Star Power: Opera and Musical Theatre

prelude

• venice was the primary centre for opera
• german imported venetian opera and fused styles to make german opera
• france developed an operatic idiom
• english monarchy and treasury were too weak to support opera
• vocal chamber and church music flourished
• italy vs france clash - too extra vs too simple

italy

• birthplace of opera
• operas and chamber cantatas relied on recitative and aria

opera:

• venice, naples, florence, milan
• scarlatti - rome and naples
• opera houses competed to bring in audiences
  • singers and arias attracted the public
  • high fees and in-demand singers
• arias
  • most common was strophic song - every stanza performed to the same music
  • reflected the meaning of the text in musical motives in the melody or accompaniment
  • da capo aria became most prevalent - large aba structure with room for repetition and contrast, became standard form in 18th century opera because of its flexibility

chamber cantata:

• leading form of vocal chamber music - rome
• the wealthy had private parties for the elite with original cantatas written and performed for the occasion
• elegance and refinement in a way unlike opera due to the small, intimate nature of the performances
• short, contrasting sections, separate and alternating recitatives and arias
• scarlatti wrote a ton of cantatas
  • used da capo aria to sustain a lyrical moment through a musical design

france

• slow to adopt italian vocal styles due to traditions of dance and spoken theatre
• french language required pace and flow adjustments that created different styles and practices
• some french frowned upon italian opera
• dancing was still very important and provided stability and social hierarchy
• louis xiv
  • sun king
  • huge patron of the arts
  • had a monopoly over music
  • dancer
  • the universe revolved around him
  • 1000 wigs guy

opera:

• by 1700 italian opera was flourishing everywhere except france
• the french finally established a national opera after having opposed italian opera forever
• influenced by ballet and tragedy
• prioritized and reconciled poetry, drama and music
  • shouldn't sacrifice clarity of text for the sake of music
• jean-baptiste lully
  • tragedie en musique/tragedie lyrique
  • composed italian instrumental and dance music for operas, pieces for court ballets
  • purchased the exclusive right to produce sung drama in france and established academie royale de musique
  • librettists quinault provided him with five-act dramas
  • each opera began with a grand ouverture following the two-section majestic-fast structure used in his ballets
  • divertissement occured in the middle or end of each act and provided a non-plot-related excuse to show off costumes and choreo
  • adapted italian recitative to french poetry
  • recitatif simple - followed the contour of spoken french while shifting the time to match it
  • recitatif mesure - unifom, deliberate motion
  • lyrical moments cast as airs, short, rhyming, dancelike pieces
  • bands became the model for the modern string orchestra
  • musical monopoly - everyone had to write like lully for 50 years after his death
• convinced by a composer who arranged orfeo to please the french
  • had a love story
  • music was central to the plot
  • able to insert louis xiv as the main character and a prelude praising him
  • secret agent musical spies
• french opera basically became propaganda for the state - had to be approved, praising france

church music:

• second half of the century - french composers borrowed italian genres but wrote in french styles
• petit motet - sacred concerto for few voices with continuo
• grand motet - soloists, double chorus and orchestra, different meters and tempos

england

• priority was believability - disney musicals with big musical numbers interrupting the plot wouldn't fly
• charles changed the culture of the english court to emphasize aristocratic privileges, mirrors what's happening in france with louis' court
  • trying to have similar artistic emphasis in his court
  • more plays including incidental music - first time music was creeping into plays
  • french-like overtures
• rise of semi-opera - somewhere between theatre and opera
• purcell parallels lully
  • did well at every genre he tried
  • worked as the organist at westminster abbey
  • dramatick operas
  • dido and aenaeas
  • more drama and action
  • sung through
  • plot taken from an ancient roman epic
  • hype - english people were trying to find their identity and the arts played heavily into shaping it
• ground bass - continuo bassline plays the same thing over and over (early ancestor of ostinato)
  • provides a sense of familiarity
  • locks you into a pattern for the whole aria

musical theater:

• masque - shared features with opera but included spoken parts and were long, collaborative spectacles, appealed to all levels of society
• stage plays were prohibited but not music, so opera was born (mixture of elements from spoken drama and masque
• purcell - similar to lully's structure, overture, homophonic choruses
• use of dance owed to masque tradition
• solos use the upbeat, major tone of the english air
• english strongly preferred spoken drama

ceremonial and domestic music for voice:

• vocal music outside the theater owed little to foreign models
• specialty of purcell and other english composers was the catch, an unaccompanied group of men singing a humorous round/canon
• produced many verse anthems

the public concert:

• all musical performances in england were private affairs
• staged a takedown until public concerts began to spread

germany

• composers blended french and italian styles with new traditions
• first public opera house opened in hamburg and germany
• keiser
• telemann
  • one of the best and most prolific composers of his area

lutheran vocal music:

• lutheran churches were restored
• orthodox lutherans - using all available choral and instrumental music
• pietists - distrust formality and high art in worship
• lutherans possessed a common heritage in the corral
• new private-use poems and melodies composed
  • developing sacred concerto for public worship - vocal ensemble singing biblical texts
• buxtehude
  • composed long church music and improvisations
  • composed for abendmusiken - public concerts following afternoon church services during advent
  • watchet auf - sacred concerto containing a series of variations on chorale

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