MUSIC101 Lecture Notes - Concerto Grosso, Figured Bass, Opera Buffa
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Earlier musical expression
- We’ve focused on form and style, but Baroque and Classical forms and styles also have expressive
impact
- But that impact has a different basis in each style
J.S. Bach , Concerto in D minor for 2 violins, strings, and continuo (Naxos)
- A concerto grosso – 3 movements (fast/slow/fast)
- Our focus – the second movement
- In the rhythm of a dance – the Siciliano
- Slow, duple compound time – gentle, flowing
- Gives a governing rhythmic and expressive character
- Imitative and non-imitative polyphony between the violins adds intensity
- Very few dramatic change but constant development of an emotion
Classical Drama- at its source
- Opera was central to the period
- In popularity and resources expended
- But also as the basis of style
- Dramatic tension is crucial, especially to the most complex form, sonata form
Opera buffa is comic opera in the classical style
- It uses recitative and aria, but adds another type of piece: ensemble
- Two or more characters interact dramatically in the course of a piece
- Characters typically fall into types
- Noble lovers
- Comic servants
- and in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, a noble libertine/seducer
Buffa dynamics and classical drama
- Arias still express character, and some action happens in recitative
- But ensembles are increasingly important to interaction
- They let the music show who’s leading, who’s responding, what’s conflicting, what’s resolved