Vocal Music

• Vocal music


  One of the best tools for expressing one's feelings
• Vocal music


  • Requires singers to perform a greater range of tone, color, dynamics and pitch
• Romantic Period


  Basic quality is emotional subjectivity
• Emotions explored by Romantic composers

  • Grandiosity
  • Intimacy
  • Unpredictability
  • Sadness
  • Rapture
  • Longing
• Romantic composers


  Interpret poems, mood, atmosphere and imaginary into music
• Romantic vocal forms

  • Art songs
  • Operas
• Art song


  Musical composition written for solo voice and piano
• Art song


  Has its inspiration from poetry in this period
• Art song


  Mood is often set at the beginning with piano introduction and concluded with a piano
• Opera


  Became an important source of musical expressions
• Romantic opera composers


  • Franz Peter Schubert
  • Giuseppe Verdi
  • Giacomo Puccini
  • Richard Wagner
  • Georges Bizet
• Franz Peter Schubert


  Considered last of the Classical composers and one of the first romantic ones
• Famous Schubert lieder


  • Gretchen am Spinnrade
  • Erlkonig
  • Ellens Gesang III (Ave Maria)
  • Schwanenge Sang (Swan Song)
• Schubert wrote piano pieces, strings quartets, operetta and Symphony no. 8 in B minor (Unfinished Symphony)
• Giuseppe Verdi


  His characters are ordinary people, insisted on a good libretto and wrote operas with political overtones and for middle-class audience
• Famous Verdi operas

  • La Traviata
  • Rigoletto
  • Falstaff
  • Otello
  • Aida
• Verdi wrote an opera for the opening of the Suez Canal
• Giacomo Puccini


  Drew inspiration from everyday life, rejecting heroic themes from mythology and history
• Famous Puccini operas


  • La Boheme
  • Tosca
  • Madam Butterfly
  • Turandot
• Richard Wagner


  Introduced new ideas in harmony and in form, exerted a strong influence on the operatic medium
• Wagner


  Advocate of a new form of opera which he called "music drama"
• Famous Wagner operas


  • Tristan and Isolde
  • Die Walkyrie
  • Die Meistersinger
  • Tannhauser
  • Parsifal
• Wagner's work would later influence modern film scores including Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings
• Georges Bizet


  Became famous for his operas, his most famous being Carmen
• Bizet died during the first round of Carmen performances on June 3, 1875 at age 36
• Components of opera


  • Libretto
  • Score
  • Recitative
  • Aria
• Male voice types


  • Tenor
  • Baritone
  • Bass
• Female voice types


  • Soprano
  • Coloratura
  • Lyric
  • Mezzo-Soprano
  • Contralto
• Other opera elements

  • Duet
  • Trio
  • Small ensemble
  • Chorus
  • Orchestra
  • Acts
  • Scenes
• Musical terms

  • Acapella
  • Cantabile
  • Capo
  • Dolce
  • Falsetto
  • Glissando
  • Passagio
  • Rubato
  • Tessitura
  • Vibrato
• La Traviata is an opera by Giuseppe Verdi
• Madame Butterfly is an opera by Giacomo Puccini