An Outline of The History of Western Music Grout ... - The Reel Score

5. Beginning of Opera Reform
a) Some Italian composers wanted to bring Opera into harmony with changing ideals
of music and drama
b) Sought to make the entire design more "natural" - more flexible in structure, more
expressive, less laden with coloratura, and more varied in musical resources
1: modified the da capo aria and introduced other forms
2: alternated arias and recitatives more flexibly to move the dramatic action
forward more rapidly and realistically
3: made greater use of obbligato recitative and ensembles
4: made the orchestra more important both for its own sake and to add depth to
the harmonic accompaniment
5: reinstated choruses - long absent in Italian opera
6: stiffened their resistance to the arbitrary demands of the solo singers
c) Important figures in the reform
1: Nicolò Jommelli (1714-1774)
2: Tommaso Traetta (1727-1779)
i- aimed to combine the best of French tragédie lyrique and opera seria
ii- in his own way he reconciled the two types of music drama years before
Gluck set out to do so
d) Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787)
1: achieved a synthesis of French and Italian opera
2: he set out to remove the abuses that had deformed Italian opera and to confine
music to its proper function - to serve the poetry and advance the plot
i- deal with the outworn conventions of the da capo aria
ii- liberties taken by singers to show off their skill in ornamental varitation
iii- make the overture an integral part of the opera
iv- adapt the orchestra to the dramatic requirements
v- lessen the contrast between aria & recitative
3: his operas became models for the works of his immediate followers in Paris
i- his influence extended into the 19th century
ii- influence extended by Luigi Cherubini (1760-1842), Gasparo Spontini
(1774-1851), and Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)
G. The Lied
1. the German Lied achieved a special importance with the first significant collection
published in Leipzig in 1736 - Die singende Muse an der Pleisse
2. Berlin
a) song compostion in the middle of he century centered in Berlin favored lieder in
1: strophic form
2: melodies in natural, expressive folk song style
3: one note to a syllable
4: simplest possible accompaniments completely subordinate to the vocal line
b) composers gradually transcended these artificial restrictions primarily by making
the structure more flexible and giving the accompaniment more independence
c) composers