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

3: Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) & Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) made important
contributions to church music
4: Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) succeeded as no one before him in uniting the
spiritual and technical resources of the 19th century symphony with a reverent
and liturgical approach to the sacred texts
5: Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) - like that of Schütz & Bach is inspired by a
deep concern with mortality and the hope for salvation
b) The Oratorio
1: flourished chiefly in Protestant England & Germany developing along lines laid
down in the 18th century
2: main strength of the 19th century oratorio lay in its use of the chorus - with the
descent from Handel obvious
IV. Opera & Music Drama in the 19th Century
A. Background
1. Although Italian & French opera had common roots, they went separate ways until the
middle of the 18th century when they began to converge in the Parisian works of
Gluck
a) many of the principles that had guided Gluck were already described in Francesco
Algarotti's treatis "Saggio sopra l'opera in musica" (1755)
1: put into practice by Nicolò Jommelli (1714-1774) with operas written for Parma,
Stuttgart, & Mannheim in the 1750's
2: a similar combination was fused by Tammaso Traetta (1727-1779) in his
operas for Parma & Mannheim in the late 1750's & early 1760's
b) though both Jommelli & Traetta's reforms were not popular in Italy, they provided
models with opera seria for a more continuous dramatic flow and gave the
orchestra a more important role
2. the distinction between opera seria and opera buffa was maintained throughout the
18th century - even while signs of change began to appear in serious opera - the
founder of 19th century serious opera was Johann Simon Mayr (1763-1845)
3. Opera semisera
a) a serious plot is leavened with Romantic scenery and sentiment, as in the lyric
opera of France
b) material was drawn increasingly from Romantic sources - Victor Hugo (Donizetti's
Lucrezia Borgia), Sir Walter Scott (Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, Rossini's La
donna del lago)
c) influences of both Romanticism in general and French opera in particular appear
in this genre
B. Italy
1. Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868)
a) style was particularly well suited to comic opera
b) developed - with the collaboration of his librettists - a very specific structure that
distributed throughout an act the action previously confined to dry recitative
dialogue
1: a continuous succession of orchestrally accompanied recitatives, solo arias,
duets, ensembles, and choruses all contribute to advancing the plot