Classical Era
Opera and Vocal Music in the
Early Classic Period
Style in Classical Music
Melody – singable symmetrical, lyrical.
Harmony- diatonic, tonic to dominant
relationships
Rhythm – regular and symmetrical
Texture- Homophonic with some polyphony
at times.
Folk elements: national themes, folk
themes, dances etc. used in instrumental
works.
Choral Music
Principal Forms
Mass: Tridentine Missa Romanum (Roman
after the Council of Trent)
Missa Solemnis (solemn or High Mass)
Missa Brevis (short Mass or Kyrie & Gloria
only)
Requiem: Mass for the Dead
Oratorio: The style of Handel updated to
classical style by Mozart and Haydn.
Principal Forms
Mozart wrote several Missa Brevis, Missa
Solemnis and began a Requiem.
Haydn wrote several Missa Solemnis, and
two Oratorios.
From Church to Concert Hall.
Classical Choral Music
and Opera
Desire for simplicity in Opera
New forms of popular opera arose in the
Classical period.
18th century Opera was a potent social
force
Baroque
Opera evolution
recitative
aria (solo) recitative
aria recitative . . .
action
emote
emote
action
action . . .
Classical/Mozart
recitative
aria (solo) recitative
ensemble . . .
action
emote
emotion & action ...
action
contrasting emotions
Classical Vocal Style
Recitative And God Said Let there be lights…
Secco recitative: dry or without full orchestral
accompaniment.
Recitative: In splendor bright…
Accompagnato: full orchestra
Chorus: Homophonic with polyphonic soloists.
Classical Opera
Shift from Opera Seria to Comic Opera
Opera Buffa-Italy
Opera Comique-France
Singspiel-Germany
Ballad or Dialogue Opera-England
Opera Seria
Grand Opera
Sung in Italian
Serious Subjects:
Mythology
History
National Folk Heroes
Art for the Aristocracy
Opera seria
Opera buffa influenced music of
opera seria
Pietro Metastasio (libretti set as
operas hundreds of times by
Handel, Gluck, Mozart et al)
success in Venice led to
becoming court poet in Vienna
(1729); remained there for life
Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782)
heroic operas present
conflicts in human passions;
promoted morality; models of
merciful/enlightened rulers
recitatives (action) & arias
(soliloquies)
Opera seria
Role of orchestra: simply to accompany
singers
Da capo aria: RA RB R’A’ (R=ritornello)
fermatas indicate cadenzas
Great master: Johann Adolph Hasse
(husband of Bordoni)
Johann Adolph Hasse (1699-1783)
The leading composer
of opera seria
around the middle
of the 18th century.
Faustina Bordoni
(1700-1781)
Hasse’s wife, one
of the century's
leading
sopranos.
Hasse
Very popular in Europe mid-century and
influenced Mozart and other composers
Example of typical embellishment
Excerpts from Cleofide: Act II, Scene 9,
Digli ch’io son fedele
Hasse: Cleofide, Digli ch’io son fedele
Embellishment by Porporino (castrato)
Comic Opera
Sung in the vernacular
Farcical plots
Satire on the Aristocracy
Mild to raunchy sexual content.
Love affair farces.
The Conflict…
What is THE style of the STATE.
People looked to the aristocracy to define the
“Music of the People.”
Free theaters.
Rules handed down from the state regarding
content in theaters.
By the end of the Classical Period, audiences
defined national styles, not the aristocracy.
Reasons for the conflict
Need for simplicity.
Need for “reality” in entertainment.
Need for musical entertainment that has
mass appeal and not just entertainment for
the “royals.”
Opera begins to be a social force by
exposing reality on the stage.
Reasons for the conflict
Opera exposes the true life of the royals.
Exposes the secrets and ideas of Free
masonry and other “secret societies.”
Opera Buffa
Dramma giocoso (jocular drama), dramma
comico, commedia in musica
In Italy, dialog SUNG
Caricatured aristocrats, commoners, vanity,
miserly old men, servants, deceitful
spouses, lawyers/notaries, physicians,
military
Commedia dell’arte & use of dialects
Opera Buffa
Comic cast + serious characters
Rapid recitative called patter
Dry/secco recitative
Arias: short tuneful phrases, simple
harmonies
Importance of Leonardo Vinci (Le zite
‘ngalera, Spinsters in the Gallery) 1722
The Intermezzo
Type of Italian comic opera, descended
from short comic musical interludes
between acts of tragedies
Comic Opera
The best-known intermezzo is La serva padrona
(The Maid as Mistress, 1733), by Giovanni
Battista Pergolesi. In opera buffa, as well as
in the intermezzi, dialogue was set in rapid
recitatives keyboard accompaniment, and the
arias used short tuneful phrases and periods
over simple harmonies.
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
(1710-1736)
La serva padrona excerpt (Vol II, 7)
Recitative: Ah, quanto mi sta male
Aria: Son imbrogliato io
Comic Opera
Differs by country but in vernacular, light in
content, everyday people as characters
2 significant aspects
demand for naturalness
beginnings of musical nationalism
Italy
Opera buffa yields to opera giocoso
(nontragic, pleasant, but not farcical)
Bass voice, especially basso buffo roles
Ensemble finale, unlike opera seria
France
Opéra comique, 1710, lowly form of
entertainment at parish fairs, pop tunes
(vaudevilles)
1752, including Pergolesi’s La serva
padrona, started new genres with original
ariettes introduced
Querelle des bouffons (Quarrel of the comic
actors) 1774 (Italian vs French opera)
Alternating spoken dialogue + musical
numbers was popular
England
Ballad opera, The Beggar’s Opera in 1728
The Beggar’s Opera
The Beggar's Opera is a comic farce,
poking accurate fun at the prevailing fashion
in Italian opera as
well as the social
and political
climate of the age
John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera
Ballad Opera: Dialogue opera
Spoken dialogue
Familiar tunes
Bawdy texts
Very funny for the time
Through all the employments of life
Each neighbor abuses his brother;
Whore and rogue they call husband and wife;
All professions be-rogue one another.
The priest calls the lawyer a cheat;
The lawyer be-knaves the divine;
And the statesman, because he's so great,
Thinks his trade as honest as mine.
The Beggar’s Opera
Direct satire on High Italian Opera
“Why how now, Madam Flirt
Part of the jealousy scene.
Lucy and Polly in a snit over one man.
Familiar English Melody
No Pow’r on Earth
Love song using cockney accent
I like the Fox shall grieve
Tune: The Lass of Patie’s Mill… very familiar
The Beggar’s Opera
Excerpt from Scene 13
Air XV
Air XVI
Germany
Singspiel was revived; translating ballad
operas and opera comique works
Johann Adam Hiller (Leipzig)
Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf and his Doctor
und Apotheker (1786) later Haydn
Opera Reform
Jommelli and Traetta
Christoph Willibald Gluck
Synthesized French & Italian
Raniero de Calzabigi (librettist &
collaborator with Gluck)
Preface to Alceste (1767) remove abuses,
serve poetry, advance plot, no da capo
arias, singer excesses, overture integral to
opera
Lessen contrast in recitative & aria
Christoph Willibald Gluck
(1714-1787)
Beautiful simplicity, e.g.,
Che farò senza Euridice?
His works became the
models for others:
Piccinni, Cherubini,
Spontini, Berlioz
Change CD to NAWM 2, 88
Gluck’s influence
The following are reasons Gluck's work is
historically significant:
He established an equilibrium between
music and drama.
He made some reforms in opera seria and
revitalized opéra comique.
He blended elements of French, German,
and Italian opera.
Major Style Changes: Opera
Baroque serious Italian Opera wanes in England
and throughout Europe.
John Gay’s Beggar Opera provides a new style
that was more appealing to the masses.
Opera Seria: Serious Italian Opera, Italian
language, serious texts, mythology, history,
elaborate, all sung.
Opera Buffa: Comedic opera, spoken texts, satire
of the aristocracy. Recognizable tunes.
The end