ALERT : Midterm

1
ALERT Midterm 3

• Originally scheduled for 24 Nov 08 (TODAY)
• Is MOVED to 1 Dec 08(Monday after Thanksgiving)
• To allow for additional study time (Review sheet
  and all PowerPoint slides now posted)
• Daily schedule continues, including class
  meetings on 24 (today) and 26 (Wednesday) Nov 08

2
Italian Opera in 19th Century (Chapter 26)

• Italy as the land of opera
• Bel canto (beautiful singing) emphasize the
  voice w/ accompaniment
• Rossini Crescendo
• Cabaletta (fast ending)
• Recitatives, arias, etc., used to build scena
• Moving towards Verismo (truth)

Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) front Giuseppe
Verdi (1813-1901) rear
3
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)

• Most important Italian composer of 19th c
• 28 operas (almost no other significant works)
• Combination of the bel canto style w/ high drama
• Rigoletto, Aida, La Traviata, Il Trovatore, etc.

4
Follie, FollieSempre Libera from La Traviata
on YouTube

• YouTube - Devia sings Sempre libera (Verdi La
  Traviata - Tokyo 2006)
• YouTube - Mirella Freni "Follie! Sempre libera"
  La Traviata
• YouTube - Renée Fleming sings Sempre libera from
  La traviata

5
Richard Wagner (1813-1883)

• Inventor of music drama
• Complete control of all aspects of production
• Wrote own librettos based on German mythology
• Orchestra tells the story
• Leitmotifs in unending melody
• Der Ring des Nibelungen (4 operas)

Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
6
German Opera in 19th Century(Chapter 27)

• Emphasis on myth and German heritage
• Gesamtkunstwerk
• Music Dramas
• Tristan und Isolde
• Leitmotifs (used in endless melody)
• Huge Orchestra
• Bayreuth Festspielhaus

Tristan
Isolde
7
Bayreuth Festspielhaus
8
Bayreuth Festspielhaus
9
Bayreuth Festspielhaus

• Orchestra Pit (in front of stage)
• Holds over 100 players
• invisible orchestra

10
Richard Wagner, Tristan und Isolde, Liebestod
love-death

• YouTube - Eileen Farrell sings "Mild und Leise"
  Tristan und Isolde
• YouTube - Tristan und Isolde Act3 Mild und
  leise... (Leonard Bernstein, Hildegard Behrens)
• YouTube - Birgit Nilsson Liebestod(concert
  performance)

11
MIDTERM 3TEST MATERIALSEND HERE

• (Items from this point forward are on Final Exam)

12
End of the Romantic Era

• c. 1900 (really begins in 1880s-90s)
• Post-Romanticism in Germany - tonality taken
  to its extreme (Wagner) - Richard Strauss
  Gustav Mahler
• Impressionism in France - reaction against
  Wagner, et al. - suggestion rather than
  description - Claude Debussy

13
Impressionism
Claude Monet (1840-1926)Impression Sun Rising
(1867)
14
Debussy on YouTube

• YouTube - Michelangeli - Debussy Voiles
• YouTube - Michelangeli - Debussy - La Cathedrale
  engloutie
• YouTube - Claude Debussy - Prelude to the
  Afternoon of a Faun
• YouTube - Debussy "La Mer" -movement 1- Abbado
  Lucerne
• YouTube - Debussy "La Mer" Abbado Lucerne
  -movement 2 "Jeux de vagues
• YouTube - Debussy "La Mer" mvt.3 "Dialogue du
  vent et du mer" -Abbado

15
Stéphen Mallarmé (1842-1898)
16
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

• The Impressionist Composer (defines style)
• Influenced by Symbolist poets (Mallarmé)
• Sound is fragmentary w/ distinct colors, whole
  tone scales, ostinatos, parallels
• What rules? None, only my own pleasure.