ch 10

Libretto

"The book" or story in an opera production, inclusive of the layout in acts, scenes, and dialogue that the composer sets to music to create an opera. Lied—German word for song and a short usually descriptive piece for solo singer and piano accompaniment. (Script)

Claudio Monteverdi

(1567-1643) An important figure in two musical periods, the Renaissance and the Baroque, he is an important madrigal composer in the Renaissance style and he composed the first masterpiece of opera, Orfeo, in 1607, which expanded the orchestra, gave each character a distinctive accompaniment, and expanded the concept of monody to one of recitative, while including an overture. He held the position of "Head of Choral Music" at St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice.

Movements

A complete piece functioning as a chapter within a larger musical work which contains several movements necessary to achieve it overall design.

Passion

A genre similar to oratorio but differing in the limitation of its libretto to the story of the life of Jesus beginning with his return to Jerusalem, through the crucifixion and resurrection.

Air

A metered dance rhythm and form found in dance suites of the Baroque period.

Allemande

A metered dance rhythm and form found in dance suites of the Baroque period.

Bourree

A metered dance rhythm and form found in dance suites of the Baroque period.

Courante

A metered dance rhythm and form found in dance suites of the Baroque period.

Galliard

A metered dance rhythm and form found in dance suites of the Baroque period.

Gavotte

A metered dance rhythm and form found in dance suites of the Baroque period.

Gigue

A metered dance rhythm and form found in dance suites of the Baroque period.

Pavan

A metered dance rhythm and form found in dance suites of the Baroque period.

Saltarello

A metered dance rhythm and form found in dance suites of the Baroque period.

Sarabande

A metered dance rhythm and form found in dance suites of the Baroque period.

Siciliana

A metered dance rhythm and form found in dance suites of the Baroque period.

Concerto Grosso

A multiple movement form with a standardized threemovement design, fast, slow, fast, which uses a group of soloists pitted against an accompanying orchestra group for the purpose of virtuosic display for a group of instrumental soloists. Popular with the public in the Baroque period. Vivaldi made one of these named the Four Seasons

Chorus

A musical tool used in the creation of opera, oratorio, passion, and cantata genres. Involves choral forces with orchestral and or organ accompaniments designed as the musical tool of maximum dramatic emotional effect.

Dance suite

A popular Baroque genre of instrumental music for orchestra with multiple movements of dances of varying number, using differing rhythmic patterns and meters, often preceded by a preparatory piece called a French Overture.

Prelude

A short often lyrical introductory piece to a fugue in the Baroque period.

Chorale prelude

A solo piece for organ built from the theme of a chorale.

Recitative

A storytelling musical device in Baroque opera which portrays action and dialogue between characters in a dramatic scene through the use of a solo singer intoning pitches in a ration of one pitch per syllable of text.

Monody

A technique of solo singing with free rhythm and simple accompaniment created by Jacopo Peri to replace recitation of text in his attempt to recreate the fabled pathos of Greek tragedies in his early Baroque operas.

Concertino

A term given to the group of instrumental soloists in a Baroque concerto grosso form.

Ripieno

A term given to the group of instruments serving as the accompaniment force to the concertino in a Baroque concerto grosso form.

Figured Bass

A time-saving device of composers in the Baroque period or code of symbols and numbers above a bass voice that the keyboard or lute players would "realize" or interpret, adding the appropriate intervals of chords suggested for the given bass melody.

Art of Fugue

A treatise written by J.S. Bach exploring every conceivable way that a fugue could be composed.

Accompanied Recitative

A type of Baroque opera recitative which includes more elaborate orchestral accompaniment, establishing a more specific rhythm than that found with the secco recitative.

Minuet

A very popular social dance rhythm in triple meter that was originally found in the Baroque period's dance suite but survived in the Classical period as the third movement in the sonata form, also possessing an additional component, the trio.

Da Capo Aria

An aria designed to showcase the individual singer's performance skill through opportunities to improvise and ornament the aria melody in a repeat of the initial theme now played by the orchestra alone.

Diva

An audience favorite in the world of female opera singers. One who has great skill and great fame.

Prima Donna

An audience favorite in the world of opera singers. One who has great skill and great fame. Also, refers to the lead female role in an opera.

Euridice

An opera composed by Jacopo Peri in 1600 for a royal wedding celebration in that established opera as an important artistic form and introduced it to the early Baroque nobility.

Jacobo Peri

Composer of the first true opera, Dafne, in 1598; also, composed Euridice in 1600 for a royal wedding celebration.

Dafne

First true opera, composed in 1598 by Jacopo Peri.

Chorale

German word for hymn, or hymn tune. The congregational song or hymn from the German Lutheran Church.

Aria

In opera, a piece for solo voice and orchestra accompaniment that reflects on the actions within a dramatic scene that requires an emotional comment. The opportunity within an opera for the beautiful reflective song.

Cantata genres

Involves choral forces with orchestral and or organ accompaniments designed as the musical tool of maximum dramatic emotional effect. Christmas—Birth of Christ in the liturgical calendar.

Secco Recitative

Meaning "dry," a type of recitative in which a harpsichord alone provides rhythmic freedom and flexibility to the singer in a dramatic scene in Baroque operas.

Episode

Referring to a section within a fugue where statements and transpositions of the initial melodic subjects are introduced in the various voices and cadenced before entering a subsequent section where similar melodic events occur in the various voices.

Oratario

Similar to opera seria in form, using the tools of recitative, aria, and chorus with orchestra accompaniment, the oratorio uses epic tales and Biblical narratives as its libretto sources. Oratorios are generally not staged, costumed, or acted out, but rather, performed in a concert environment.

Orfeo

The first masterpiece of Baroque opera composed by Claudio Monteverdi in 1607.

Opera

The greatest musical form of the Baroque era, employing solo and choral vocal forces with orchestral accompaniment and continuo in the forms of recitative, aria, and chorus in multiple scenes and acts similar to a play with sung dialog rather than spoken. (Original is in italian)

Opera Seria

The most popular form of opera in the late Baroque period which includes libretto derived from myths and legends portraying lofty emotions and virtuous characters involved in plots demonstrating moral choices. (Serious)

Librettist

The person who creates the libretto for an opera, either through an original work or through the adaptation of an existing tale.

French Overture

The preparatory piece which begins a dance suite in the Baroque period.

Continuo

The unit in the Baroque orchestra that is comprised of a polyphonic instrument, most often a keyboard instrument or lute, and a bass voice instrument, most often a cello or bassoon. The continuo is responsible for the chordal harmony, generating rhythm, and the bass line.

Camerata

society of intellectuals in Florence, Italy, around 1600 which included poets, amateur musicians, and scholars, whose objective was to recreate the emotional impact of the fabled Greek tragedies. Jacopo Peri, the composer of the first opera was a Camerata member.

Fugue

the definitive set of pieces representing imitative polyphonic compositional technique. His most famous works include the Mass in B minor, St. Matthew Passion, The Well-Tempered Clavier, and The Art of Fugue.

Subject

the primary thematic material in a fugue