Announcement
• Activity 2 due March 20
Review from last class
• What are some musical innovations
Beethoven made?
• What is the Heiligenstadt Testament?
• How is Beethoven’s Fifth unified?
Classical sacred music
• Not the most important type of music
in this period, but some good
examples of…
• Mass
• Oratorio
Haydn’s Creation
• Listening guide 34
• Haydn was a fan of Handel’s
oratorios..
• Heard them in London
• Modeled on Handel, but in a more
modern, 18th-c. style
Haydn’s Creation
• In English
• Characters who sing:
• the archangels (Raphael, Gabriel,
Uriel)
• Adam and Eve
Haydn’s Creation
• Opens with recitative (narration)
• Opening depicts the earth being
made out of chaos
• How could creation be depicted in
music?
• a long CRESCENDO in the orchestra
• In text recitative ext painting in next
recitative?
Haydn’s Creation
• Chorus “The heavens are telling”
• ABA form
• Alternation of textures...
• First homophonic chorus
• Trio of archangels
• Repeat of chorus, more polyphonic
Classical Opera
• Two types
• 1. Opera seria (serious opera)
• 2. Comic opera
• These have very distinct styles of
music
Opera seria
• serious subjects- legends, heros,
ancient history and mythology
• Very formulaic series of events
Comic opera
• down to earth subjects
• acting is more fluid and realistic
• Often deals with lower class
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•
•
•
characters
national types …
ballad opera- English text
Singspiel- German texts
opera buffa- Italian texts
Mozart’s operas
• Include all types
• Most are in Italian (a few in German)
• all with unsurpassed characterization
in music
• Different styles of music for different
characters and events
Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro
• Italian comic opera (called opera
•
•
•
•
buffa)
Play by Beaumarchais
banned in France by Louis XVI and in
Vienna, because of its …
satire of the aristocracy -- servants
outwit their masters
Allowed in Vienna when the Emperor
saw Mozart’s version
Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro
• libretto (text) by Da Ponte (original
play had to be shortened and
translated into Italian)
• Fusion of comic and serious
elements (countess is treated like a
“seria” character-from the upper
classes)
• Ensembles -- advance drama (not just
recitative)
Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro
• Count and Countess-- rulers of the
house
• Figaro and Susanna - servants about
to get married; the smarter
characters in the opera
• Cherubino- a teenager who flirts with
everybody
• Basilio- a gossip who likes to cause
trouble
Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro
• Count has a crush on Susanna …
• Even though she is Figaro’s fiance, the
Count has the right to spent the night
with her (because F. is his servant).
• Cherubino has a crush on Susanna,
AND on the Countess… WHY? …
• because they are women
• Earlier, the Count caught Cherubino
hiding behind a chair: Cherubino had
Opera vocabulary review
• Recitative…
• A speechlike style
• No regular rhythm
• Moves action along
• Aria…
• More lyrical
• Regular rhythm
Figaro: Scene 6-7, Act 1
• Aria: by Cherubino- sings/flirts with
Susanna
• expresses his irrepressible love for
all women
• Music is rhythmically urgent,
capturing the spirit of his
youthfulness.
Recitative: Action I
• Enter Count-- to seduce Susanna
• Cherubino hides under a chair
• Enter Basilio -- to work for the Count
to get Susanna to like him
• Count hides under the chair- AND
• Cherubino slides to the front
Recitative: Action II
• Basilio - mentions that maybe
Cherubino was Susana’s lover, not
the Count
• Count gets MAD and comes out of
hiding
• Susanna pretends to faint
Ensemble (trio)
• Characters react differently to
situation and…
• They sing differently, but somehow
harmoniously
• Count is brought to level of servants
because has to play their game
Ensemble (trio)
• Count, Sussana, Basilio sing together
• Count describes how he caught
Cherubino flirting with another
servant by lifting up a cover behind a
chair
• He demonstrates this-- and finds
Cherubino AGAIN
Ensemble (trio)
• Mozart added ACTION to the
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•
•
•
ensemble
The ensemble is in Sonata-allegro
form
Exposition with two themes
Development (Cheubino gets caught)
Recapituation with the two themes in
the tonic
Sacred music in Class.
period
• Not the most important genre…
• But a number of