MUS103 BS

Wolfgang AMadeus Mozart

An Austrian composer renowed as one of the greatest uscial geniuses in history.

Mozart

Who composed over 600 works, spanning a wide range of genres including operas, ymphonies, concertos, chamber music, and choral piece. his magic Flute is one of his most famous Operas.

Singspiel Opera

A form of german language music drama, now regarded as a genre of opera. It is characterized by spoken dialogue , which is aleteranted with ensembles, songs, ballads and arias. Their plots aregenerally comic or romantic in nature, and include elements of magic and fantastical creature.. Often comically exaggerated characterizations of good and evil.

Opera Die Zauberflote

An opera composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. A two act opera in germa witha libretto written by Emmanuel Schikaneded. This was premier in Vienna in 1791, just a few months before Mozart’s death

Emanuel Schikaneder

A close friend of Mozart and who wrote the two act opera in german with a libretto. He is a theater director and an actor

Set in a mytheical land between the sun and the moon.

Where is Die Zauberflote’s set in?

Prince Tamino and the bird catcher Papageno on a journey to rescuse Pamina, the daughter of the Queen of the night.

who are the characters and their general plot? (Die Zauberflote

Tamino

His role is a brave prince. He falls in love with Pamina and goes on a journey to rescue her and discover truth and wisdom.

Pamina

The daughter the Queen of the Night. She is kind and strong and loves Tamino.

Papageno

A funny birdcatcher who wants to find a wife. He is Tamino’s companion nad brings humor to the story

Papagena

Papageno’s true love. She appears as an old woman at first, but later shows her real young self.

Queen of the Night

Pamina’s mother. She is powerful and dramatic, but her true goal is revenge and power

Sarastro

The high priest and leader of a wise temple. He represents light, wisdom, and truth. He appears intimidating at first but is actually this and wise brotherhood representing truth and enlightenment.

Monostatos

A servant of Sarastro who tries to capture Pamina. He is sneaky and not trustworthy

The three ladies

Servants of the Queen of the Night who help Tamino at the beginning

The three Spirits

Magical child-like guides who lead Tamino and Papageno through their journey

The Magic Flute

an opera set in a magical land between the sun and the moon.

• Period

• Biography

• Artist in the same period

• Big events in historical issue

Why composer is important

Period

Musical style, backround of composition

Biography

Reflect their experiences in music

Artists in the same period

Adopts poerm of effected by arts (Masterpiece)

Big events in historical issue

Social circumstances and world war

Pietro Alessandro Gaspare Scarlatti

(1660-1725). Was an Italian baroque composer especially famous for his operas and chamber cantatas. He is considered the founder of Neapolitan sschool of opera. He was the father of two other composers, Domenico and Pietro,. His music forms an important link between the early baroque Italian vocal stylea of the 17th century, with their centers in Florence, Venice and Rome, and the classical school of the 18th century.

Recitative

A style of singing in opera, oratorio, and cantata that closely follow the natural rythms of speech, serving to advance the plot or narrative. It is typically less melodic than an aria and is often used for dialogue, storytelling, or transitions between musical numbers

Lied

A german terms that refers to a type of art song, typically for voice and piano, that emerged prominently in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Chracterized by poetic text setting, expressive meoldies, and intimate musical interpretation of the lyrics.

Decrescendo

Gradually getting quieter.

You start louder and slowly make the sound quieter. Written as. Symbol:

Legato

The term means playing or singing smoothly with no breaks between the notes.the notes hshould be connectwed and flow into each other seamlessly without any gaps or interruptions.

tempo

An italian musical directive that means to return to the original speed of the music. To go back to how fast or slow the music was at the beginnign or before the change.

Le Violette

Opera pirro e Demetrio (Pyrrhus and DEmetrius) (1694) to a libretto by Adrianno Morselli, in Act 2. is a pastoral love song in which the speaker reflects on violets—delicate flowers that represent modesty, fragility, and the pain of love. The speaker urges the violets not to die from the heat of their own desires, mirroring the emotional toll of unrequited or overwhelming passion.

Gio Il Sole Dal Gange

→ is an aria (solo song)
→ from the serenata L'Honestà negli Amori (1680)
→ composed by Alessandro Scarlatti
→ libretto by Giovanni Filippo Apolloni

this is an italian song It reflects early Baroque ideals of moral virtue, especially around love, truth, and emotional restraint.

• The ariastands out for its bright melody and popularity in modern recitals.was a secular vocal work, often performed for celebrations or court entertainment. It’s like a mini-opera, usually in 1 or 2 acts, featuring singing but with limited or no staging.

Tosti Si Francesco Paolo

• 🇮🇹 Italian composer & singing teacher

• Studied at Naples Conservatory (1858) – violin under Pino

• Belonged to the Romantic Period

• 🌿 Due to illness in 1869, he rested in Ortona and wrote famous songs like:

  • Non m’ama

  • Lamento d’amore

• 🎤 Appointed singing teacher to Princess Margherita of Savoy

• Became curator of court music archives

• 🇬🇧 First visited London in 1875, moved there in 1880

• Royal appointments:

  • Taught the royal family

  • Professor at the Royal Academy of Music (from 1884)

• Became a British subject (1906), was knighted in 1908, retired in 1912

🎶 Famous Songs

• Goodbye

• Mother at Vesper

• Amore

• Apri

• Wrote in Italian, French, and English

• Known for graceful, flowing melodies — perfect for drawing-room ballads

• Hugely popular with singers for his emotional and elegant style

Franz Peter Schubert

• Austrian composer, but known for his German art songs (Lieder)

• Lived during the late Classical and early Romantic periods

• Wrote over 600 songs, plus symphonies, operas, piano music, and chamber music

• Famous works:

  • Opera: Fierrabras

  • Incidental music: Rosamunde

  • Song cycles: Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise

• His music was only known by a small group in Vienna during his life

• Became much more famous after his death

Song Cycle Winterreise (winter journey)

• a song cycle for voice and piano

• setting of 24 poems by Wilhelm Muller

• Second of Schubert;s two great song cycles on Muller’s poems

• the earlier die schone Mullerin

• the cycle consist of a monodrama for the point of view of the wandering protag

  • follows the emotion and physical journey of a heartbroken wanderer who leaves his town in despair.

  • 1 theres departre, wandering, and struggles and despair, loss of faith, final encounter, uncertain finding

Departure

The song cycle of winterreise. The protgaonist secretly leaves town at night after his beloved chooses another

Wandering

the song cycle of winterreis. He walks through a cold, desolate winter landscape, following a river and resting at a coal burner’s hut

Struggles and Despair

He passes through a village, reacher a crossroads, and arrives at a cemetery, loging for death but finding no relief

Loss of Faith

Song cycle winterreise. Feeling abandoned, he renounces hope and resigns himself to fate.

Final Encounter

Song cycle winterreise. He meet Der Leiermann (Hurdy-Gurdy Man), a mysterious, eerie street musician

Uncertain Ending

Song Cycle Winterreise. The wandere’s fate remains ambiguous- does he follow the musician, symbolizing death or madness, or continue his endless journey

Dietrich Fischer- Dieskau

German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music, one of the most famous Lider (art song) performer of the post-war period, best known as singer of Franz schubert’s lider, particularly winterreise

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

German composer and music critic. While best remembered for his piano music and song, and some of his symphonic chamber works. He made significant contribution to all the musical genres of his day and cultivate a umber of new ones as well. His dual interest in music and literature led him to develop a historically informed music criticism and a compositional style deeply indebted to literary models. A leading exponent of musical Romanticism, he had a powerful impact on succeeding generation of European composers. Severly affected by what was most likely a bipolar disorder, he achieve almost superhuman productivity during his manic periods

Song Cycle Dichterlieber (A poet’s love) (1840)

The texts for the 16 songs come from the Lyriches intermezo of heinrich heine written in 1822-23 and published as part of the poet’s Das Buch der Lider

• Which tells the story of a yuong man who experiences his first love and heartbreak, throwing him into deep despair until he finds his conduit through art

• The opening poerms express an innocent hope that the speaker’s love will be reciprocated; the first 2 selections im wundershoenen monat maii (In the wonderful month of May) and Aus Meinen Tranen Sprissen both feature the optimisitc imagery of springtime blossoms budding and birds singing. By the end of the collection, all pretense is gone, and the speaker tone is jaded. Schumann’s music is likewise plodding and unrelenting in its rythm and figuration, and even more unrelenting in its dark parody.

Fritz Wunderlick

1930 and 1966.

A german lyric tenor ,famed for his singing of the Mozart repertory and various lider. he died in an accident aged 35.

his crstal clear voice exquisitely precise diction, and intelligent but passionate interpretation also led him to an impressive rendition of the lied cycles of Schubert and Schumann with piano, Hubert Giesen, his artistic mentor. His famous recording of Schumann’s Dichterliebe remains a gold standard of this genre. Many tenors since have emulated his

interpretation of this cycle.

Gabriel Faure (1845-1924)

Hes a French Composer, teacher, pianist and organist,

One of the most advanced composer of his feneration in France

• Developed a perosnal Style greatly influence on many early 20th century composers

• Pioneered Harmonic and melodic innovations

• Impacted the teaching of harmony for future generations

• He focused on piano pieces and numerous songs

• notable for his second song collection

• attemped grand compositions

• disowned them after a few perfomances

• keeping mannuscript copies of certian movement and reused themes

Fach System

was developed in Germany at the end of the 19th century for opera houses to create distinct categoeis for all the roles in an opera in order to aid audition and casting. This means classification, specialty, category. Singers were place in this acording to their voice types and they would study the characters that belonged in that category

• Most composers have particular voice types in mind, sometimes even specific singer, when working on their operas, nowadays, directors and conductors try to recreate the feeling or particular characters by choosing singers whose voice, power, size, timber, color, and range match composer’s intention

Range

Characteristics that determine your fach system

Range- the notes your body can produce

weight of voice— light, bridght,agile, heavy, powerful, rich, and darker

size- the amount of sound you can produce and your voice’s dramatic effect

tessitura- part of the range which is most comfortable to sing

Timbe or color- unique voice quality and texture

Transition point- points where you can change from chest, to middle, to head register

Vocal registers- how extended each register is

speech level- speaking range

physical characteristics- height and build

Tenors

are male singers with a high vocal range, typically singing parts that require a light, bright timbre. In opera, they often play heroic or romantic lead roles.

Bass

are male singers with a low vocal range, usually characterized by a dark, rich timbre. In opera and choral music, often portray older or more serious characters. s

Sopranos

are female singers with the highest vocal range, often performing melodies and leading roles in operas and choral works. They typically possess a bright, penetrating timbre and are integral to many classical compositions.

Bass-Baritone

is a male singer whose vocal range lies between the bass and baritone, featuring a rich, deep sound with the ability to perform lower bass notes.

Mezzo Sopranos

are female singers with a vocal range between soprano and contralto. They often perform supporting roles in operas and have a warm, rich timbre.

The magic flue

A two act opera by Mozart with a germa liberttto by EMmanuel Schikaneder.. It priemered in Vienna in 1791 and is the tale of Prince Tamino, who is vaed from a serpent by three ladies who work for the queen of the night,The opera ends with a paean to truth, light, and harmony, in the spirit of the Enlightenment. With its blend of magical realism, comic divertissements, and intellectual seriousness, Die Zauberflöte is one of Mozart's most widely performed and most enduring works.

1791

In what year did the Magic Flute Premiere. It premiered justa few months before Mozart’s death.

Singspiel

What kind of opera is the Magic Flute Considered?

The Queen OF THE nIGHT

THE True antaogonist.

A magical Flute

This has the power to charm wild animals and protect him in times of danger. This is the object given to Tamino to protect him on his journey.

The main theme of the Magic Flute

Includes enligtenment, windom through trial, the triumph of light over darkness, and harmony between the sexes