Grade 9 Mapeh Music (4th Qtr.)

• Opera


  An art form that combines music, drama, visual arts, and dance
• Opera


  • Incorporates many elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes
  • Performance is typically given in an opera house, accompanied by a musical ensemble
• Opera was born out of the experimentation of the Florentine Camerata, the creators of monody, who attempted to recreate the theatrical arts of the Ancient Greeks
• Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes
• The performance of an opera is typically given in an opera house, accompanied by a musical ensemble
• one or more singers performing without instrumental accompaniment

  a cappella
• components of an opera

  • libretto the text of an opera
  • score the book that the composer and the librettist put together
  • recitative singing, declamatory and used in the prose parts and dialogue of opera
  • aria solo singing part sung by a principal character
• male voice types


  • tenor highest male voice
  • baritone middle male voice it lies between the bass and the tenor voices
  • bass lowest male voice
• female voice types


  • soprano highest female voice
  • contralto lowest female voice
  • mezzo-soprano most common female voice strong middle voice tone is darker or deeper than the soprano
• a cappella


  one or more singers performing without instrumental accompaniment
• cantabile


  in a singing style
• capo


  the beginning
• coda


  closing section appended to the movement or song
• falsetto


  a weaker or more airy voice usually in the higher pitch arranges
• glissando


  sliding quickly between two notes
• passagio


  parts of a singing voice where registered transition occurred
• rubato


  slight speeding up or slowing down of the tempo of a piece at the discretion of the solos
• tessitura


  the most comfortable singing range of a singer
• vibrato


  rapidly repeated slight pitch variation during a sustained note to give a richer and more varied sound