenzi and Stradella
  D. Other Italian vocal chamber music:
  • the "Serenata"
  VI Cantata and Solo Song in Other Countries
  A. France
  • Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1634-1704; pupil of Carissimi)
    • composes secular cantatas and sacred oratorios in Italian style, but with French-style ornamentation
    • Louis Nicolas Clerambault (1676-1749)
      • several books of cantatas in Italian style
  B. Germany
  • Keiser and others wrote cantatas on both German and Italian texts
  • Song collection Neue Arien ("New Airs," 1667) by Adam Krieger (1634-66; pupil of Scheidt) consisted mostly of simple settings of solo songs but some multi-movement settings come close to the cantata concept
  C. England
  • Italian cantata style not imitated directly
  • Purcell, Blow and others publish a number of collections vocal solos, duets, and trios
    • English speciality in this period is the "Catch," an informal round or canon often with humorous texts
  • Numerous "Odes" also composed: large works for chorus, soloist and orchestra written to celebrate ceremonial occasions, e.g., Purcell's Ode for St. Cecilia's Day
    Last Update 6/21/06
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