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
Giuseppi Verdi (1813–1901)
  1. Background

    1. Verdi composed twenty-six operas, his first in 1839.

    2. He was influenced by nationalism and believed each nation should cultivate its own native music.

    3. He concentrated on the human drama in his operas and downplayed nature and mythology.

  2. Early Works (to 1853)

    1. Many of his early works show the influence of Beethoven, Bellini, Donizetti, and Meyerbeer.

    2. Plots were stories of personal tragedy based on French dramas.

  3. Middle Period (1853–1871)

    1. Grand operas for Paris
      1. Les vêpres siciliennes (1855)
      2. Don Carlos (1867)
      3. Daring harmonic effects

    2. "Reminiscence motives"
      1. Distinctive themes or motives that recur at crucial points in the opera
      2. Common technique among other composers
      3. Used in Rigoletto, La traviata, Un ballo in maschera, and other operas for unity.

    3. Aida (1871) is the last of his middle period works.

  4. Late Works

    1. Begin sixteen years after the production of Aida

    2. During these sixteen years several important works appeared:
      1. Verdi's Requiem
      2. Bizet's Carmen
      3. Brahms's four symphonies
      4. Wagner's Ring cycle and Parsifal

    3. Otello (1887) was the consummation of Italian tragic opera.
      1. Publisher Giulio Ricordi's effort to encourage Italian opera
      2. The libretto is by Boito, based on Shakespeare.
      3. Verdi strove for more continuity in the music.
        1. The music flows without breaks.
        2. Unifying motives are heard in the orchestra.
        3. Scene-complexes are longer.
      4. Example: Act IV, set in Desdemona's bedroom
        1. A brief woodwind prelude includes motives that will recur later in the scene.
        2. Recitativo passages alternate with fragments of melody.
        3. Desdemona sings the Willow Song ("Piangendo cantando," "She wept singing").
        4. An instrumental epilogue closes the scene and merges into the next.

    4. Falstaff (1893) was the culmination of Italian comic opera.

© 2002 W. W. Norton & Company | Credits