Assessment 3 Terms Flashcards
Opera Buffa
- Comic Opera
- Content was humorous rather than serious
- Libretto centered on everyday characters rather than heroes, rulers, and gods.
- Singers included basses but not castrati.
- More emphasis on ensemble singing
- Avoided da capo arias
- Melodies straightforward and simple
What is intermezzo?
A work intended for performance between the acts of a larger (serious) opera.
Why was opera buffa controversal?
Opponents considered it an affront to established traditions.
What is the War of the Buffoons (Guerre des Bouffons) ?
- Ignited by debut of Pergolesi’s La serva padrona in Paris in 1752.
- Provided an opportunity for competing social groups to jockey for influence and a pretext for some to question authority without directly confronting it.
- French traditionalists wanted to uphold tragédie lyrique
- Others wanted to use opera buffa to promote a new, lighter style of musical theater in France.
What is the Quarrel of the Gluckists and Piccinnists?
- In the late 1770s the debate that pitted Italian against French culture.
- Featured Gluck and Piccinni who were both foreigners.
- Saw Gluck as continuing French ‘tragédie lyrique’ while Piccinni was preceived to represent Italian tradition of opera seria.
Stock Characters
- Stereotypical person whom audiences readily recognize from frequent recurrences.
- Easy targets for parody and to be criticized as clichés.
Galant Style
- Light and elegant free homophonic style of musical composition in the 18th century with rococo ornamentation.
What are some characteristics that distinguish reform opera from opera seria?
- no da capo arias
- little or no opportunity for vocal improvisation or virtuosic displays of vocal agility or power
- no long melismas
- a more predominantly syllabic setting of the text to make the words more intelligible
- far less repetition of text within an aria
- a blurring of the distinction between recitative and aria, declamatory and lyrical passages, with altogether less recitiative
- simpler, more flowing melodic lines
- an overture that is linked by theme or mood to the ensuing action
- more prominence for the chorus, giving it more important role commenting on the events unfolding on stage
Dramma Giocoso
Technique of a grand buffo scene as a dramatic climax at the end of an act. (Example of Mozart’s Don Giovanni)
What is a march?
A military form in duple meter characterized by a strong, repetitive beat for keeping soldiers in orderly formation.
What is a scherzo?
(Italian for “joke”)
Dance inspired movements, faster and longer than minuets;
What is a fugato?
A passage that begins like a fugue but does not sustain itself after a series of initial entries.
Describe concert overtures.
Emerged as a work of instrumental music in a single movement connected in some way with a known plot.
A single movement work that is associated with a drama, poem, place, event, or mood.
Cyclical Coherence
Multiple sections or movements, in which a theme, melody, or thematic material occurs in more than one movement as a unifying device (Examples: Beethoven’s 5th and 9th symphonies)
Realism
- Aka Verismo which was the Italian word for “reality”.
- Popular in Italian opera around the end of the 19th century and early 20th century. (Example: Puccini)
Idée Fixe
“fixed idea”
A recurring theme or character trait that serves as the structural foundation of a work
What does cavatina mean in Italian opera?
Designates any introductory aria sung by a main character.
What does cavatina mean in Germany?
Simple arias of an introspective quality, free of virtuosic display.
When did the genre of song for solo voice and piano emerge?
The first half of the 19th century.
What is a reason for song for solo voice and piano being so popular during this time?
The music was less demanding.
What is another name for the genre of song for solo voice and piano?
Lied (german)
What were some factors that led to Lied to its prominence?
- The rise of German poetry
- The growing availability of the pian
- The idealization of domesticity and the family
What are the three categories of form that songs fall into?
- strophic
- modified strophic
- through composed
Describe strophic form.
- the simplest of the three forms
- each verse (strophe) of a poem is set to the same music
Describe modified strophic form.
- music varies from strophe to strophe–
- melodic embellishment/alteration of texture or harmony but remains the same otherwise.
- like variation on a theme