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Vocal Music in Two Worlds

prelude

  • musical life in the early classic period reflected the international culture that spread throughout europe during the enlightenment

  • shared humanity mattered more than national and linguistic differences so the ideal musical style was made up of the best features from all nations

  • galant style became the foundation for the classical style

where does classical music start

  • pre 19th century - mozart duh, haydn is okay, then beethoven, then everyone else

  • 19th century - bach is the father of all great german music and most great music is german

  • early 20th century - did anyone write good music between bach and mozart? nah

  • 20th century - hold up

general characteristics of the new style

  • focus on melody

  • periodicity - frequent resting points break the melodic flow into related segments

    • musical ideas were articulated through phrases that formed periods

    • creates a structure marked by frequent cadences and unified through small motivic correspondences

  • musical rhetoric - terminology borrowed from rhetoric

    • compared melody to sentences or composition to a speech

  • alberti bass

    • arpeggiated underlying chords in simple repeating pattern

  • form

    • coherence, differentiation of material according to its function

    • beginning, middle, or ending gesture; levels of relative strength

  • koch wrote the most thorough guide to melodic composition based on rhetorical principles

  • division of melody into phrases and periods is supported by harmony and shaped by weaker and stronger cadences, slower harmonic rhythm animated with rhythmic devices such as alberti bass

  • differentiation of musical material by function - each segment was recognizable as a beginning, middle, or ending statement

  • understanding that emotions were constantly changing introduced contrasting moods within phrases, movements and themes

opera buffa

  • more open to innovation because it didn’t have such a strong hold on tradition

  • opera buffa

    • full length sung through, satirical, comic cast complemented by serious characters

    • dialogue in rapid and sparsely accompanied recitative

    • arias in galant style

    • plots entertained, served moral purpose

    • focused on normal people

    • stock characters - often parodied commedia dell’arte and aristocrats

  • intermezzo

    • another form of italian comic opera with two or three contrasting or parodying musical interludes inserted between acts of a serious opera

    • alternating recitatives and arias

    • comic plots, two or three people, contrast the serious drama of the main plot

    • pergolesi - la serva padrona, relies heavily on humour, contrast, musical style is evolving to reflect humans’ internal dialogue

  • comic opera took different forms in different countries

    • homegrown comic opera librettos were always written in the national tongue and musical idiom

    • comic opera librettos written in the national tongue

    • accentuated national musical idioms

    • historical significance - comic opera responded to widespread demand for naturalness and anticipated the trend toward musical nationalism

  • opera comique

    • french opera buffa counterpart

    • consisted of pop music (vaudevilles) or simple melodies until an italian comic opera troupe visited paris and generated a mixed italian-french style (ariettes), which gradually replaced vaudevilles altogether

    • used spoken dialogue instead of recitative, dealt with social issues

    • gluck, gretry

  • ballad opera

    • rose to popularity in england after the beggar’s opera by john gay

    • music consists of popular tunes (ballads) set to new words and a few numbers that parody familiar operatic airs

    • signaled a general reaction in england against foreign opera

    • the entire genre is just to make fun of opera seria

  • german singspiel

    • success of english ballad opera inspired its revival

    • librettists adapted english ballad operas

    • translated or arranged french comic operas

the new world

  • opera didn’t become popular in the new world for a while because settlers had little time for entertainment, resources were scarce, population was scattered

  • puritans had disdain for theater and distrust of pleasure

  • spanish colonies carried on theatrical productions

  • early american music grew out of the religious traditions of settlers

    • villancicos in spanish colonies, french Catholic music in canada, english hymns in anglican churches in british north america

  • puritans of new england

    • calvinist - metrical psalms, rhyming, easily singable

    • published psalm books - bay psalm book, first book published in north america

    • singing schools were established and the availability of singers invited composers to write new music

    • billings new england psalm singer

  • moravians of pennsylvania and north carolina

    • cultivated sophisticated genres of german speaking protestants

    • concerted arias and motets in current styles

    • substantial sacred and secular music libraries

    • performed chamber music and symphonies

Vocal Music in Two Worlds

prelude

  • musical life in the early classic period reflected the international culture that spread throughout europe during the enlightenment

  • shared humanity mattered more than national and linguistic differences so the ideal musical style was made up of the best features from all nations

  • galant style became the foundation for the classical style

where does classical music start

  • pre 19th century - mozart duh, haydn is okay, then beethoven, then everyone else

  • 19th century - bach is the father of all great german music and most great music is german

  • early 20th century - did anyone write good music between bach and mozart? nah

  • 20th century - hold up

general characteristics of the new style

  • focus on melody

  • periodicity - frequent resting points break the melodic flow into related segments

    • musical ideas were articulated through phrases that formed periods

    • creates a structure marked by frequent cadences and unified through small motivic correspondences

  • musical rhetoric - terminology borrowed from rhetoric

    • compared melody to sentences or composition to a speech

  • alberti bass

    • arpeggiated underlying chords in simple repeating pattern

  • form

    • coherence, differentiation of material according to its function

    • beginning, middle, or ending gesture; levels of relative strength

  • koch wrote the most thorough guide to melodic composition based on rhetorical principles

  • division of melody into phrases and periods is supported by harmony and shaped by weaker and stronger cadences, slower harmonic rhythm animated with rhythmic devices such as alberti bass

  • differentiation of musical material by function - each segment was recognizable as a beginning, middle, or ending statement

  • understanding that emotions were constantly changing introduced contrasting moods within phrases, movements and themes

opera buffa

  • more open to innovation because it didn’t have such a strong hold on tradition

  • opera buffa

    • full length sung through, satirical, comic cast complemented by serious characters

    • dialogue in rapid and sparsely accompanied recitative

    • arias in galant style

    • plots entertained, served moral purpose

    • focused on normal people

    • stock characters - often parodied commedia dell’arte and aristocrats

  • intermezzo

    • another form of italian comic opera with two or three contrasting or parodying musical interludes inserted between acts of a serious opera

    • alternating recitatives and arias

    • comic plots, two or three people, contrast the serious drama of the main plot

    • pergolesi - la serva padrona, relies heavily on humour, contrast, musical style is evolving to reflect humans’ internal dialogue

  • comic opera took different forms in different countries

    • homegrown comic opera librettos were always written in the national tongue and musical idiom

    • comic opera librettos written in the national tongue

    • accentuated national musical idioms

    • historical significance - comic opera responded to widespread demand for naturalness and anticipated the trend toward musical nationalism

  • opera comique

    • french opera buffa counterpart

    • consisted of pop music (vaudevilles) or simple melodies until an italian comic opera troupe visited paris and generated a mixed italian-french style (ariettes), which gradually replaced vaudevilles altogether

    • used spoken dialogue instead of recitative, dealt with social issues

    • gluck, gretry

  • ballad opera

    • rose to popularity in england after the beggar’s opera by john gay

    • music consists of popular tunes (ballads) set to new words and a few numbers that parody familiar operatic airs

    • signaled a general reaction in england against foreign opera

    • the entire genre is just to make fun of opera seria

  • german singspiel

    • success of english ballad opera inspired its revival

    • librettists adapted english ballad operas

    • translated or arranged french comic operas

the new world

  • opera didn’t become popular in the new world for a while because settlers had little time for entertainment, resources were scarce, population was scattered

  • puritans had disdain for theater and distrust of pleasure

  • spanish colonies carried on theatrical productions

  • early american music grew out of the religious traditions of settlers

    • villancicos in spanish colonies, french Catholic music in canada, english hymns in anglican churches in british north america

  • puritans of new england

    • calvinist - metrical psalms, rhyming, easily singable

    • published psalm books - bay psalm book, first book published in north america

    • singing schools were established and the availability of singers invited composers to write new music

    • billings new england psalm singer

  • moravians of pennsylvania and north carolina

    • cultivated sophisticated genres of german speaking protestants

    • concerted arias and motets in current styles

    • substantial sacred and secular music libraries

    • performed chamber music and symphonies

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