MAPEH Music

• Vocal music in the Romantic period requires singers to perform a greater range of tone, color, dynamics, and pitch. Because of this, Opera became an important source of musical expressions.
• Romantic artists

  Found inspiration in landscapes, traditional myths, legends, and folklore that usually deal with the supernatural, grotesque, and less ordinary
• Vocal music in the Romantic period


  • Parallelism of music and literature were clearly evident in almost all forms
  • Requires singers to perform a greater range of tone, color, dynamics, and pitch
• Opera


  A musical composition having all or most of its text set to music with arias, recitative, choruses, duets, trios, etc. sung to orchestral accompaniment, usually characterized by elaborate costumes, scenery, and choreography
• Components of an opera

  • Libretto (the text of an opera, librettist and composer work closely together to tell a story)
  • Score (the book that the composer and the librettist put together, has all the musical notes, words, and ideas to help the performers tell the story)
  • Recitative (declamatory singing, used in the prose parts and dialogue of opera)
  • Aria (an air or solo singing part sung by a principal character)
• Different roles in operas are created taking into account different types of voices
• Musical terms used


  • A Capella (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)
  • Passagio (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)
• Libretto


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


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


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


  An air or solo singing part sung by a principal character, this song is what the public will remember best when leaving the opera house
• Franz Peter Schubert


  • Considered the last of the Classical composers and one of the first Romantic ones
  • Developed lieder so that they had a powerful dramatic impact on the listeners
  • Famous vocal music works/lieder: "Gretchen am Spinnrade", "Erlkonig", "Ave Maria", and "Swan Song"
• Giuseppe Verdi


  • Almost all of his works are serious love stories with unhappy endings
  • His characters are ordinary people and not those of the royal family like those found in German operas
  • Expressive vocal melody is the soul of Verdi opera
  • Completed 25 operas throughout his career, his much acclaimed works are: "La Traviata", "Rigoletto", "Falstaff", and "Aida"
• Giacomo Puccini


  • Belonged to a group of composers who stressed realism, therefore, he drew material from everyday life, rejecting heroic themes from mythology and history
  • His famous operas were: "La Boheme", "Tosca", "Madame Butterfly", and "Turandot"
• Richard Wagner


  • Introduced new ideas in harmony and in form, including extremes of chromaticism
  • Explored the limits of the traditional tonal system that gave keys and chords their own identities which paved the way for the rise of atonality in the 20th century
  • Advocate of a new form of opera which he called "music drama" where musical and dramatic elements were fused together
  • Developed a compositional style in which the orchestra has of equal importance in dramatic roles as the singers themselves
  • His famous works are: "Tristan and Isolde", "Die Walkyrie", and "Parsifal"
  • His works later influence modern film scores including those of "Harry Potter" and "Lord of the Rings"
• Georges Bizet


  • Became famous for his operas, his most famous opera is "Carmen"
  • Died during the first round of "Carmen" performances (June 3, 1875)
• Nicanor Abelardo


  • A Filipino romantic composer who composed "Ang Unang Buko"
  • His quick mastery of the instruments has made him a prodigy in town
  • Wrote his first composition, "Ang Unang Buko" and dedicated it to his grandmother in 1901
• The Voice Idols


  1. Choose one song used in a musical play or opera

  2. Sing the whole song in a group and perform it in the class

  3. No duplication of songs

  4. Groupings will depend on what we will agree today in class
• Melody- 10, Performance Delivery- 25, Vocal Tone Quality- 15, Total- 50 points