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Domenico Scarlatti 1685-1757

Domenico Scarlatti 1685-1757. Alessandro Scarlatti 1660-1725. Da capo aria. A and B sections A section then repeated (“da capo” means literally “from the head”) Performers expected to improvise variations and ornaments during the repeated A section. Queen Anne of Austria.

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Domenico Scarlatti 1685-1757

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  1. Domenico Scarlatti 1685-1757

  2. Alessandro Scarlatti 1660-1725

  3. Da capo aria • A and B sections • A section then repeated (“da capo” means literally “from the head”) • Performers expected to improvise variations and ornaments during the repeated A section

  4. Queen Anne of Austria Cardinal Mazarin

  5. Louis XIV

  6. The Palace at Versailles • Versailles • Landscaping • Hall of Mirrors • Extravagance

  7. Pierre Perrin

  8. Jean-Baptiste Lully

  9. Opera in France • Tragedie lyrique: combo of dance scenes, lyrical music and plot based upon courtly love. • Jean Bapiste Lully (1632-1687) father of French opera

  10. French Overture • Overture is French for “opening” 2 sections, each repeated • First section homophonic, dotted rhythm, majestic (was supposed to signal the entry of the king) and slower • Second section polyphonic, faster

  11. How evil is opera? a French critic, late 1600s: Opera is a bizarre affair made up of poetry and music, in which the poet and the musician, each equally obstructed by the other, give themselves no end of trouble to produce a wretched work.

  12. How evil is opera? Opera was illegal in Rome in the early 1700s. an English critic, 1872: Opera is to be regarded “musically, philosophically, and ethically, as an almost unmixed evil.”

  13. Opera in England • James I (r. 1603-25) • Charles I (1625-490 • Stuart Kings • Supported musical plays called “masques” to be performed in private palaces. • Very popular during this period of time.

  14. Commonwealth Period • 1649-60 • Ruled by the Puritans • Opera, Stage Plays, Secular forms of entertainment were forbidden. • Considered blasphemous • Plays set to music could be performed if set with the proper precautions. • John Blow is the first English masque writer. • His pupil, Henry Purcell (1659) was the first major English Opera Composer.

  15. Henry Purcell 1659-1695

  16. Dido and Aeneas (1689) • Dido, filled with grief meets her death. (loss of love) • Climbs a funeral pyre. • Music: descending line in ground bass is a sign of grief in baroque music. • Descending line paints “laid in earth.” • Use of ground bass. • Use of dotted rhythms to denote royalty.

  17. Dido and Aeneas, Act III Dido’s Lament • Virgil’s Aeneid • Adventures of Aeneas after the fall of Troy • Aeneas is stranded in Carthage, Northern African coast • Falls in love with Dido, Queen of Carthage • Aeneas pushes her away as he must leave for Italy…. Soon to be the founder of Rome.

  18. After Dido . . . • English preferred spoken drama • Purcell wrote some “Semi-operas” • Example: The Fairy Queen (1692) • Opera had support of the monarchy in France and the public in Italy, but from neither in England

  19. Types of Recitative • arioso – passages that lie somewhere between recitative and aria style • recitative semplice (simple recitative) – as speechlike as possible and accompanied only by basso continuo • recitative accompagnato (accompanied recitative) – used orchestra to dramatize tense situations

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