Concise History of Western Music
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Chapter Index Chapter 1: Music in Ancient Greece and Early Christian Rome Chapter 2: Chant and Secular Song in the Middle Ages, 400Ð1450 Chapter 3: Polyphonic Music from Its Beginnings through the Thirteenth Century Chapter 4: French and Italian Music in the Fourteenth Century Chapter 5: England and Burgundian Lands in the Fifteenth Century: The Beginnings of an International Style Chapter 6: The Age of the Renaissance: Music of the Low Countries Chapter 7: The Age of the Renaissance: New Currents in the Sixteenth Century Chapter 8: Church Music of the Late Renaissance and Reformation Chapter 9: Church Music of the Late Renaissance and Reformation Chapter 10: Opera and Vocal Music in the Late Seventeenth Century Chapter 11: Instrumental Music in the Late Baroque Chapter 12: Music in the Early Eighteenth Century Chapter 13: The Early Classic Period: Opera and Instrumental Music in the Eighteenth Century Chapter 14: The Late Eighteenth Century: Haydn and Mozart Chapter 15: Ludwig van Beethoven Chapter 16: Romanticism and Nineteenth-Century Orchestral Music Chapter 17: Solo, Chamber, and Vocal Music in the Nineteenth Century Chapter 18: Opera, Music Drama, and Church Music in the Nineteenth Century Chapter 19: European Music from the 1870s to World War I Chapter 20: The European Mainstream in the Twentieth Century Chapter 21: Atonality, Serialism, and Recent Developments in Twentieth-Century Europe Chapter 22: The American Twentieth Century
 

Outlines:
  - French Opera
  - Italy
  - Giuseppi Verdi (1813–1901)
  - Germany
  - Church Music
  Quiz
  Listening Guide
Chapter 18: Opera, Music Drama, and Church Music in the Nineteenth Century
Italy
  1. Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868)

    1. By 1825, Rossini was the most important and most famous living composer in Europe (more famous than Beethoven).

    2. He composed operas for audiences in Italy, France, and Vienna.

    3. Comic Operas
      1. Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) is his comic masterpiece.
      2. He distributed the action throughout each act by constructing scenes (scena) rather than confine the action to recitatives. Typical scenes consisted of these sections:
        1. Scena: instrumental introduction plus recitative for soloist or in dialogue, accompanied by orchestra
        2. Primo tempo: cantabile song in declamatory yet melodious style, for one or two singers
        3. Tempo di mezzo (middle movement): a transition for ensemble or chorus (optional)
        4. Cabaletta: the final movement in a lively style for one or two soloists. The cabaletta repeats, sometimes with embellishments. The cantabile and cabaletta together constitute the aria.
        5. NAWM 117, "Una voce poco fa" from Il barbiere di Siviglia
        6. Rossini frequently uses ensemble scenes, with two to four singers, which build through the scene.

    4. Guillaume Tell, a grand opera, composed in 1829 for Paris.

  2. Vicenzo Bellini (1801–1835)

    1. He composed ten serious operas, including La Sonnambula, Norma, and I Puritani.

    2. His style is refined, with expressive melodies in flexible forms.

    3. Example: NAWM 118, Casta diva, from Norma (1831).

  3. Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848)

    1. Seventy operas

    2. His most enduring works were the serious operas but he also created some excellent comic scenes.

    3. His Don Pasquale (1843) is comparable to Rossini's Il barbiere.

© 2002 W. W. Norton & Company | Credits