MUS 353 Chapter Notes - Chapter 17: The Barber Of Seville, Gioachino Rossini, Largo Al Factotum
Document Summary
In spite of the growing significance of instrumental music in the 19th century, the large-scale genres of vocal music opera, operetta, and sacred music maintained their traditional aesthetic prestige. Opera remained the pinnacle of the musical art, for it combined drama (the libretto), music (the score), and the visual arts (scenery, costume) in a single genre. It continued to attract the finest singers and man of the most talented composers of the day, and it was by far the most financially lucrative of all genres. Operetta, a lighter form of sung drama, usually with spoken dialogue, commanded an even wider following among the public. Sacred music, in turn, became increasingly varied in scope, ranging from monumental settings of the mass and requiem in the most modern style to smaller scale motets strongly influenced by the idiom of the late renaissance.
