The Baroque Style Analysis

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
The new enlightenment musical style developed as the Baroque style was rejected. A catalyst for the new musical style was the” Swiss-born intellectual philosopher, composer, and author, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). He gained enormous public notoriety and affluence in his time during the “1740s and '50s. The spirit of the Enlightenment was such that Rousseau became a prophet and he was listened to very carefully indeed” (L28, 14:03). He believed “the natural man” was good by nature but corrupted by civilization; society was ultimately detrimental to the well-being of human beings as individuals. According to Rousseau, only an operatic genre that artistically expressed the portrayal of real people in real situations singing natural music could coincide with the humanistic spirit of the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment’s humanistic spirit in addition to the War of the Clowns, an intellectual squabble over comedic and serious opera genres that lasted for two seasons, inevitably gave rise to the new favorite genre, opera buffa, comic
The commedia dell'arte developed in northern Italy in the sixteenth century; it was comprised of traveling theatrical groups whose performers came from the middle and lower classes. These performers entertained audiences with their portrayal of the aristocracy and upper class as “blundering, pompous and ultimately stupid”. “The directness of its stories and music, and the social criticism inherent in its commedia dell'arte archetypes” was adopted by opera. “This ability for an audience, especially a middle class audience, to personally identify with the characters and the dramatic situations of opera buffa, cuts to the heart and soul of what opera buffa is all about” (L28, 24:18). Opera buffa “is about recognizing and portraying life's everyday absurdities and trying to negotiate them with some, with any degree of dignity and that's why it speaks to us as opera seria never can” (L28, 31:34). This operatic reformed genre featured the following elements: 1) the music is lively, catchy and falls between sophistication and popular; 2) it features no particular formula, the text and music follow the story; and 3) the cast is small and