Question | Answer |
Beethoven; Schubert; Rossini; Weber
– Classical genres fade | 1790-1830: overlaps with Classic Era |
– Pianists: Chopin, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Schumann
– Berlioz, Meyerbeer, Bellini | • 1830-1850: heart of Romanticism |
– Wagner, Verdi, Puccini
– Classic Revival: Brahms, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky | 1850-1890 |
: Mahler, R. Strauss, Debussy | 1890-1910: |
Gesamtkunstwerk | Total Art Work |
Leitmotiv | musical motives in drama |
Ewigemelodie | endless melody, seamless flow |
Orchestration | develops low brass sound, tuba |
Harmony | pushes functional tonality to limits;
points the direction for the next generation |
Richard Wagner | Built great opera house: Bayreuth in 1876 (next slide)
– Wrote extended essays: Opera and Drama 1852
– Wrote own librettos
– Major influence on opera and music in general
– Revolutionary thinker: stature of Marx, Darwin |
Wagner Major Works | Rienzi 1835, grand opera, first success
• Romantic operas
– Flying Dutchman 1841
– Tannhäuser 1845
– Lohengrin 1848
• Music Dramas
– Tristan und Isolde 1859
– Ring Cycle 1854-74
– Parsifal 1882 |
Tristan und Isolde | • One of great achievements in music history
• Culmination of Wagner’s philosophies
– Total Art Work
– Endless melody
– Leitmotifs
– Prominent orchestra
• Most influential: harmony
– Avoids resolution nearly 4 hours |
Four operas lasting over 16 hours
– Das Rheingold
– Die Walküre
– Siegfried
– Götterdammerung
• Huge orchestra
leitmotifs | Ring Cycle |
Lords of the Ring and Others | Gods
– Wotan: King of Gods, has Valhalla built
– Fricka: Wife of Wotan
– Freia: Goddess of eternal youth
• Humans: Siegmund, Sieglinde, Siegfried
• Others
– Giants: Fasolt and Fafner
– Nibilungs: Alberecht and Mime
– Erde: mother earth
Valküre: B |
La Traviata NAWM 142 | dumasbook realism
• Sempre libre: 2part Italian aria, cantabile
and cabaletta
Finale also follows Rossini structure
Opening: recitative with orchestra
Tempo d’attaco: crescendo, exchange
Cantabile: AABB
Tempo di mezzo: mood changes
Cabalett |
Verdi 1813-1901 | • Unlike Wagner, beloved for music and
politics
– Verdi melody became hymn of liberation
– Viva V.E.R.D.I. Vittorio Emmanuele, Re D’Italia
– Elected to first Italian parliament |
Verismo | Italian operatic movement at end of century
– Literally: “truthism” or “realism”
– Reflects most sordid aspects of |
• Early: Nabucco 1842
• Middle period
– Rigoletto 1851
– Il Trovatore 1853
– La Traviata 1853
• Late period
– Aida 1871 - grand opera
– Otello 1887 - Italian serious opera
– Falstaff 1893 - buffa | Major Verdi Operas |
Puccini 1858-1924 | Assimilates some verismo qualities
– Plots often deal with death, but not nec.
murder
– Intense melodic line
– High tension sustained for extended lengths
• Wagnerian influences
– Large role for orchestra; often doubles voice
– Few breaks in music |
• Manon Lescaut 1893:
first success
• La Boheme 1896
• Tosca 1900
• Madama Butterfly 1904 | Puccini
major works |
Madama Butterfly | • Exotic
– Japanese setting; reflected in music
– Inclusion of American character |
Carmen | • Exotic setting in Spain
• Strong Spanish character in music
• Carmen seduces soldier Don Jose
– Deserts army; joins smugglers
– He is dumped for a toreador
– He kills her at the end of the opera
• Provoked moral outrage |
France | Grand Opera beings to fade
– Merges with Italian opera
– Aida (1871) Verdi
• Grand Opera in 5 Acts
• Grand spectacle; in Italian
• Ballet
– Popular as part of Grand
Opera and independent
– Delibes
• Coppélia (1870)
• Sylvia (1876) |
Seguidilla NAWM 144 | • Seguidilla is fast Spanish song in
triple meter
• Refrain frames the song
• Accompaniment imitates guitar
• Melody with grace notes and
melismas
• Harmony suggests phrygian mode |
Lyric Opera | – Like Opera comique, main appeal is melody
– Subject usually romantic drama or fantasy
– Between Grand Opera and comique in scale
– Used sung recitative
• Important works
– Faust, Gounod: most popular opera of time
– Carmen, Bizet |
Opéra bouffe | Emerged in 1850s
• Characteristics
– Emphasized witty, satirical style
– Satirized French society
• Jacques Offenbach founder
– Orpheus in the Underworld 1858 has can-can for
the gods
– Music influenced Vienna, England, US |
Other French Music
Entertainment | • Cabarets
– Nightclubs offer variety of entertainment: Chat
noir
– Promoted innovation
• Café-concerts: food and entertainment
• Music Halls
– Offered revues: various acts, often with unifying
theme
– Folies-Bergère and Moulin Rouge leaders |
US Music Theater | cities
• Minstrel shows continued, now with
some all-black troupes
• Operettas
– Imported: Gilbert and Sullivan popular
– New: Sousa El Capitan
• Variety shows |
Operetta | Modeled after opéra bouffe
– Light arias, spoken dialogue
– Could be both funny (sarcastic) and romantic
• Die Fledermaus (1874) J. Strauss, Vienna
• In England, Gilbert and Sullivan
– HMS Pinafore 1848
– Pirates of Penzance 1879
– Mikado 1885 |
When the foreman bares his steel NAWM 146 | Police with dotted rhythms; play as if boys
– Singing mocks serious opera |