Date of Award

2012

Type

Thesis

Major

Music

Degree Type

Bachelor of Arts in Music

Department

Schwob School of Music

First Advisor

Earl Coleman

Abstract

Through modern-day globalization, the cultures of the world are shared on a daily basis and are integrated into the lives of nearly every person. This reality seems to go unnoticed by most, but the fact remains that many individuals and their societies have formed a cultural identity from the combination of many foreign influences. Such a multicultural identity can be seen particularly in music. Composers, artists, and performers alike frequently seek to incorporate separate elements of style in their own identity. One of the earliest examples of this tradition is the German Singspiel. Through the synthesis of foreign and native styles, an amalgam of European opera and culture was realized in the Singspiel.

The distinctive qualities that make this form of staged drama so unique can be understood within the context of European opera in the early eighteenth century. "Opera," according to the New Grove Dictionary of Opera, is an Italian term literally meaning "work" (402). This term implies the use of multiple artistic forms in one composition, including solo singing, a chorus, orchestra, dance, and drama. Opera was first created during the Renaissance in attempts to revive the classical Greek drama, an ancient dramatic work which tells a story through song. After the conception of opera during the late sixteenth century in Italy, marked by the earliest opera Dafne by Jacopo Peri (1561-1633), this new art form gained popularity throughout Europe (Grout 131). Composers of many European countries, including England's Henry Purcell (1659-1695), France's Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687), and Germany's Heinrich Schutz (1585-1672), would try to establish specific opera styles based on their national heritage. By the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, Italian opera dominated most of European music. In particular, the Italian opera seria, or serious opera, attracted both foreign audiences and composers, including one of the leading Baroque German composers Georg Friederic Handel (1685-1759). This style of opera is inspired by the, "Metastasian ideal," noble and mythological stories characterized by the use of ornamentation, recitative, virtuosic singing, and castrati (Hughes 329). The popularity of the Italian opera seria eventually influenced the path of opera throughout Europe.

Comments

Honors Thesis

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