Music

• Vocal music


  One of the best tools for expressing one's feelings
• Romantic period


  • Basic quality is emotional subjectivity
  • Composers explore feelings of grandiosity, intimacy, unpredictability, sadness, rapture and longing
• Romantic vocal forms


  • Art song
  • Operas
• Art song


  Written for solo voice and piano, has inspiration from poetry
• Opera


  Musical composition having all or most of its text set to music with arias, recitative, choruses, duets, trios etc. sung to orchestral accompaniment
• Components of an opera

  • Libretto
  • Score
  • Recitative
  • Aria
  • Acts
  • Scenes
• Libretto


  The text of an opera
• Score


  Book that the composer and librettist put together, containing all the musical notes, words and ideas to help the performers tell the story
• Recitative


  Declamatory singing used in the prose and dialogue of opera
• Aria


  An air or solo singing part sung by a principal character
• Acts


  The main divisions of an opera
• Scenes


  The setting or place in an opera
• Franz Peter Schubert


  • Developed Lieder (German songs) to have a powerful dramatic impact
  • Composed Gretchen am Spinrad, Erlkönig, Ellens Gesang III (Ave Maria)
• Schubert was born


  1797
• Schubert died


  1828
• Giuseppe Verdi


  • Wrote operas with ordinary people as characters, not royalty
  • Insisted on good librettos and wrote operas with political overtones for middle class audiences
  • Expressive vocal melody is the soul of a Verdi opera
• Verdi was born


  1813
• Verdi died


  1901
• Richard Wagner


  • Introduced new ideas in harmony and form, including extremes of chromaticism
  • Explored the limits of the traditional tonal system
  • Developed a compositional style where the orchestra has equal dramatic importance as the singers
  • Used leitmotifs (musical sequences representing characters or plot elements)
• Wagner was born


  1813
• Wagner died


  1883
• Georges Bizet


  • Became famous for his operas, most notably Carmen
  • Carmen was initially poorly received but later became one of the most popular operas ever written
• Bizet was born


  1838
• Bizet died


  1875
• La traviata


  Romantic tragedy opera by Verdi, based on the play La dame aux camélias by Alexandre Dumas
• Synopsis of La traviata

  Violetta, a beautiful but frail courtesan, meets and falls in love with Alfredo. Alfredo's father demands Violetta renounce Alfredo, which she does. Violetta becomes ill and destitute, but Alfredo returns and seeks her forgiveness as she dies in his arms.
• Madame Butterfly


  Famous opera by Puccini, based on a short story
• Violeta


  Determined to make the sacrifice, then departs and leaves only a note for Alfredo
• Violeta appears at a ball in Flora's house on the arm of an old admirer Baron Dufoul


  Makes Alfredo angry
• Alfredo challenges the Baron to play cards


  Alfredo wins consistently
• Unable to persuade Violetta to go with him

  Alfredo insults her
• Violetta becomes ill


  All her friends desert her, leaving her virtually penniless
• Alfredo returns to Violetta

  His father told him of the real story behind Violeta's departure and urged him to seek her forgiveness
• Overjoyed at the sight of him


  Violetta attempts to rise but falls into Alfredo's arms
• Madame Butterfly


  One of the famous operas during the Romantic period
• Composer


  Giacomo Puccini
• Libretto


  Written in Italian by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, from the short story by John Luther Long derived from Pierre Lottie's tale
• Setting


  Nagasaki, Japan at the beginning of the 20th century
• Synopsis of Madame Butterfly

  1. American naval lieutenant Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton met Shasha-san (Butterfly) and was captivated by her beauty

  2. Pinkerton rented a Japanese house and part of his rental package is his betrothal to Shoshosan, treating the marriage merely as a casual affair

  3. Pinkerton returns to America after the wedding, leaving Shawshasan loyally waiting for his return

  4. Pinkerton marries an American woman named Kate

  5. When he returned to Japan three years later with his American wife, he learns that he bore a son with Shasha-san

  6. Upon learning that Pinkerton had married another woman, Shasha-san kills herself to make sure that Pinkerton takes their son with him
• Male singer voice types

  • Tenor (highest male voice)
  • Baritone (middle male voice)
  • Bass (lowest male voice)