Preview

La Giuditta: Mixture of Traditional and Innovative Ideas

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
998 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
La Giuditta: Mixture of Traditional and Innovative Ideas
La Giuditta: Mixture of traditional and Innovative Ideas
Following Carissimi, Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725) was another outstanding composer of Italian baroque oratorios. His influential supporters in Rome included two patrons, the Cardinals Benedetto Pamphili and Pietro Ottoboni. The La Giuditta oratorio was composed in 1693 and premiered in Palazzo Cancelleria in March of 1964 for Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni 's libretto. This oratorio, in many respects, seemed to be a groundbreaking one. It is in two parts for 5-vocies with instruments. Although it is a religious piece, it concentrates on the spiritual, contemplative aspect of the story of Bethulia 's siege and its liberation by the beautiful widow Judith who seduced and killed the commander of the Assyrian army - Holofernes. Contrary to the rule of the three unities that limits opera, here, the composer switches action between Bethulia and the enemy 's camp. In his musical interpretation, the mixed use of traditional and innovative composed skills emphasize the text expression and makes La Guiditta one of the best oratorios of the Baroque era.
In La Giuditta, Scarlatti brings to the oratorio a greater homogeneity in terms of aria forms. The da capo aria dominates, though not exclusively; a new sense of instrumental virtuosity reflects the affect of the textual moment, and there is a limitation of contrapuntal sections to the conclusions of two parts. In this oratorio, orchestras are growing larger by adding two flutes and a trumpet to the strings with the basso continuo accompaniment. Accompanied only by a basso continuo, around half of the arias are still of the older type while shorter arias of various forms are replaced by da capo arias of ABA form. Moreover, recitatives with an orchestral accompaniment appear. Scarlatti’s innovative music characteristics let the music and text to be more tightly combined and make it easier for performers to express composer’s idea. The Giuditta’s Aria Ma so ben in Part I



Bibliography: Carter, Tim, and John Butt. The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Music. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005 Music & Letters Scarlatti, Alessandro. Oratorio “La Giuditta”, in The Oratorios of Alessandro Scarlatti Vol.1.Edited by Lino Bianchi. De Santis, Rome. 1964 Scarlatti, Alessandro Smither, Howard E. A History of the Oratorio. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977. Tcharos, Stefanie Stella. Opera 's Orbit: Musical Drama and the Influence of Opera in Arcadian Rome. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. [ 2 ]. Tcharos and Stefanie Stella, Opera 's Orbit: Musical Drama and the Influence of Opera in Arcadian Rome (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 248, provides background of performance time and the librettist of La Giuditta. [ 3 ]. Tim Carter, and John Butt, The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Music (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 369, provides special characteristics Scarlatti used in his oratorio. [ 4 ]. Alessandro Scarlatti, Oratorio “La Giuditta”, vocal/instruments score (Rome, 1964), provide the original score. [ 5 ]. Alessandro Scarlatti, Oratorio “La Giuditta”, vocal/instruments score (Rome, 1964), 33, provides text in the original score. [ 6 ]. Music & Letters (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1920), 82, ,This paragraph provides the texture requirement in La Guiditta.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Experiencing these 2 operas, I was able to comprehend the incredible talents of the Auburn University’s Department of Music Opera Workshop performers. Each performance allowed the performers to showcase their vocal talents greatly; as well as showing their strict practicing by knowing the vocal queues with the music as well as with each other to never sound off or un-synced with each other.…

    • 585 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Italian opera ‘Cosi Fan Tutte’ and captivates Lewis with tales of music and performance from his childhood. This illusion that…

    • 652 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    When the general public thinks of Baroque music, they might think of the High Court sounding French concerto, or one of Bach’s many and well-known fugues. These highly structured pieces with their vigorous counterpoint and technical brilliance might be considered “tight” and “incredibly mechanical.” However, these pieces though full of well thought out lines, phrases, and ornamented passages are not driven by the writers will to keep the music enslaved in rules and restricting limits of harmony. The Baroque era contained the elements of the stile moderno, a practice where the harmonies of music we’re not thought of as how they fit with the other notes on the page as much as they each followed their own particular line. These ideas were wrought from an earlier practice known as the prima practica or stile antico. The differences between the stile antico and stile moderno are large in many respects including the lives of the men who lived by both practices.…

    • 1456 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Deas, Stewart. “Arcangelo Corelli.” Music & Letters Jan. 1953, Vol. 34, No. 1: 1-10. JSTOR.…

    • 2395 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Palestrina

    • 719 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Written in 1567, the sound of the music and voices not only represent the glorification of God, but also corresponds to the other historical events happening in Italy at the time. For example, there were many architectural achievements, especially in Rome, in the 16th century. Look at the Basilica of Saint Peter, one of the four main Basilicas. First beginning construction in 1506, it was being built throughout the 1500’s. The St. Peter’s Basilica is to this day one of the largest Christian churches. While Palestrina was writing the Pope Marcellus Mass, the construction of this religious monument most likely influenced the sound of the piece. The Mass opens with a monophonic chant and more voices come in and turns into a heterophony. The song gets louder and louder until the line “we give Thee thanks for” is emphasized, with five voices chanting it. The grand sound of the five voices together is reminiscent of the greatness of the St. Peters church, which also happens to be the place where the most Papal ceremonies take place, also thanking…

    • 719 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    During the period of the Baroque musical style (1600-1750), emotions ran high, literally. This was a time for expression of emotions through musical performances called operas. Operas were made popular in Italy in 1600 and employed many theatre elements such as music, acting, poetry, and costumes. Operas, in all simplicity, were dramas set to music. The Baroque was defined by sudden shifts in dynamic, homophonic musical texture, emphasis on beats, and unity of rhythms. Both performances, “Tu Se Morta” by L’Orfeo and “Dido’s Lament” by Henry Purcell, display distinctive qualities of this time period and serve as excellent examples of technique.…

    • 517 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The satirical description of opera seria by Carlo Goldoni in Weiss and Taruskin begins by mentioning it to be “the dominant form of Italian opera.” I had never heard of opera seria before this semester, but the readings assigned on this topic seem to be especially entertaining to me.…

    • 667 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Baroque Style Analysis

    • 1414 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Within sixty years of the opera’s appearance, new concepts developed such as the aria, which similarly to a theatrical soliloquy, real time stops. “In an aria, the librettist provides words that pause and reflect and the composer creates music that interprets and deepens the emotions behind those words” (L12, 8:12). About “the year 1660, the aria had joined recitative as one of the two essential aspects of operatic dramaturgy” (L12, 30:21). “Unlike recitative in which the words carry the expressive message, in an operatic aria it is the music that carries the expressive message” (L12, 31:59). “The same Baroque advances in harmony; rhythm, motivic manipulation and melodic construction that led to the development of purely instrumental music…

    • 1414 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The work depends on folksongs from Northern Poland, the component with the composer's standard expertise, bringing about five little movements of impressive appeal, going on for around seven minutes (Witold Lutoslawski 1). This piece is from the twentieth century; the instrumentation was for clarinet and piano. The movements are in the following sequence: Allegro Molto, Andantino, Allegro Giocoso, Andante, and Allegro Molto (Witold Lutoslawski 1). Lutoslawski’s piece is from the twentieth century with each movement having its own unique characteristics. Allegro Molto means a very fast tempo; andantino means a walking speed tempo (Italian Musical Terms 1). Allegro Giocoso means a fast humorous or playful tempo; andante means a moderately slow tempo (Italian Musical Terms 1). When Evans and Pitts performed this musical composition, I detected how each movement was distinctive due to the different tempos which further enhanced Lutoslawski’s work. I admired the magnificent sounds the clarinet and piano gathered when coupled together; the pleasantly pitched clarinet sounds and perfectly pitched piano sounds sparked my curiosity all throughout the listening example. All in all, Evans and Pitts completed an important mission by performing Lutoslawski’s work because of how well the movements reflected their respective tempos, and I was cheerful to listen to the entire…

    • 1329 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Born in 1598 in Naples, Gianlorenzo Bernini would go on to dominate the art world with his sculptures and architecture. Bernini was born to sculptor Pietro Bernini and Angelica Galante. He was the sixth of thirteen children. Bernini would not marry until May 1639, when he wed twenty-two year old Caterina Tezio. She bore him eleven children. He later died in Rome in 1680 and was buried in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore.…

    • 2447 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sporre, D. J. (2010). Music and Opera. In D. J. Sporre, Reality Through the Arts (7 ed., p. 116). Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.…

    • 798 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Within the baroque era, concerning the genre of vocal music, religious music cannot be overlooked as well as the opera. In this age, not only liturgical music which is from the Middle Ages such as the Mass music and Magnificat, but peculiar music of baroques such oratorio and the church cantata were also invented, while there was antagonism between Catholic and Protestant. Even in the music for liturgical of the church, it tended to opera or a dramatic style. It was the feature of the Catholic Church music of the baroque period in Italy. During the Baroque period, people saw the invention of a new music form: the oratorio in the 17th century in Europe. The oratorio has a long and profound history since Italian Renaissance. In this essay, I will be answering question number two: Explain briefly the meaning of this musical term oratorio and give an account of the most popular and arguably greatest oratorio of the first half of the eighteenth century.…

    • 1724 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    What Is Caro Nome

    • 139 Words
    • 1 Page

    Verdi is a renowned figure in Italian opera composition of the Romantic era. He wrote many operas including Rigoletto, a melodramatic opera based on a dramatic play by Victor Hugo called Le roi s’amuse. Verdi proposed the idea around 1849 and began writing along with librettist Francesco Maria Piave in 1851. The story focuses on the Duke of Mantua, his court jester Rigoletto, and Rigoletto’s daughter, Gilda. Gilda, who does not know the Duke, falls in love with him tricked into thinking he is a student named “Gualtier Maldé.” Sadly, he sacrifices her to preserve his own life after Rigoletto hires men to murder him. “Gualtier Maldé. …Caro Nome” is an aria sung by Gilda who sings about her love for the Duke. The words, “caro nome” translate to,…

    • 139 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Opera Buffa Essay

    • 1295 Words
    • 6 Pages

    This style of libretto was customary for Metastasio and his contemporaries during the first half of the eighteenth century. This Metastasian model peaked during the 1750’s however opera began to give way to new trends popularized by Niccolo Jommelli and Tommaso Traetta during the 1740s-60s who favoured ideas from French operatic traditions as opposed to the Italianate pattern of alternating, sharply-contrasted recitative and aria. Jommelli favoured accompanied recitative and a greater dynamic contrast…

    • 1295 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The analysis of the aria “Lascia ch'io pianga” by Haendel according to the thorough bass method, shows us how the composer refer in this piece to the typical compositional procedures of baroque music.…

    • 634 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays