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