Music Terminology
This musical style attempts to approximate speech in song and is often used in opera to move the action forward.
What is recitative?
This Austrian composer of opera buffa was born under the patronage system but later pursued a career as a freelance musician.
Who is Mozart?
This form of aria, prevalent in opera seria, has an A-B-A’ structure and is meant to evoke the internal thoughts or feelings of the character who sings it.
What is da capo aria?
A supporter, typically monetary, of opera
What is a patron?
Notated vocal runs and ornamentation intended to showcase a singer’s virtuosity
What is coloratura?
Under King Louis XIV, this composer is famed for establishing France’s first operatic genre, tragédie en musique.
Who is Lully?
Gioachino Rossini helped to standardize this form in overtures, minus the development section.
What is sonata form?
This Italian term refers to an opera’s “happy ending.”
What is Lieto fine?
What is monody?
In his opera L’Orfeo (1607), this Italian composer utilized a variety of musical styles, including madrigals, Intermedi, and Florentine monody.
Who is Monteverdi?
Scena, cantabile, tempo di mezzo, and cabaletta are the four sections that comprise this operatic form.
What is a double aria?
This Baroque era staging convention refers to the practice of a vocalist stopping to sing their aria to the audience, usually with stylized hand gestures.
What is “park and bark”?
Characteristic color or sound of an instrument or voice.
What is timbre?
This Viennese court poet is credited with standardizing the dramatic structure of opera seria through the alternation of recitative and aria.
Who is Pietro Metastasio?
Not an arioso or a cavatina, but a musical form somewhere between recitative secco and aria.
What is recitative accompagnato?
George Frideric Handel was fond of this practice. It refers to the “recycling” of arias written for other works/occasions.
What is pasticcio?
Gioachino Rossini is associated with this style of “beautiful singing.”
What is Bel canto?
First theater built specifically for public performance
What is the Teatro San Cassiano?
This early form of opera was popular through the 14th-16th centuries. It was community driven and prominently featured hymns.
What are mystery plays?
This Italian opera comic tradition introduced the use of stock characters (archetypes) during the Baroque era.
What is Commedia dell’arte?