The discussion concentrates on Hector Berlioz's second opera, Les Troyens, which is Berlioz's final large work written between 1855-1858. The study demonstrates how the opera is unified through its drama and music. Les Troyens, a five-act tragic opera that is based on Virgil's Aeneid, is perhaps one of Berlioz's least known major works. The orchestral score had not been published in its entirety until 1969, when a two-volume edition of the opera was published by Bärenreiter in the New Edition of the Complete Works of Hector BerIioz. The first complete recording of Les Troyens, conducted by Colin Davis, was released by Philips records in 1972. These two sources have made an analysis of this important work of the nineteenth century possible. The study includes a survey of the dramatic influences of Virgil and his Aeneid, and the poetry of Shakespeare, in addition to the musical influences of Gluck's operas, the compositions of Lesueur, the symphonies of Beethoven, Weber's opera, Der Freischütz, and the French grand opera style, which all contributed to the opera.
This study is an investigation of the dramatic expression in thirty musical settings of Goethe's "Erlkonig," to attempt to determine why the works by Franz Schubert and Carl Loewe have achieved such popularity.
In the history of seventeenth-century European music the court of Christian IV (r. 1588-1648) occupies a position of prominence. Christian, eager for fame as a patron of the arts, drew to Denmark many of the musical giants of the age, among them the lutenist John Dowland and the composer Heinrich Schltz. Sadly, except for financial records and occasional letters still in the archives, few traces remain of these brilliant years in Denmark. The music composed and played during this half century has largely disappeared, most of it probably in the tragic fire of 1794 that destroyed the old Christiansborg Castle in Copenhagen and with it the court music archives. Except for the recently-discovered Clausholm Fragments, only three specimens of keyboard music from the period remain: Ny kgl. Saml. 1997 fol. (Obmaus Tablature), Gl. kgl. Saonl. 376 fol. (Copenhagen Tablature), and mu 6703.2131/6 (VoigtlaJnder Tablature). It has generally been assumed that the manuscripts were of German origin. The present study, however, demonstrates a probable Danish origin for the third, possible Danish connections for the second, and establishes that the first is of Austrian provenance. The Obmaus Tablature is an amateur's preservation of a German keyboard style already outdated. This slender manuscript, dated 1637, contains a total of ten "archaic" pieces exhibiting the peculiarities of keyboard dances and song settings from the late sixteenth century. The awkward style of the pieces leads to the conclusion that they were transcribed for keyboard--more literally than imaginatively--from lute originals. The Copenhagen Tablature, consisting of thirty-four folios, is of primary importance for its evidence of the spread of the French claveqin style and the development of the keyboard suite. Of the sixty-nine pieces the majority are French dance forms, several with doubles; also included are preludes, German dances, and settings of chorales, psalms, and secular songs. …
The great number of musical sources preserved in manuscript and printed form clearly reflects the prominent position held by the lute as a musical instrument during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Only a relatively small portion of this vast literature is presently available to scholars and interested laymen in the form of modern transcriptions. Referred to as "l'instrument noble par excellence," the lute's popular and fashionable appeal is evidenced by the large number of composers who dedicated themselves to this instrument. Among the number of outstanding lute composers living in Italy during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries was Giulio Cesare Barbetta (c. 1540-after 1603). During his lifetime Barbetta published a total of four books of lute pieces containing arrangements of polyphonic compositions of various Renaissance composers as well as a large number of original compositions including .preludes, airs, fantasias, and dance pieces. Although Barbetta achieved importance as a leading figure in the Italian school of lute composition, there is little readily available material, either biographical or musical; this study provides the scholar, the performer, and the listener with biographical data and a modern edition of the composer's complete works.
The great number of musical sources preserved in manuscript and printed form clearly reflects the prominent position held by the lute as a musical instrument during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Only a relatively small portion of this vast literature is presently available to scholars and interested laymen in the form of modern transcriptions. Referred to as "l'instrument noble par excellence," the lute's popular and fashionable appeal is evidenced by the large number of composers who dedicated themselves to this instrument. Among the number of outstanding lute composers living in Italy during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries was Giulio Cesare Barbetta (c. 1540-after 1603). During his lifetime Barbetta published a total of four books of lute pieces containing arrangements of polyphonic compositions of various Renaissance composers as well as a large number of original compositions including .preludes, airs, fantasias, and dance pieces. Although Barbetta achieved importance as a leading figure in the Italian school of lute composition, there is little readily available material, either biographical or musical; this study provides the scholar, the performer, and the listener with biographical data and a modern edition of the composer's complete works.
The great number of musical sources preserved in manuscript and printed form clearly reflects the prominent position held by the lute as a musical instrument during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Only a relatively small portion of this vast literature is presently available to scholars and interested laymen in the form of modern transcriptions. Referred to as "l'instrument noble par excellence," the lute's popular and fashionable appeal is evidenced by the large number of composers who dedicated themselves to this instrument. Among the number of outstanding lute composers living in Italy during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries was Giulio Cesare Barbetta (c. 1540-after 1603). During his lifetime Barbetta published a total of four books of lute pieces containing arrangements of polyphonic compositions of various Renaissance composers as well as a large number of original compositions including .preludes, airs, fantasias, and dance pieces. Although Barbetta achieved importance as a leading figure in the Italian school of lute composition, there is little readily available material, either biographical or musical; this study provides the scholar, the performer, and the listener with biographical data and a modern edition of the composer's complete works.
Sebastien de Brossard (1655-1730) was a French priest, a zealous collector and historian, a musician of merit, and the author of one of the first dictionaries of musical terminology, the Dictionnaire de musigue of 1703. Largely self-taught in music, Brossard studied theology and philosophy at Caen. He was appointed curate at Strasbourg A in 1687 and maitre de musique in 1689. In 1698 he was made grand chapelain and mattre de musique at Meaux, where he remained until his death. His complete works and immense personal library are contained in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. The first edition of Brossard's solo motets was published in 1695 under the title Elevations et motets a voix seule, avec la basse continue. The title Prodromus Musicalis was used for the second edition, published in 1702, and may be loosely translated "Musical Forerunner" or "Musical Prelude." The motets contain a vocal line with text and a figured bass. The present edition presents a faithful rendering of the figured bass and was prepared from a second edition copy contained in the North Texas State University Music Library. In order to enhance the performance and understanding of the eight motets, much of the prefatory material included in the first edition is translated, the formal and tonal structures are analyzed, and English versions of the texts are given. The many ornaments emplayed in the vocal line are categorized, and their execution is explained.
Wagner's second opera Das Liebesverbot, composed in 1835 and first performed in Magdeburg in 1836, could be termed Wagner's "Italian" opera. It represents Wagner's attitudes and feelings at the time of its composition. During this period in Wagner's life the composer had become particularly enchanted with Italian music and also with the Italian way of sensuous and carefree living. At the same time his disillusionment with German conservatism and pedantry also had an influence on the composition of this opera.
In the early years of the nineteenth century, when bowed string instruments were assumed to have reached the apex of their development, there arose among antiquarians and scholars a widespread interest in tracing the ancestry of the violin and related members of the chordophone family. This task proved to be exceedingly formidable not only because of the enormous amount of often obscure evidence which had to be taken into consideration but also because of the manner in which many items of evidence seemed to contradict each other. The issue is still not resolved to the complete satisfaction of every party concerned. Literally scores of different and often conflicting arguments have been advanced, and it could perhaps be justly said that the only furtherance thus far realized has been that of the confusion rather than the resolution of the issue.
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