Chapter 10: Opera and Vocal Music in the Late Seventeenth Century

Opera in the Late Seventeenth Century

1. Venice
1. This city continued to be the main center for Italian opera.
2. Singers became the main attraction.
1. Famous singers were highly paid.
2. Composers began to write arias to serve as singers' vehicles.
3. The number of arias in an opera grew from ca. twenty-four in the middle of the century to sixty in the 1670s.
1. The favorite aria form was strophic.
2. Also common were two- and three-part arias in forms such as AB, ABB, and ABA.
3. Many arias had refrains.
3. Venetian opera was exported.
1. Carlo Pallavicino (1630–1688) and Agostino Steffani (1654–1728), worked in Germany.
1. CHMW, ex. 10.1, shows the coloratura passages and modest dimensions of Steffani's style.
2. Typical features of the period are a motto beginning, in which the voice announces a short subject that will be developed later in the aria, and a walking bass accompaniment.
2. Naples
1. This city was home to the new style that would become predominant.
2. Composers in Naples were more concerned with musical elegance and less with the drama.
3. Alessandro Scarlatti (1660–1725) and the Naples style
1. Recitatives were short and expressed quick changes of feeling in two styles:
1. Recitativo semplice (or recitativosecco) was more speechlike, conveying dialogue or monologue with only basso continuo accompaniment.
2. Recitativo obbligato (later also called recitativo accompagnato or strumento) emphasized tense moments in the drama and was accompanied by the orchestra, which reinforced the emotions.
3. Recitativo arioso (aria-like recitative) was a blend of recitative and aria.
2. The da capo aria was the favorite aria form.
1. Da capo means "to the head," the words at the close of the second section that tell the performers to repeat the first section
2. Used for two contrasting, but related, sentiments
3. Example: NAWM 66 and CHWM, ex. 10.2, Mi rivedi from La Griselda (1721)
1. The "A" section portrays Griselda's dejection after being sent home by her husband, (You see me again . . .) in C minor.
2. The "B" section portrays her joy at returning home (Yet there is . . .), modulating from C minor to E-flat major.
3. An opening ritornello is not repeated before the return to the "A" section (repeat of "A" section is indicated as "Dal segno" instead of da capo).
4. A ritornello also closes the aria.
3. France
1. Although Italian operas were produced in France, French genres of staged music evolved separately.
2. French national traditions
1. Ballet had flourished since the sixteenth century.
2. Classical French tragedy, such as works by Pierre Corneille (1606–1684) and Jean Racine (1639–1699), demanded that poetry and drama be given priority on stage.
3. Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632–1687)
1. Biography
1. Born in Italy, came to Paris at a young age
2. Member of King Louis XIV's vingt-quatre violons du roy (the twenty-four member string orchestra of the king) for which he also composed
3. In 1672 became the virtual musical dictator of France when his Académie Royale de Musique was granted a monopoly on sung drama
2. He developed the tragédie en musique (later called tragédie lyrique), which reconciled the demands of drama, music and ballet.
1. To libretti on mythological plots by Jean-Philippe Quinault
2. Frequent long interludes with dancing and choral singing, popular with French audiences
3. Dances from the sung dramas so popular they were often arranged into suites
3. Lully's adaptation of recitative in the French language
1. récitatif simple, using shifting meter to declaim the dialogue
2. récitatif mesuré, which was more songlike, for example, NAWM 68b and CHWM, ex. 10.3, Armide (1686) uses mixed duple and triple measures, allowing accented syllables to fall on downbeats.
4. French ouverture, a two-part movement before ballets, was established by Lully and used by other composers for the rest of the Baroque era.
1. The first section is homophonic, slow and majestic, with dotted rhythms.
2. The second section is faster, with some fugal imitation but no less serious.
3. Example: NAWM 68a, Armide (Overture)
4. Lully's followers in France and Germany continued to use five-part string scoring, augmented by a few woodwinds.
4. England
1. Masque was an aristocratic entertainment similar to French court ballet, e.g. Milton's Comus (1634) with music by Henry Lawes (1596–1662) is the best known.
2. Stage plays without music were banned 1649–60.
3. Plays with music (semi-operas) continued to be popular after the Restoration (1660).
4. Henry Purcell (1659–1695) was a student of John Blow and held posts in London.
1. His output includes sacred choral music, instrumental music and incidental music for plays.
2. Dido and Aeneas (1689) was composed for a girls' boarding school.
1. The libretto is an adaptation of Vergil's Aeneid (by Nahum Tate).
2. The work has four principal roles plus a small orchestra (strings and continuo).
3. It is in three acts, taking up only about one hour.
4. It begins with a French overture in the style of Lully.
5. Includes choruses and dances.
6. Recitatives are sensitive to English text declamation.
7. Arias (e.g., NAWM 69, When I am laid in earth) are on a ground bass.
1. Preceded by recitative with a stepwise descent to portray impending death
2. Dido's aria (lament) sung over a descending ground bass line, a technique associated with Italian laments
3. Followed by a chorus, With drooping Wings, using the descending figure again
5. After Purcell, English audiences preferred the products of foreign composers and no national tradition of opera developed.
5. Germany
1. Singspiel ("sing-play"), the German version of opera, used spoken dialogue instead of recitative
2. Hamburg opera (1678–1738)
1. The first public opera house outside Venice
2. Most productions translations or imitations of Italian operas
3. Reinhard Keiser (1674–1739) wrote more than a hundred operas for Hamburg.
1. His style incorporated both Italian and German elements.
2. His librettos were similar to those of Venetian opera.
3. His more virtuoso arias were even more brilliant than Venetian arias.
4. His slower arias were broad and expressive, but not like Italian bel canto.

© 2002 W. W. Norton & Company

Chapter 10: Opera and Vocal Music in the Late Seventeenth Century Other Vocal Music Secular Vocal Music in Italy A. The Cantata Evolved from its roots in monodic strophic variations into a genre with many short, contrasting sections alternating recitatives and arias for solo voice with continuo. The texts were love poems, dramatic narratives, or soliloquys. It was performed for small audiences in rooms without stages or scenery. Because of their small scale, cantatas attained an elegance and refinement that would not be possible in opera. Alessandro Scarlatti composed over six hundred—CHWM, ex. 10.4a, Lascia, deh lascia (Cease, O cease) Expressive dissonances beyond the norm for his generation. Full da capo aria (Ex. 10.4c) Vocal music in Other Countries France Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1634–1704) composed both secular cantatas and sacred oratorios in the Italian style. Louis Nicolas Clérambault (1676–1749) published cantatas with French-style recitatives and Italian-style arias. Germany: Keiser and others wrote sacred and secular music in Italian and German. England Purcell published many vocal pieces (solos, duets, trios) as Orpheus Britannicus, 1698. John Blow published a set of songs in 1700 titled Amphion Anglicus. The catch, or round, with humorous texts was popular for group singing. After 1660 special occasions were celebrated with large choral works. Catholic Church Music Contrapuntal music in Palestrina's style continued throughout the Baroque period. Sacred works in the new style, with concertato style and multiple choirs, were composed alongside Stile antico works. Bologna Basilica of San Petronio was a center of church music composition. Maurizio Cazzati (ca. 1620–1677) published collections of sacred vocal music in stile antico and stile moderno. Catholic Church Music in German-Speaking Countries Munich, Salzburg, and Vienna were centers of Catholic church music. Maurizio Cazzati (Ca. 1620–1707) and Antonio Caldara composed Masses (ca. 1670–1736) and motets in a variety of styles. Church Music in France Marc-Antoine Charpentier introduced the Latin oratorio, combining Italian and French styles with a prominent role for the chorus. Solo motets for voice and continuo set biblical texts and were cultivated at the royal chapel of Louis XIV. Grand motets with preludes, vocal solos, ensembles, and choruses, were also performed at Louis XIV's court. Petit motet was the French equivalent of the sacred concerto for few voices, for example, those of François Couperin (1668–1733) from Matins and Lauds collected in Leçons de ténèbres. Lutheran Church Music, 1650–1750 After the Thirty Years'War Lutheran churches regained their pre-war musical forces. Chorales continued to be the basic Lutheran genre. Abendmusiken, public concerts following church services in Lübeck during Advent Dietrich Buxtehude (ca. 1637–1707), worked at the Marienkirche there Long, quasi-dramatic affairs with recitatives, strophic arias, chorale settings, and instrumental sections Influenced musicians from all over Germany, including J. S. Bach There were two conflicting viewpoints in Lutheran church music. The orthodox view was that all available resources should be used. The Pietists preferred simpler music for personal devotion. The Lutheran church cantata (see vignette in CHWM) resolved the conflict between Pietism and Orthodoxy. Poets wrote sacred poems for musical settings. Texts were based on the church calendar and often came from the day's readings. The poetic forms invited da capo aria settings. Several poets wrote cycles for the entire church year. Musical elements included chorale, solo song, recitative and aria. J.S. Bach would become the greatest master of the church cantata. Passions Lutheran Germany preferred the historia, which set a biblical narrative, over the oratorio. The most important type of historia was the Passion, which set the suffering and death of Christ according to Gospel accounts. Oratorio Passion employs recitatives, arias, ensembles, choruses, and instrumental movements.

© 2002 W. W. Norton & Company