Music (1)

• Music of The Romantic Period (1820-1910)


  • Parallelisms of music and literature were clearly evident in almost all forms of vocal music
  • Composers use music to interpret poems, mood, atmosphere, and imagery
  • Compositions were written for solo voice and piano
  • Artists found inspiration in landscapes, thus common subjects were traditional myths, legends, and folklore
  • Vocal music in this period require singers to perform a greater range of tone color, dynamics and pitch; making opera as an important source of musical expressions
• Lieder


  German word for song
• Franz Peter Schubert


  • He developed lieder to deliver a powerful dramatic impact on the listeners
  • He found inspiration from poems of writers like Johann Goethe
  • He was the last of the classical composers and one of the first romantic composers
• Famous works/lieder of Schubert

  • Gretchen Am Spinnrade
  • Erlkonig
  • Ellens Gesang III (Ave Maria)
  • Schwanenge Sang (Swan Song)
• Giuseppe Verdi


  • He wrote operas with political overtones and for middle-class audiences
  • Most of his works are about serious love stories with unhappy endings (Melodrama)
  • He completed 25 operas throughout his career
  • His final opera ends with "All the world's a joke"
• Giacomo Puccini


  • He belonged to a group of composers who stressed realism, therefore, he drew material from everyday life, rejecting heroic themes from mythology and history
• Richard Wagner


  • He was inspired by Ludwig Van Beethoven
  • Wagner exerted a strong influence on the operatic medium
  • Wagner introduced new ideas in harmony and in form, including extremes of chromaticism
  • He also explored the limits of the traditional tonal system which gave rise to the tonality of the 20th century
  • He was an advocate of a new form of opera which he called "music drama" where musical and dramatic elements were fused together
  • He developed a compositional style in which the orchestra has equal importance in dramatic roles as the singers themselves
  • The expressiveness is aided by the use of "leitmotifs" or musical sequences standing for a particular character/plot element
  • His works became an inspiration and influenced modern film scores such as the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings
• Romantic Opera


  • Opera was popular during the Romantic period
  • There are operas with overtures, preludes, prologues, several acts, finales and postludes
  • During each act, the story unfolds through the music that the singers sing
  • Most dialogues are sung or in recitative style
  • Different roles in operas are created taking into account different types of voices. Each role requires a different type of singer, not only able to sing a given vocal range but also with certain voice characteristics, color and power
• Vocal Classifications


  • Soprano
  • Alto
  • Tenor
  • Baritone
  • Bass
• Libretto


  The texts of an opera, where the librettist and the composer work closely together to tell the story
• Score


  The book that the composer and librettist put together, with all the musical notes, words and ideas to help the performers tell the story, often including overtures, preludes, prologues, several acts, finales and postludes
• Recitative


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


  An air or solo singing part that the public will remember best when leaving the opera house; properly and well sung, a beautiful aria can bring an audience to its feet and decide the fate of an entire opera
• Common Musical Terms


  • Acapella - one or more singers performing without instrumental accompaniment
  • Cantabile - in singing style
  • Capo - head, the beginning
  • Dolce - sweetly
  • Falsetto - a weaker and more airy voice usually in the higher pitch range
  • Glissando - sliding quickly between 2 notes
  • Passaggio - parts of a singing voice where register transitions occur
  • Rubato - slight speeding up or slowing down of the tempo of a piece at the discretion of the soloist
  • 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
• Nicanor Abelardo

  • He was born in San Miguel De Mayumo, Bulacan on February 7, 1893.
  • His parents are Valentin Abelardo and Placida Santa Ana.
  • His mother belonged to a family of artists in Guagua, the Henson.
  • He was introduced to music when he was five years old when his father taught him the solfeggio, the bandurria, and the guitar at 6.
• Nicanor Abelardo

  • His quick mastery of the instruments has made him a prodigy in town.
  • He could play his father's arrangement of Rossini's "William Tell Overture" on the guitar at age 6.
  • He also learned the violin and other string instruments given to him by his father, and he learned how to play quickly without much difficulty.
  • In 1901, he wrote his first composition, "Ang Unang Buko" and dedicated it to his grandmother.
• Works of Giuseppe Verdi

  • La Traviata
  • Rigoletto
  • Falstaff
  • Otello
  • Aida
• Works of Giacomo Puccini

  • La Boheme
  • Tosca
  • Madame Butterfly
  • Turandot
• Works of Richard Wagner

  • Tristan and Isolde
  • Die Walkure
  • Die Meitersinger
  • Tannhauser
  • Parsifal