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Unit Six (Chapter 21 (Performing Grief: Purcell and Early Opera (opera…

- - - - goal of the opera was to intensify events
      - large scale drama that is sung
      - combines vocal and instrumental music
        
        soloists
        
        ensembles
        
        used for when characters pour out their feelings
        
        chorus
        
        used to back up the soloist(s) or act independently
        
        orchestra
        
        sets the appropriate mood
        
        performs the overture
        
        a piece heard at the beginning of most orchestras
        
        each act opens with an orchestral introduction
        
        there may be sinfonias between scenes
        
        i.e. interludes
        
        sometimes ballet
        
        with
        
        poetry
        
        drama
        
        acting and pantomime
        
        scenery
        
        costumes
      - plot and action are advanced through musical declamation
        
        i.e. recitative
        
        designed to imitate and emphasize the natural inflections of speech
        
        movement is shaped to the rhythm of the language
        
        aria takes over from time to time
        
        Italian for "air" or "tune"
        
        releases accumulated tension through melody
        
        a song
        
        usually of highly emotional nature
        
        the memorable part of the opera
        
        can be taken out of context
      - libretto
        
        text/script
        
        created by the librettist
        
        most let the composer write diverse music numbers
        
        recitatives
        
        arias
        
        ensembles
        
        choruses
        
        interludes
      - early opera
        
        outgrowth of Renaissance theatrical traditions
        
        lavish spectacles
        
        scenic displays
        
        graced royal weddings and similar ceremonial occasions
        
        examples
        
        Orfeo (1607)
        
        by Claudio Monteverdi
        
        solidified opera
        
        The Coronation of Poppea (1642)
        
        by 1642 the first public opera house had been built
        
        got super popular
        
        except in France
      - Opera in England
        
        masque
        
        entertainment
        
        instrumental music
        
        poetry
        
        dance
        
        popular among the aristocracy
        
        puritans banned plats
        
        plays set to music could pass as concerts
        
        ergo operas became popular
        
        Henry Purcell (1659-1695)
        
        standing as a composer gave England a leading position in the era of Baroque music
        
        born in London
        
        career bagan at the court of Charles II (r. 1660-1685)
        
        through the turbulent reign of James II (r. 1685-1688)
        
        into the period of William and Mary (r. 1689-1702)
        
        at the court
        
        organist
        
        singer
        
        composer
  - - - first performed in a girl's school
        
        where he taught
      - libretto
        
        based on Virgil's Aeneid
        
        Roman epic
        
        traces the adventures of the the hero Aeneas after the fall of Troy
        
        Aeneas and his crew are shipwrecked at Carthage where the Queen, Dido, falls in love with him. He replies in kind. But he has to go to Italy and become the founder of Rome and will have to break her heart
        
        plot compressed since the story was familiar
        
        by Nahum Tate
      - last act
        
        crew is ready to leave Carthage
        
        Dido still doesn't know
        
        when she learns
        
        suicide
        
        recitative
        
        "Thy hand, Belinda"
        
        Lament
        
        "When I am laid in earth"
        
        2 more items...
        
        begins with a sprightly tune
        
        in the style of hornpipe
        
        a dance form
        
        characterized by reversed dotted figures called a Scotch snap
        
        (short-long rhythm)
        
        often associated with sailors
        
        one sailor sings sings the verse
        
        answered by the male chorus
        
        sung responsorially
        
        growing chromaticism in the bass foreshadow's Dido's grief
      - Purcell
      - medium
        
        solo voice
        
        men's chorus
        
        small orchestra
        
        continuo
        
        Baroque period instruments
      - characters
        
        Dido, Queen of Carthage
        
        Aeneas, adventuring hero
        
        sailors, members of Aeneas' crew
- - - - Mass
        
        a musical setting of the most solemn service of the Roman Catholic Church
      - Requiem Mass
        
        a musical setting of Mass for the Dead
      - oratorio
        
        generally focused on biblical story
    - - 35
      - while working on his requiem
        
        lead to dramatized versions of his death
  - - - Dies irae
        
        "Day of Wrath"
        
        actually written by Mozart
        
        text
        
        rhymed Latin poem
        
        by a thirteenth century friar
        
        Thomas of Celano
        
        designed to emphasize the terrible power of divine intervention
        
        eight three line stanzas
        
        medium
        
        four soloists
        
        (SATB)
        
        four-part chorus
        
        orchestral accompaniment
        
        includes basset horns and bassoons
        
        headlong running notes
        
        shattering accents
        
        trombone solo and bass singer
        
        homophonic texture to made the text easy to hear
        
        opening
        
        dramatic
        
        chorus and orchestra
        
        featuring trumpets and timpani
        
        loud dynamics
        
        designed to convey a fearful tune
        
        third verse
        
        trombone and solo ->
        
        trombone and bass duet
        
        slower tempo
        
        conveying wonderment
        
        fourth and fifth verses
        
        tenor solo with increased rhythmic drive
        
        sixth verse
        
        solo alto
        
        seventh verse
        
        begins with solo soprano
        
        concludes with all four soloists
        
        eighth/final verse
        
        dramatic chorus
        
        slower tempo
        
        loud dynamics ->
        
        soft dynamics
      - a masterpiece of the Classical era
      - incomplete upon his death
        
        completed by his favorite pupil
        
        Franz Xaver Süssmayr
- - - - program music
        
        music conveys meaning
        
        sometimes intended by composer
        
        sometimes made up by listener
        
        absolute
        
        i.e. pure
        
        instrumental music with literary or pictorial associations
        
        provided by the composer
        
        title
        
        e.g. King Lear
        
        suggests specific characters and events
        
        by Berlioz
        
        e.g. Piéces fugitives (Fleeting pieces)
        
        labels the mood or character of the work
        
        by Clara Schumann
        
        explanatory note
        
        especially important in the 19th century
        
        connected music closer to the real world
        
        got messages across
        
        idée fixe
        
        "fixed idea"
        
        unifying thread
        
        thematic transformation
        
        Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)
        
        born in southern France
        
        son of a well to-do physician
        
        expected to follow
        
        dreamed to study music
        
        influenced by
        
        2 more items...
        
        huge fan of Beethoven and Shakespeare
        
        fell madly in love with Harriet Smithson
        
        an actress in the English troupe that introduced him to shakespeare
        
        "I could not sleep, I could not work, and I spent my time wandering aimlessly about Paris and its environs"
        
        married her
        
        realized it was Shakespeare he loved and not her
        
        in 1830 won the Prix de Rome
        
        got to go to Rome
        
        wrote Symphonie fantastique the same year
        
        drew on
        
        Goethe
        
        Lord Byron
        
        Shakespeare
        
        wrote a book on orchestration
  - - - IV
        
        March to the Scaffold
        
        medium
        
        large orchestra
        
        flute
        
        piccolo
        
        2 clarinets
        
        4 french horns
        
        4 bassoons
        
        2 trumpets
        
        2 cornets
        
        3 trombones
        
        2 ophicleides
        
        2 timpani
        
        bass drum
        
        bells
        
        strings
        
        form
        
        sectional
        
        alternating two themes
        
        A
        
        descending scale in duple meter
        
        B
        
        ascending motion
        
        played loudly by brass and percussion
        
        idée fixe
        
        about Harriet
      - based on his personal life
        
        lovesick musician
- - - - Requiems can help with dealing with death
        
        Roman Chatholic Church specefies certain texts and prayers for this
        
        but musicians have taken liberties
    - - grand orchestral music
      - pianists in salons and concert hall
      - theatrical productions of the French Opéra
        
        sung dramas
        
        choreographed dances
        
        ballet
      - mélodie
        
        art song separate from the German Lied
      - sacred music
    - - remembered for the intimate and personal sentiment of his music
      - favored writing in small forms
        
        songs
        
        piano miniatures
        
        chamber music
      - born in southwestern France
      - showed musical talent at a young age
        
        played harmonium at his school chapel
        
        sent to Paris to attend École Niedermeyer
        
        studied to become a famous church musician
        
        studied chant and Renaissance polyphony
        
        took composition lessons from Camille Saint-Saëns
      - served in the military in the Franco-Prussian Wars
      - appointed assistant organist at the Church of St. Sulpice after the war
      - soon after Church of St. Sulpice appointment he became choir master at the church of La Madeleine
      - fame grew during the 1890's
        
        appointed as a composition teacher at École Niedermeyer
        
        after his teaching gig he became director of the Paris Conservatory
        
        growing deafness forced him to eventually resign
      - influential critic for Le Figaro
      - president of the Société Musicale Indépendente
        
        helped found to further the cause of French music
      - incredible influence on the development of French music
      - restrained style
  - - - wrote it over 20 years
      - far from standard structure
      - text
        
        Latin liturgical texts
        
        texts from the Burial Service
        
        texts from the Office of the Dead
        
        edited all of them freely
        
        the word "requiem" pervades the entire piece
        
        means "rest"
      - first premiered in 1888
        
        Church of La Madeleine
        
        for a famous architect
      - original concept
        
        small scale
        
        chamber orchestra
        
        minus violins
        
        organ
        
        brass
        
        to lighten the mood
        
        today
        
        often heard in full orchestra arrangement
      - 7 movements
        
        some feature less familiar text
        
        Libera me (Deliver me, O Lord)
        
        composed some years earlier as a work for baritone and organ
        
        low strings set up a march like pulse
        
        accompanies the lyrical baritone solo
        
        sings of "that fearful day" (die illa tremenda)
        
        although the air is reassuring
        
        choir's homophonic declamation of fear is comforting
        
        force French horn introduces the terrifying Dies irae
        
        sung fortissimo by the choir
        
        softens for the uplifting Requiem aeternam
        
        (Grant them eternal rest)
        
        medium
        
        two soprano soloists
        
        two double choirs (SATB)
        
        organ
        
        refrains bring back several lines of the text/music
        
        harmony is consonant
        
        some dissonance in solo passages
        
        shifts between homophonic ensemble sections and two voiced duets with some imitation
        
        text
        
        Luke 1:46-55
        
        A-B-A'
      - some moments sound funereal
        
        hollow chords in choir
        
        reminiscent of chant
      - organ, brass and harp chords create celestial sounds
        
        solo (originally boy) soprano Pie Jesu (Pious Jesus)
        
        closing In Paradisum
        
        during which the casket is "carried" from the church by the angels
- - - - Romanticism never really went away
        
        Romantic works were still being performed and even updated
        
        Samuel Barber (1910-1981)
        
        one of those who stayed committed to Romantic music
        
        often dismissed as antiquated or regressive
        
        post-modern styles gave a way for Romanticism to flourish
        
        sometimes ironically or in a detached way
        
        Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962)
        
        richly neo-Romantic
        
        displays an innovative sound palette
        
        born in Brooklyn, New York
        
        studied music at Bowling Green State University
        
        completed graduate degrees in composition at the University of Pennsylvania. (studied George Crumb)
        
        received the Pulitzer Prize in 2010
        
        for her violin concerto
        
        written to show off Hillary Hahn's talents
        
        has taught at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia since 1994
        
        has a very "American" sound
        
        her extensive output extends to most genres
        
        orchestral music
        
        compositions for the flute
        
        which she plays
  - - - Higdon
      - already gathering status as a classic
      - subtext of personal grief for her brother's untimely death
        
        she was contemplating the journey of life
      - written to commemorate the anniversary of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia
      - genre
        
        tone poem
      - open to shimmering bell-like timbres
        
        (tintinnabulation)
        
        sounded over softly muted strings
      - intimate dialogue between the ethereal flute (her instrument), and solo flute (her brother's instrument)
      - medium
        
        large orchestra
        
        with many percussion instruments
        
        crotales
        
        celesta
        
        marimba
        
        vibraphone
        
        bell tree
        
        chimes
        
        triangle
        
        tuned glasses
        
        Chinese reflex balls
      - rhythm
        
        mostly 5/4 but often imperceptible
      - homophonic