Chapter 10 Baroque Vocal Music

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Chapter 10Baroque Vocal Music

• Opera

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Key Terms

• Affects
• Coloratura
• Opera seria
• Libretto
• Librettist
• Recitative

• Secco recitative
• Accompanied recitative
• Castrato
• Aria
• Da capo (ABA) form

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Baroque Vocal Music

• Largest part of a Baroque composers output was
  vocal music
• For solo voices, chorus, or both
• In demand for church, court, theater
• Close connection between words music
• Affect especially important in vocal music
• Vocabulary of the emotions
• Victory expressed with trumpets, drums, lively
  march rhythms, major key
• Sorrow expressed with soft dynamics, slow
  rhythms, dissonances, minor key

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Opera

• Reflected Baroque fascination with theater
• Flourished throughout Europe after 1600
• The most spectacular, adventurous, glamorous,
  influential Baroque genre
• Combined music, vocal virtuosity, poetry, drama,
  dance, scenic splendor, more
• Elaborate stage machinery for rapid scene
  changes, deities in clouds or flying chariots,
  fire-breathing dragons, etc.
• Intense expression of emotion foremost!

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Opera Emotional Expression

• Opera allowed solo singers to express feelings in
  the most direct, powerful way
• Opera plots put characters in situations where
  intense emotion was natural
• Emotions intensified by music
• Also intensified by vocal virtuosity
• Coloratura singingfast brilliant runs, scales,
  high notes, vocal cadenzas, etc.
• Great singers moved audiences by singing more
  beautifully, delicately, emotionally

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Italian Opera Seria (1)

• Principal type of Italian Baroque opera was opera
  seria (serious opera)
• Plots often used tragic heroes, stories from
  ancient history mythology
• Designed to stir powerful emotions
• Passion, rage, grief, triumph, etc.
• Many opportunities for singers to express these
  emotions one at a time
• Needed more plot twists than a soap opera to make
  so many emotions believable

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Italian Opera Seria (2)

• Almost entirely solo singing
• Featured sopranos mezzo-sopranos (including
  castrati)
• Tenors basses played subordinate roles
• Very few duets or choruses
• Libretto the text of an opera
• Italian for little book
• Author of the text was the librettist
• Librettist shaped the drama
• Libretto alternated between prose texts (for
  recitative) poetic texts (for arias)

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Recitative

• Musical declamation of words in a heightened,
  theatrical manner
• Always with instrumental accompaniment
• Uses free rhythm of emotional speech
• Mirrors natural ups and downs of speech
• As in angry outbursts, asides, questioning
• Words not repeated, as in speech
• Used in scenes that call for
• Action or dialogue
• Special emphasis on the words

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Recitative Types

• Secco Recitative
• Italian secco dry
• Simple continuo accompaniment only
• Offers maximum flexibility for singer
• Accompanied Recitative
• Accompanied by orchestra continuo
• Provides greater weight emphasis
• Reserved for the most excited, emotion-filled
  moments

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Aria

• A set piece for solo singer orchestra
• Much more musical elaboration coherence than
  recitative
• Vocal part more melodic
• Clear beat, rhythm, meter
• Orchestral accompaniment
• Singer-actor mulls over emotions at length
• Plot action stops during aria
• Frequent repetition of words phrases

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Da Capo Form

• Standard Italian Baroque opera aria form
• Ternary form A B A
• Based on poem in two stanzas
• A section sets 1st stanza to music
• Contrasting B section sets 2nd stanza
• Written instruction at end of B says
• Da capo (from the head)
• Tells performers to go back to the beginning
• Performers repeat entire A section

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Ornamentation Da Capo Form

• Customary for solo singer to add ornamentation
  during repeat of A
• Improvised runs, cadenzas, etc.
• The slower the tempo, the more elaborate the
  ornaments
• Permitted singer to show off vocal skill,
  virtuosity, expressiveness
• Greatly appreciated by Baroque audiences

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Recitative vs. Aria

• Free, speechlike rhythms
• Pitches follow speech patterns
• Continuo accompaniment
• Prose text (words stated once)
• Advances the action (movement)
• Dialoguefreely interactive

• Clear beat, consistent meter
• Pitches form melodic patterns phrases
• Orchestral accompaniment
• Poetic text (phrases often repeated)
• Freezes the action (reflection)
• Soliloquyexpresses one emotion

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Castrato

• Castrati were biggest stars in Italian opera
• Boys with beautiful voices who were castrated and
  never went through puberty
• Their voices remained in soprano/alto range
• Years of intensive vocal training made them
  virtuoso singers
• Castrato voice highly prizedmore powerful
  brilliant than a womans voice
• Castrati sang most important male roles
• Heroes, romantic leads, supporting roles

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George Frideric Handel(1685-1759)

• Born in Halle, near Leipzig
• Played in Hamburg opera orchestra
• Successful journey to Italy
• Wrote operas for Venice, Florence, Rome
• Court musician to Elector of Hanover, who soon
  became Englands King George I
• Handel pursued a career in London
• Opera impresariocomposer, producer, etc.
• Turned to oratorio as opera audiences dwindled

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Handel, Julius Caesar

• One of nearly 40 Italian operas for London
• Story from Roman history
• Takes up events surrounding Egyptian Queen
  Cleopatras seduction of Roman emperor Julius
  Caesar
• Cleopatras brother Ptolemy has murdered Pompey
  (Caesars foe) put Cornelia (Pompeys widow) in
  his own harem
• Sextus (Cornelias son) seeks revenge on Ptolemy
  ( eventually kills him)

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Handel, La giustizia (1)

• Sextus promises revenge on Ptolemy
• Typical da capo ariastrict A B A form
• Aria begins with string orchestra ritornello
• Sets the mood, or affect, right away
• Sextus starts with the same music a bit later

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Handel, La giustizia (2)

• The affect expressed here is anger
• Vigorous, strenuous music
• Minor key
• Loud explosions coloratura on key words
• vendetta (vengeance)
• traditor (traitor)
• punire (punish)
• Dramatic pause near end of A

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Handel, La giustizia (3)

• B section provides subtle contrast
• Visits new keys
• More subdued mood
• Orchestra drops outonly continuo used
• Return of A uses many ornaments
• Flourishes added to high notes on punire long
  note on traditor
• Dramatic pause near end filled with virtuoso
  cadenza
• Ornamented final cadence sweeps us away

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Aria La giustizia

• La giustizia ha già sull arco
• Pronto strale alla vendetta
• Per punire un traditor.
• Quanto è tarda la saetta
• Tanto più crudele aspetta
• La sua pena un empio cor.

• Justice now has in its bow
• The arrow primed for vengeance
• To castigate a traitor!
• The later the arrow is shot
• The crueler is the pain suffered
• By a dastardly heart!