WAM Exam 2

French Grand Opera

• Broad appeal, music spectacle, romantic elements

• Syncopation, heterogenous scoring, dynamic contrast, huge forces (Theatricality), coloratura

• Plot is usually historical/high class

Rossini

• 1792-1868

• Il barbiere di Siviglia

• Wrote 40 operas in less than 20 years then disappeared from opera on his 40th birthday

• Could only get paid from opera when he participated in performances (No copyright)

• Last 40 years of life were filled with illness but comfy

• Irrepressible melody, animated rhythms, clear phrase structure, well-shaped/unconventional periods, sparse texture, orchestration supports voice, simple but unique harmonic schemes

Vincenzo Bellini

• 1810-1835

• Norma

• Rose to prominence after Rossini retired

• Long, sweeping, embellished, emotional melodies, flexibility of form

18th c. Opera Seria

Romantics didn’t like it

• Characters weren’t regular people

• Castrati were weird and unnatural

• Unrealistic and convoluted stories (nobles, gods magnimity (forgiveness))

• Reflected absolutist fictions

• Arias imprede the drama too much coloratura), exit arias sucked, too long and predictable, da capo aria is too strict and creates circular stories

Aria

Lyrical, melismatic, reflection on action, text repetition, orchestra plus Basso Continuo

Earlier attempts to reform opera

• Comic opera (Opera comique, opera buffa)—Enlightenment attack on Absolutism, low-born characters, vocal ensembles, simpler arias, eliminated castrati, 1720s on

• Serious Opera—Some of Comic Opera’s reforms, close recititave/aria gap via orch acc., smoother transitions, 1760s on

• REFORM OPERA does NOT count

Romantic Strategies for Opera Reform

• Adapt 18th c. opera buffa ensembles, causing actors to interact with each other

• Rossini crescendo—repeat passage of music and words, crescendo to create humor and the the illusion of action

• Streamline arias to better reflect the drama (da capo becomes double aria—ABA→A(Slower, primo tempo) B( (caballetta)

• No more castrati

• Fewer exit arias

• More flexible singing in recitative (recit, arioso, parlante)

• Better transition between recitative and aria

• More realistic stories

Opera Ensemble

Anything that isn’t an aria—duo, trio, chorus, etc

Giuseppe Verdi

• 1813-1901

• La Traviata, Rigoletto, Otello

• Born in northern Italy—life was hard, oppressed by French and Austrians

• Didn’t know counterpoint and was denied entry into Milan Conservatory

• Lifelong partnership/marriage with soprano for Nabucco, Giusppena

• Early period: 19 operas in 15 years, culminated in 1853-intimate personal tragedy, french culture

• Late period: 6 operas in 16 years (1855-1871)—publisher convinced him to return and write Otello and Fallstaff-continuous action, freely combined solos/ensembles/chorus, orchestra treated with originality, reshaped traditional forms to fit drama, Grand Opera influence, return to historical subjects with political ramafications to parallel Italy unification, wrote comic roles, composed for imperial Russian Opera

• Last period: After retirement, responsive to new trends, unbroken flow of music—act opera

• Helped cultivate national identity (supported Risorgimento/italy liberation movement) though music was rarely overtly nationalistic

• Opera as human drama/passion, not romantic nature and mythology—chose stories himself

• Librettos with fast action, contrast, unusual characters, strong emotional situations

• Weakest connection to bel canto opera compared to Bellini and Rossini

Typical Double Aria Structure

• Scena Recitative (before aria starts-instrumental intro and recitative)

• Primo Tempo (Slow, andante, cantible)

• Tempo di mezzi (ensemble, chorus, transitioon)

• Cabaletta (fast)

Typical Duet Structure

• Scena Recitative (Action—instrumental intro and recitative)

• Tempo d’attacco (opening movement-action)

• Slow movement (Stasis)

• Tempo di mezzo (action)

• Cabaletta (fast-stasis)

French Lyric Opera

• Between comique and grand—melodic appeal, romantic drama or fantasy

• Turn the dialogue in opera comique into recitative

Parlante

Orchestra has the tune while the voice is declamatory

Aspects retained from opera seria in italian opera reform

• Singers rule-excessive coloratura and improvisation (slows drama)

• Recitatives and arias are still a thing

• Stories are still sometimes focused on highborn characters

• Orchestral ritornello at start of sections

• Still number opera

Number Opera

• Series of selections

• Opera=plural of opus

Buhenfestspielen

Festival stage plays—acts of music made visible (music drama—Wagner)

Giacomo Meyerbeer

• 1791-1864

• Los Huguenots

• German but wrote French Grand Opera

Opera Comique

• Used spoken dialogue instead of recitative and had less contentious plot, contrasting with grand opera

• Straightforward comedy or semiserious drama

George Bizet

• 1835-1875

• French

• Carmen

Local Color

• Subject matter stands out due to regional location—picturesque

• Often utilizes folk music and simple tunes/songs, repetition

• Paired Phrases and Non-Developing Modules

• More exoticism than nationalism

Non-Developing Modules/Paired Phrases

AA BB AA (It’s the same as the first time)

Exoticism/Orientalism

• Glorification (also villification) of foreign places

• Ex. count of monte cristo reading

• The East/Exotic is unknowable and incomprehensible—both alluring and terrifying to the European (male) imagination

Sensual Gratification theme of Exoticism

• Luxury/Hedonism: Personal comfort, indolence and freedom from work, promise of sexual fulfillment

• Aesthetic delight: Visual (Jewels, precious objects), sensual (taste, smell, exotic foods/odors/coffees), general appreciation of the voluptuous/over-ripe/excessive

• Enchantment (Fantasy, Imagination): Drugs (Hashish, tobacco), sensual and aesthetic overload

Self-Indulgence theme of Exoticism

• Violence/Brutality: Never far away, could happen anytime

• Authoritarianism (Absolute power wielded by one man): Master and devoted slaves, arbitrary punishment (no proper judicial process), luxury/enchantment made possible by fabulous wealth

• Irrationality: A world of outsized desires and seemingly random/illogical whims

Musical consequences of exoticism

Stylistic innovation—unusual scales (like the Seguidilla), repetitive figures and unusual harmonic rhythm (Habanera)

German Romantic Opera

• Developed in 18th century (Strong opera tradition already in France and Italy)—less rooted in tradition so they can make more dramatic changes

• Use german subject matter/culture

• Put in german language

• Use traits of traditional german music (Symphony, leid, chamber music)

• Philosophical/ethical/spiritual subtexts

• Orchestral commentary and extramusical depiction

• Less vocal lyricism and text repetition

• Fewer numbers in opera

• Fewer starts and stops (for aria/recit/applause)

• Increased dramatic opportunity

• Thematic integration, cyclicism

• Large scale tonal organization

Richard Wagner

• 1813-1883 (German)

• Tristan und Isolde, Das Rheingold

• Political Revolutionary and German Nationalist

• Radical reformer of opera

• Music style: Orch. comments on action and more important than voice, heftentenor (hero tenor—to cut through orchestra), voices are less lyrical and more syllabic, Leitmotifs, prose libretto w/o repetition, extended harmonies

• No number opera, music drama instead (For better dramatic continuity)

• Womanizer, asshole, borrowed money and never paid it back, egotistical (called his work the music of the future)

• Leitmotifs may be varied or transformed as the plot develops

Leitmotifs

Small musical idea with extramusical associations

Stabriem

German medieval literary technique of alliteration—Wagner used it (nationalism)

Gesamtkunst

• Total work of art

• Like how Wagner did libretto and composition and set design (total control)

Jean Sibelius

• 1865-1957 (Finnish)

• Finlandia

• Incorporated themes of national identity into music even after Finland gained independence from Russia in Revolution of 1917

• Finland’s leading composer by 1890s, supported by gov’t from 1897-death

• Turned toward international audience around 1900 (difficult to balance)

• Modal melodies, simple rhythms, insistent repetition of brief motives, pedal points, strong contrasts or orchestral timbres/colors

Piotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky

• 1840-1893 (Russian)

• Symphony 4 (Finale), Symphony 6 (3rd mvmt)

• Reconciled international and national styles

• Memorable tunes and folk melody/rhythms

• Born in distant providence of Russia, moved with family to St. Petersburg, graduated law school at 19

• 4 years as civil servant before enrolling in new St. Petersburg Conservatory

• Taught at Moscow Conservatory for 10 years

• Gay, depressed, attempted suicide multiple times

• Died 9 days after premiere of 6th symphony (called Pathetique as harbinger of death)

Anton Rubenstein

• 1829-1894, Russian

• Westernizer virtuoso pianist and composer who founded St. Petersberg conservatory in 1862 on western model

• Brother to Nikolay Rubenstein

• Raised Russian Musical standards

Nikolay Rubenstein

• 1835-1881

• Pianist who founded Moscow Conservatory in 1866

• Brother of Anton Rubenstein

• Raised Russian Musical standards

• Career in Navy

Bedrich Smetana

• 1824-1884 (Czech/Bohemia)

• Nationalist composer

Antonin Dvorak

• 1841-1904

• Slavonic Dances, Piano Quintet in A major

• “Friendship” with Brahms, sometimes called Bohemian Brahms

• Heroism and communal feeling were good for communicating nationalism

• Truly nationalistic music derives from folk traditions

• Many pieces are international style—Spent time in America, England, Russia

• Peasant background, prof of comp at Conservatory of prague

• Inspired by Smetana—Dance rhythms, melodic inflections of rustic popular/village music (Bohemian fairy tales, slavic history)

Modest Musorgsky

• 1839-1881 (Russian)

• Within Four Walls, Boris Godunov (these works do not use thematic transformation)

• Most Original of Mighty Handful

• Imitated russian speech, lifelike musical depiction of gestures

• Realism plus nationalism and individuality

• Syllabic, accents/higher/louder notes on strong beats

• Vocal music tends to lack lyrical melodic lines, symmetrical recitative w/o falling into its conventions—attempt to capture rhythms of everyday speech

• Melodies like russian folk song—Narrow range, rise at beginning of phrases and sink to cadences, often repeat 1-2 melodic/rhythmic motives

• Tonal/modal/non-functional harmony, rarely used actual folk melodies, repeat and accumulate large blocks of material rather than continuous development

• Unusual timbres

• Worked in mainstream (french/german) genres

Mighty Handful

• Nationalistic—anti-traditional music education

• “Moguchaya Kuchka”

• Mily Balakirev (1837-1910)-leader and informal teacher, only one with conventional music training

• Aleksander Borodin (1833-87)

• Cesar Cui (1835-1918)

• Modest Musorgsky (1839-81)

• Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)

Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov

• 1844-1908, Russian

• Prof at st pete conservatory in 1871-abandon anti-music-ed view

• Championed russian music, incorporated folk tunes and their melodic characteristics

• Completed orchestral works by Glinka and Musorgosky to ensure their survivall

• Taught next-gen composers—Stravinsky

• Programatic works

Giacomo Puccini

• 1858-1924 (Italian)

• Madama Butterfly

• Italian trad: Vocal lyricism above all, hidden numbers (verdi), plots about human passion

• Influenced by Wagner (more prominent orchestra, thematic integration, extended harmony, prose libretto)

Surrealism

Comes out of the modernist movement, based off of Freud’s “dream world”—abstract

Claude Debussy

• 1862-1918 (French)

• En sourdine, Reflets dans l’eau, Nuages

• Took Wagnerian harmony w/o resolution (Loved Tristan)

• Impressionist/symbolist

• Exotic and symmetrical scales, extended rich harmony

• Defies conventional tonal relationships between chords

• Inspired by javanese gamelan

Maurice Ravel

• 1875-1937

• Soupir, Rapsodie espagnole mvts 1 and 2

• More assimilator than impressionist—variety of influences

• Traditional forms, diatonic melodies, complex harmonies with tonal language

• Spanish idioms but also French and Russian, international popular music

19th century musical nationalism

• A search for a distinctive national musical style that’s different from the mainstream

• Achieved via use of national language (lyrics, score indications), national subject matter, national musical traits and traditions (vernacular materials)

• Often in service of a national political cause (strengthen society, internal reform/unification, independence)

• Must overlap to some extent with mainstream in order to compete

Europe’s musical leaders

• Before 1860-Italy and France in Opera, Germany in Instrumental music

• After: Austro-German Tradition

Vernacular materials

• Used in nationalist music

• Common culture—hymns, dances (middle class), folk music (lower class)

Traits common to nationalistic music (From folksong)

• Take from folk tradition

• Sounds awkward/crude/unusual

• Paired phrases/Non-Developing Modules, repetition

• Modal or unusual scales

• Rhythmic color (snap, hemiola, syncopation)

• Harmonic or timbral color

• Diverge from traditional forms

• Awkward leaps

• Strange performing styles

• Unusual phrase lengths

• Narrow melodic range

Russian Internationalists

Rubenstein Brothers and Tchaikovsky

Dramatic realism/organic continuity in 19th-century opera

• Stories were more centered in contemporary times and had more realistic plotlines

• Verdi strove for this via his reforms

Coloratura

• Virtuosic runs/embellishments by opera singers

• It became less frequent/more controlled

Castrato

• Boys who had the snip snip :( 

• They can sing really high—opera

• Also had large torso, small head, were too tall (broken growth plate)

• Romantics thought they were weird and unnatural

Da capo aria

• ABA’ (results in circular plot, too much coloratura in A’')

Cadenza

• Improvisatory section for singer to show off virtuosity/show emotional processes that reflect character’s mindset in opera

• 1) its occurring near the conclusion (i.e. “cadence”)
  of a movement where 2) the orchestral accompaniment drops out and 3) the soloist is heard alone in a free improvisatory style where 4) the meter and rhythm are very flexible, begin on a I 6/4 chord, the elaborate melisma (since this is a vocal cadenza), and the word repetition at the end

Ritornello

• Orchestral introduction section at beginning of pieces such as concertos and arias

• Themes are introduced here

• Often started to be cut in opera reform

Opera Buffa

• Italian comedic opera

Bel Canto Opera (Characteristics)

• Italian for “Beautiful Singing”

• Sounds easy, good tone, wide pitch range, embellished/florid melodies

• Voice most important

• Affected other genres, such as Chopin’s Nocturne in Db

• Term created in retrospect to contrast with older, heavier dramatic singing styles

• Ex. Il barbiere di Siviglia, Act I, Una voce poco fa

Recitative

• Declamatory style of singing, not lyrical

• In contrast with the aria, used to develop plot/action

• Scena=orchestral introduction+recitative

Rapid-fire declamation, syllabic, action takes place, no text accompaniment, Basso Continuo accompaniment

Arioso

• Lyricism of aria but in freer form

• Unsustained melodic and accompanimental patterns—short, aria-like passage

Finale

Often involving many characters and chorus

• Scena (Instrumental intro and recitative

• Lyric Dialogue

• Concertato (slow)

• More lyrical dialogue

• Stretta

Rossini Crescendo

Repeat passage of music and words, crescendo to create humor and the the illusion of action

Spoken dialogue/melodrama

• Happened more with reformed Romantic opera

• Melodrama is spoken dialogue over orchestra

• Ex. Der Freischutz

Ostinato

• A small figure repeated over and over again

• Often used in modernist music to undermine sense of meter

• Ex. stravinsky’s rite of spring

Pitch class analysis

• Writing down all the pitches in a section to figure out the key/scale

Parallelism

Use of consecutive parallel 5ths and octaves, becomes more prevalent in modernist music

Non-functional/directional harmony

• Showed up in modernism to break standard harmony tradition

• Idea is to disrupt normal syntax

• Take pleasure in here-and-now rather than yearning for resolution

Musical Symbolism

• Like extramusical significance—the music is saying something

Music Drama

• Wagner invented it because he had too many issues with Opera—primarily, this new form focused more on the orchestra and music’s power of narrative rather than libretto/vocals

Poetic vs. prose libretto

• Poetic: Text repetition, melodic/lyrical, end rhyme

• Prose: Little/no repetition and rhyme, more spoken than lyrical

Music of the Future

• The end goal for the progressives/new german school—Wagner said he was writing it

New German School

• -Most progressive side of Austro-German tradition

  -Most progressive of progressives

  -Liszt, Strauss, Mahler, Bruckner, Wagner

• Led us to the modern era

Wandering Tonality

• Ex. Prelude to Tristan and Isolde

• Constantly modulating so that it’s hard to pinpoint the key

• Most associated with Wagner

Harmonic/timbral/rhythmic color

• Qualities present in lots of nationalistic music for its resemblance to folk music

Thematic integration (4 techniques)

• Permeation of motivic or thematic material throughout a theme/mvmt/work for purposes of formal/structural unity

  1. Organic thematic/motivic development (Theme develops in an open-ended fashion—asymmetrical themes)

  2. Cyclicism (Material from 1 mvmt reappears in different mvmt)

  3. Thematic transformation (Where a melody is altered via [] to have a different mood)

  4. Developing variation (Brahms) (theme that is symmetrical but developing simultaneously, can influence accompaniment—structural technique that links to later themes, philosophically shows underlying unity in universe)

  5. Honorable mention to leitmotifs

Brindisi

Drinking song, common opera form

ex. the section from Verdi’s Otello

(sounds like Brandy (drink))

Subject matter

• The difference between nationalism and exoticism (both used similar musical traits)

• What the music’s talking about

Dumka

• Ex. Dvorak’s Piano Quintet (2nd movement), Slavic dances

• Slavic dance style—thoughtful/melancholic suddenly switching with exuberance

• Duple rhythm, triple meter

Kuchka

Another name for the Mighty Handful/5

Modal scales

• Common trait of exotic or nationalistic music

• Helped push style away from diatonic scale and into symmetrical scales of the Modernist era

• Ex. Phrygian in Carmen, Lydian in Halling

Russian realism

• Focus on working class life (connections to democracy)

• Identification with the poor

• Ex. Boris Gudonov’s hero was NOT the Czar

Mosaic form

• Non-developmental juxtaposition of sections (Not organically developing)

• Also an example of primitivism

• Ex. Ravel’s Rapsodie Espagnole

Modernism

• The rejection of traditional processes in the arts

• Gradual process originating in late Romantic period, goes until late 20th c.

• Shows up in all arts, but shows in music as rejection of common practice period

• Implicit critique of mass culture

• Past is still model—continue developing tradition

Common practice period

• 1600-1900

• Traditional expectations in regards to basically every musical quality

Symmetrical vs asymmetrical scales

Symmetrical: Octatonic, whole tone, chromatic

Asymmetrical: Diatonic, pentatonic

Octatonic scale

8 notes in scale: WHWH pattern or HWHW

Allows for 4 different leading tones

Whole tone scale

1 note less than the usual scale, it’s made completely of whole steps (no leading tones)

Chromatic scale

All half steps

Pentatonic scale

5 note scale

Major: 123 56

Minor: 1 345 7

Asymmetrical

Ex. Madama Butterfly (sounds Asian), B section of Nuages

Symbolism vs impressionism

• Turn of the century french art

• Symbolism: Sensual and bodily pleasure, synesthetis, personal fantasy—broken grammar, unclear syntax, ambiguous meaning, melodie—literature/poetry

• Impressionism: Moody and elusive images—create a mood picture to evoke emotions and senses at a glance, program music—visual arts

• Both: Transcend petty concerns and focus on here and now—indirection, soft dynamics, slow tempos, extended harmonies, metrical ambiguity, static harmony, fragmentary/non-lyrical harmony, discouraged tonal center/functions, SOCIAL CRITICISM

Rhythmic/metric ambiguity

• Created by use of super slow tempos, ostinatos (flowing, repetitive)

Suspended/static harmony

• Created via slow harmonic rhythm, inverted chords

Fin de siecle culture

“Turn of the century” culture—things are wild and changing fast

Wagnerism

• Many composers were inspired by the works of Wagner, especially in Tristan and Isolde, and used his techniques—Debussy, Strauss, etc

• Prose libretto, denial of functional harmony, etc

• Cult

Synesthesia

Associated with Symbolism—one bodily sensation triggers another—combination of senses

Una corda

• The first pedal on a piano—only strikes 1 of 3 strings of a note, creates a muted sound

• Unusual timbres like this evoked new states (Modernism)

• As seen in Duparc’s Extase

• NOT an extended technique

Melodie

French art song—text set to music—symbolism

Javanese gamelan

• Debussy was fascinated by it after hearing a piece at the world fair

• Ensemble of mostly percussive instruments

• Uses unusual scales, heterophony

• Origins in temples/courts—local rulers

Heterophony

• 2 voices play 1 melody slightly differently from each other

• Ex. Javanese gamelan

Primitivism

• The deliberate incorporation of the unsophisticated, elementary, naive art for purposes of stylistic innoation and social criticism

• Parallels Romantic elements (folk)

Ballets Russes

The Russian Ballet (Performed in Paris)

Polychord

2+ chords on top of one another (Combine simple chords)