MAPEH 4TH Q EXAMINATION

Week 1: Vocal Music of Romantic Period

Opera

• staged play or dramatic work whose test or libretto is entirely sung by the characters.

• one theater form that combines drama, poetry, dance, and most importantly, music.

Art Song

• poem expressed in music.

• short vocal solo piece based on a poem that is often accompanied by the piano.

HISTORY

Music historians have continued to debate opera’s ancestry. The plays of the ancient Greek dramatists Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides combined poetic drama and music.

Middle Ages, biblical dramas that were chanted or interspersed with music were known under various labels, including liturgical dramas (ordines) and similar plays performed in church.

These and related musico-dramatic forms may have become indirect ancestors of opera, but the earliest universally accepted direct ancestors of opera appeared in 16th-century Italy.

The Role of Florence

⇨ Florence became the birthplace of opera at the end of the century, as the result of confluence of 3 cultural forces: an established theatrical tradition, a strong sense of civic humanism, and a distinctly Florentine view of music and music’s relation to the cosmos.

⇨ Foremost among the factors that made 16th-century Florence ripe for the advent of opera was its long tradition of musical theatre, manifested principally in the musical productions known as intermedi or interludes, that were staged between the acts of spoken plays.

Intermedi

• performed between the acts of a play or opera in Italy from the late 15th century through the 17th century including instrumental music and sometimes singing and dancing.

Lied

• german art song

Lieder

• group of German art songs.

TWO FORMS OF ART SONG

1. Strophic Form 

➢ plays the same melody in all stanzas

2. Through-Composed Music 

➢ in each stanza of the poem is sung to a new music

TERMS USED

○ Opera Seria  -  solo song with an instrumental accompaniment

○ Opera Buffa - comic opera

FAMOUS COMPOSERS IN ART SONGS & THEIR COMPOSITIONS

Franz Schubert 

• Austrian composer born on January 31, 1797.

• 10 yrs.old, he had already established his reputation as a budding composer in VIenna.

• followed his father’s profession as a teacher and spent his spare time writing compositions.

• was able to compose 600 lieder, 7 complete symphonies, two sonatas, and a series of miniatures for solo piano, two Mass settings and other shorter choral works.

• struggled financially, but his musical works were a great success.

• Compositions:  Ave Maria & Du bist die Ruh

Giuseppe Verdi

• italian composer born on 10 October, 1813. 

• the Millan Conservatory rejected him because he was not qualified based on the standards of the institution at that time.

• was known for his successful operas such as Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, La Traviata, Falstaff, and Aida. 

• composed over 25 operas, and his works have been performed worldwide.

• Compositions: La Traviata, Rigoletto, and Falstaff

Week 2: History of the Theatrical Forms and their Evolution 

Theater began from myth, ritual, and ceremony. Early society perceived connections between actions performed by groups of people or leaders to a certain society and these actions moved from habit to tradition, to ritual, to ceremony due to human desire and need for entertainment.

Greek Theatre

⇨ european theater began in Ancient Greece

⇨ began around 700 B.C. with festivals honoring their many gods. 

⇨ One god, Dionysus, with a religious festival called, 

• The Cult of Dionysus, to honor Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility.

THREE TYPES OF DRAMA IN THE THEATER OF ANCIENT GREECE

1. Tragedy

➢ compound of two Greek words

• tragosl or "goat" 

• ᾠδαῖς (ode) "song”

➢ referring to goats sacrificed to Dionysus before performances, or to goat-skins worn by the performers.

➢ most admired type of play.

➢ Thespis was the first actor and introduced the use of masks and was called the "Father of Tragedy”.

2. Comedy

➢ derived from imitation; there were no traces of their origin.

➢ Aristophanes wrote most of the comedy plays.

➢  Out of these 11 plays, Lysistrata survived, a humorous tale about a strong woman who led a female coalition to end war in Greece.

Cyclops was an adventurous comedy by Euripides.

3. Satyric 

➢ form of tragicomedy that is lighter than a tragedy and heavier than a comedy-comparable in spirit to vulgar satire or lampoon.

PARTS OF A GREEK THEATRE

1. Theatron 

○ other term for theatre buildings.

○ were large, open- air structures constructed on the slopes of hills.

○ three main elements: the orchestra, the skene, and the audience

○ viewing place on slope of a hill

2. Orchestra 

○ large circular or rectangular area at the center part of the theatre, where the play, dance, religious rites, and acting took place.

3. Skene

○ stage

4. Parodos

○  side entrance

Roman Theatre

⇨ started in the 3rd century BC

⇨ varied and interesting art forms, like festival performances of street theatre, acrobatics, the staging of comedies of Plautus, and the high-verbally elaborate tragedies of Seneca.

ELEMENTS IN WESTERN CLASSICAL PLAYS AND OPERAS

INFLUENCES IN PLAYS AND OPERAS

1. Audience

2. Text

3. Actors

4. Theatre

5. Type of Plays 

THEATER: REBIRTH AND THE ROMANTIC

The Renaissance

⇨ The rebirth of European theater followed two directions. 

⇨ First direction - Italy and recreated the past. 

⇨ Second direction - England and focused on Elizabethan scenarios and words.

English Renaissance Theater

⇨ At the closing of the 1400s, new kinds of plays and short entertainment emerged in England.

⇨ These short plays, known as interludes, were staged at courts and households of the nobility, especially during the holidays.

THEATER CONVENTIONS

Week 3 & 4: Indoor and Outdoor Recreation

Indoor Recreation

• can be done or performed inside the room or inside the class

• required less space hence can be managed behind the door

• scrabble, table tennis, chess, badminton

Outdoor Recreation

• can overlap with competitive outdoor activities such as orienteering or ski races

• can also be done with other activities such as environmental education for example hiking to study an old growth forest.

• hiking, running, horse riding, mountain biking, camping, swimming, rock climbing, fishing

Dodgeball

• first seen in the tribes of Africa 

• aimed to strengthen the tribesmen's unity in working together, improving strategy, and being on each other's guard when one is wounded.

• serves to prepare them for real-life combat

• large stones were used to hit their opponents, which may cause injury or get the opponent killed.

• James H. Carlisle is a missionary who witnessed the brutality and agility of the game dodgeball. 

• he was amazed by the solidarity and bravery shown by the tribesmen in defending their wounded teammates.

• he decided to teach this game when he went back to England but with few revisions. The nature of the game is to eliminate the opponents by hitting them with balls. The opponents on the other hand, will avoid or "dodge" the balls thrown at them

CODE OF CONDUCT OF DODGEBALL 

(according to the National Amateur Dodgeball Association)

1. Understand and respect the rules of the game.

2. Respect the judgement of the officials

3. Respect your opponents, and respect the results of the game.

4. Be courteous and maintain self-control.

5. Refrain from using foul or abusive language.

BASIC RULES IN DODGEBALL

1. In the opening rush, the balls on your left in the centerline are the balls designated for your team only.

2. Players should not leave the court unless they are retrieving stray balls, or else they will get eliminated.

3. You must aim to hit all the opponents on their torsos.