MUS 1751 Lecture : Lecture 7
Document Summary
Toccata: (a touched thing) an instrumental piece that requires great technical dexterity of the performers. This little instrumental overture will evolve into a new genre or type of composition later in music history. The singing style of orfeo are mainly monody. In baroque opera, just accompanied by the basso continuo, so it is called simple recitative. Aria song lyrical type of monody with regular rhythm. Arioso is a style of monody that is halfway between aria and recitative. Listen to act ii recitative at the bitter news and arioso thou art dead . Opera spread all over europe and made it to germany, france and england. We will now listen to a bit of opera from the great english composer. In this aria purcell uses a device called a basso ostinato that was popular in the. The english for basso ostinato is ground bass. This is a constantly repeated bass line that the rest of the music is built over.
