Get these flashcards, study & pass exams. For free! Even on iPhone/Android!

the French term for alternating long and short rhythmic values, even if written as “equal” rhythms

one of four ways to shape a long note; crescendo and decrescendo

Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Gigue

Originated at the end of the sixteenth century in the New World, as a part of Spanish popular culture; a sexy, sultry dance, which would have been played on guitars, tambourines, and castanets; a “major mode” bass line, with a I-V-VI-V harmonic pattern.

a set of dialogues by Artusi; the dialogues contain a conversation between Luca (a progressive student of music, modestly supporting certain modern approaches to composition) and Vario (a conservative teacher; the mouthpiece for Artusi).

a term coined by Claudio Monteverdi and described by his brother Giulio Cesare – refers to Monteverdi's dissonance treatment and text setting, wherein “the words are mistress of the harmony”

––a representation of “static” episodes from mythology
––sung throughout
––performed between the acts of spoken drama
––elaborately staged

the time of year when opera was performed

Carnival Season is a six-week period of festivities; it starts on the day after Christmas (the Feast of St. Stephen) and ends on the first day of Lent (Fat Tuesday; Ash Wednesday).

Venice was home to an internationally renown carnival season

the most popular and influential librettist of the 18C; standardizes the traits associated with 18C opera seria

•no comic characters
•no supernatural elements
•no chorus (except at the very end of the opera)
•historically based plots
•a recurring narrative theme—the conflict between love and duty
•few characters (usually, 6-8)
•one-dimensional characters that represent a particular affect (e.g. love or jealousy); the principal players are morally consummate heroes.
•Opera seria has a didactic function; its purpose was to entertain and instruct—that is, to generate courtly propaganda