Docsity
Log inSign up
Docsity
Prepare for your exams
Prepare for your exams

Study with the several resources on Docsity

Earn points to download
Earn points to download

Earn points by helping other students or get them with a premium plan

Guidelines and tips
Guidelines and tips
Sell on Docsity
Sell on Docsity
Log inSign up

Prepare for your exams

Study with the several resources on Docsity

Find documents

Prepare for your exams with the study notes shared by other students like you on Docsity

Search Store documents

The best documents sold by students who completed their studies

Search through all study resources
Docsity AINEW

Summarize your documents, ask them questions, convert them into quizzes and concept maps

Explore questions

Clear up your doubts by reading the answers to questions asked by your fellow students

Earn points to download

Earn points by helping other students or get them with a premium plan

Share documents
download point icon20 Points

For each uploaded document

Answer questions
download point icon5 Points

For each given answer (max 1 per day)

All the ways to get free points
Get points immediately

Choose a premium plan with all the points you need

Study Opportunities

Choose your next study program

Get in touch with the best universities in the world. Search through thousands of universities and official partners

Community

Ask the community

Ask the community for help and clear up your study doubts

University Rankings

Discover the best universities in your country according to Docsity users

Free resources

Our save-the-student-ebooks!

Download our free guides on studying techniques, anxiety management strategies, and thesis advice from Docsity tutors

From our blog

Exams and Study
Go to the blog

Opera's 'Golden Age': Innovation & Nationalism in Italian & German Opera, Exams of History of Music

Texas A & M University - CommerceHistory of Music

The 'golden age' of opera, a period between 1820 and 1900 marked by innovation and nationalism in italian and german opera. The works and styles of key composers such as rossini, bellini, verdi, wagner, and the russian five. It discusses the evolution of opera from early italian opera to late german opera, highlighting the characteristics, innovations, and important works of each period.

Typology: Exams

Pre 2010

Uploaded on 08/17/2009

koofers-user-eix
koofers-user-eix 🇺🇸

10 documents

1 / 8

Toggle sidebar

This page cannot be seen from the preview

Don't miss anything!

bg1
MUSIC 324: MUSIC HISTORY II
Test 3 Review
I. The “Golden Age” of Opera
A. The years between 1820-1900 are considered the “golden” age of opera
1. 70% of the opera that is performed today was written in this 80 year span
II. Early Italian Opera
A. Background
1. Melody was by far the most important compositional and dramatic element
2. Because of its tradition, Italian opera was conservative
3. Two distinct styles still existed
a. Opera seria
b. Opera buffa
4. Plots usually centered around adventure and emotion
B. Gioachino Rossini
1. Most famous composer of in all of Europe
a. In the 1820s and 1830s, Rossini was far more famous than Beethoven or Schubert
2. Compositional Output
a. 39 operas (both serious and comic)
b. Opera Seria
(1) William Tell
(a) His only truly successful serious opera
c. Opera Buffa
(1) Italian in Algiers
(2) La gazza ladra
(3) The Barber of Seville
(a) Considered his comic masterpiece
(4) Abruptly stopped writing operas at the height of his success
(a) Wrote no operas for the remaining 40 years of his life
3. Style Characteristics
a. Very tuneful, accessible melodies
b. Clear phrases
c. Clean and creative use of orchestra
d. “Rossini” crescendo
(1) Trademark where he would repeat a 1-2 measure phrases continuously while
executing a crescendo
e. Most important trait was, like Mozart, he was effortlessly able to convey drama and
humor while still making everything entertaining
C. Opera after Rossini
1. Vincenzo Bellini
a. Important Work
(1) Norma
2. Gaetano Donizetti
a. Important Works
(1) Lucia di Lammermoor
(2) Don Pasquale
pf3
pf4
pf5
pf8

Partial preview of the text

Download Opera's 'Golden Age': Innovation & Nationalism in Italian & German Opera and more Exams History of Music in PDF only on Docsity!

MUSIC 324: MUSIC HISTORY II

Test 3 Review

I. The “Golden Age” of Opera A. The years between 1820-1900 are considered the “golden” age of opera

  1. 70% of the opera that is performed today was written in this 80 year span

II. Early Italian Opera A. Background

  1. Melody was by far the most important compositional and dramatic element
  2. Because of its tradition, Italian opera was conservative
  3. Two distinct styles still existed a. Opera seria b. Opera buffa
  4. Plots usually centered around adventure and emotion B. Gioachino Rossini
  5. Most famous composer of in all of Europe a. In the 1820s and 1830s, Rossini was far more famous than Beethoven or Schubert
  6. Compositional Output a. 39 operas (both serious and comic) b. Opera Seria (1) William Tell (a) His only truly successful serious opera c. Opera Buffa (1) Italian in Algiers (2) La gazza ladra (3) The Barber of Seville (a) Considered his comic masterpiece (4) Abruptly stopped writing operas at the height of his success (a) Wrote no operas for the remaining 40 years of his life
  7. Style Characteristics a. Very tuneful, accessible melodies b. Clear phrases c. Clean and creative use of orchestra d. “Rossini” crescendo (1) Trademark where he would repeat a 1-2 measure phrases continuously while executing a crescendo e. Most important trait was, like Mozart, he was effortlessly able to convey drama and humor while still making everything entertaining C. Opera after Rossini
  8. Vincenzo Bellini a. Important Work (1) Norma
  9. Gaetano Donizetti a. Important Works (1) Lucia di Lammermoor (2) Don Pasquale

III. Late Italian Opera A. Giuseppe Verdi

  1. Background a. After Donizetti, the next fifty years of Italian Opera was dominated by Verdi
  2. 1 st^ Style Period (1839-1849) a. Influenced by Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini b. Innovations (1) Less recitative and more compressed arias (2) Increased use of chorus c. Important Work (1) Nabucco
  3. 2 nd^ Style Period (1850-1855) a. Innovations (1) Characters depicted with finer psychological distinction (2) Fewer arias (3) Increased duets b. Important Works (1) Rigoletto (a) Based on Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame (2) La Traviata
  4. 3 rd^ Style Period (1855-1871) a. Innovations (1) Increased chromaticism/more adventurous harmonically (2) Dictates that drama must unfold without interruption b. Important Works (1) La Forza del Destino (2) Aida
  5. 4 th^ Period (1880-1901) a. Innovations (1) Disappearance of set numbers (2) Rise of constant music b. Important Works (1) Othello (2) Falstaff
  6. Overall Innovations a. Retention of characterization in ensemble numbers (1) First use of ensemble numbers in serious opera (2) Characters retain their character throughout instead of in isolated flashes b. Musical Depiction of Character (1) Writes small sections representing different emotions (2) Usually achieved by presenting the motives in the orchestra and then incorporating them into the vocal line
  7. Nationalism a. Verdi was uncompromising in his Italian nationalism and firmly believed that each nation should cultivate the kind of music that was native to it b. In his operas until 1871 (end of 3rd^ Period), many choruses were thinly veiled appeals to the patriotism of his countrymen for national unity and against foreign domination c. Verdi’s name became a patriotic symbol and rallying cry with “Viva Verdi” (1) Stood for “Viva Vittorio Emanuele Re D’Italia” (Long Live Victor Emanuel, King of Italy)

b. Important Works (1) Rienzi (2) Flying Dutchman (3) Tannhauser (4) Lohengrin

  1. Operas Post- a. Philosophy (1) Gesamtkunswerk (“Total Art Work”) (a) Incorporation of an poetry, scenic design, staging, action, and music (2) Subject matter (a) Used German/Norse mythology for several reasons because of an overuse of Greek and Roman mythology and he wanted to bring the folk heritage of the people to the people (3) Opera as social change (a) Wanted his works to echo the virtues of the future so his audiences could learn from his message and institute future social changes b. Innovations (1) Form (a) Broke from tradition notion—shunned set numbers in favor of “formlessness” (2) Harmony (a) Typical progressions will lead to an anticipated climax or resolution

(3) Leitmotif (a) Distinguished his romantic operas (pre-1850) from his musical dramas (post-1850) (b) Musical motive representing a character, emotion, or situation (4) Versemelodie (Verse Melody) (a) Vocal line expresses the surface meaning of the present (5) Orchestermelodie (Orchestra melody) (a) Orchestra represents what is unspoken or subconscious (through the leitmotif) c. Important Texts (1) Art and Revolution (2) The Artwork of the Future (3) Opera and Drama (a) Stated his new philosophies for Gesamtkunswerk d. Important Works (1) Tristan und Isolde (2) Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (3) Der Ring des Nibelungen (a) Das Rheingold (“The Gold of the Rhine”) (b) Die Walküre (“The Valkyrie”) (c) Siegfried (d) Die Götterdämmerung (4) Parsifal B. Comparison between Wagner and Verdi

  1. Know Comparison Chart

VI. The Symphonic Poem A. Program Music

  1. Symphonic Poem (Tone Poem) a. Created by Liszt b. The main form of program music in the late 19th^ Century (1) The character piece and the symphonic poem are the two new genres created in the 19th^ Century c. Definition (1) A one-movement orchestral work who inspiration came from literature, history, paintings, or an extra-musical event d. Characteristics (1) Form (a) The form of the symphonic poem was dictated by the musical depiction of its program (2) Thematic Transformation (a) Composers turned to thematic transformation to help unify their symphonic poems
  2. Examples a. Les Preludes (1854) (1) Musical depiction of the Lamartine poem, Poetic Meditations b. Don Quixote (1896-1897) (1) Musical dramatization of Cervantes’ book by the same name (2) Each main character has its own key area (3) Each character has its own characteristic instrument

VII. The Origins of Musical Nationalism A. Began in the later part of the 19th^ century and brought about through political changes in Europe

  1. Throughout most of the early part of the century there were few true large countries
  2. Instead, a lot of Europe was made up of small principalities or city-states
  3. As the century progressed, Europe became organized into around a dozen strongly unified, centrally governed nation-states
  4. With this unification, a type of national pride in heritage, language, and culture grew within each country
  5. Distinct national cultures grew not only in the more powerful countries like Germany and Italy but in the smaller nations like Russia, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Finland
  6. This spawned a movement within individual countries to create its own style of music, separate from the Germans and Italians a. Composers felt their countries own traditions were being compromised b. Also realized that if they were ever to be considered as equals, it would not be by copying German and Italian music
  7. Each of these countries began to develop unique, artistic individual styles based on a foundation of folk traditions (i.e. stories, dances, songs, etc.)
  8. The growth of these national styles is known as Nationalism

X. Impressionism A. Background

  1. Around the turn of the century, there was an anti-German feeling throughout Europe
  2. Most powerful opposition came from France a. They now viewed his music as too sentimental and too heavy
  3. Movement against German Romanticism was called Impressionism a. Began as a movement in art in the 1870s with young French painters living in Paris b. Their art was the first to turn against the representational (the idea that things should be painted exactly as they appear in reality) B. Claude Debussy
  4. Pitch Materials a. Use of exotic scales and modes
  5. Melody a. Melodic fragments (no long lines)
  6. Harmony a. Most innovative features b. Planing c. Tertian chords d. Chords w. added tones e. Non-traditional cadences (or no cadence at all)
  7. Rhythm a. Avoidance of recognizable meter or metric accents b. Expressive use of silence
  8. Orchestration a. Harp (prominently featured) b. Low register of flute c. Extensively muted brass and strings
  9. Texture a. Although he employed a very large orchestra with an extensive percussion section he rarely used them at the same time