MUSIC Grade 9 - Vocal Music of the Romantic Period (4th Quarter Music - MAPEH)

Summary

This music lesson delves into the expressive power of vocal music during the Romantic period, highlighting its emotional intensity and the rise of virtuoso performers. The focus is on the cultural and artistic developments of the era, with a deep dive into opera as a significant form of musical expression. The lesson explores the components of an opera, including the libretto, score, recitative, aria, acts, and scenes, and the importance of voice types such as tenor, baritone, soprano, and more. It also touches on the training required for opera singers, emphasizing the bel canto technique, language proficiency, and endurance. The script concludes with a nod to the influence of Romantic vocal music on contemporary musical plays and the international success of Filipino artists like Lea Salonga, showcasing the enduring impact of this period on music and culture.

Takeaways

• 🎶 **Emotional Expression**: Vocal music during the Romantic period was a powerful tool for expressing a wide range of emotions, including grandiosity, intimacy, and sadness.
• 🎭 **Cultural Significance**: The Romantic period's music and literature were closely intertwined, with composers often drawing inspiration from poetry and traditional myths.
• 🎼 **Art Song and Opera**: The art song and opera were significant forms of vocal music, with the art song being a composition for solo voice and piano, often inspired by poetry.
• 🎩 **Opera Houses**: The birth of opera houses represented a convergence of the arts, including music, poetry, painting, architecture, and dance.
• 👩‍🎤 **Vocal Range and Dynamics**: Singers in the Romantic period were required to perform with a wide range of tone color, dynamics, and pitch, which made opera a crucial form of musical expression.
• 🧙‍♂️ **Fantasy and Supernatural**: Romantic vocal forms often dealt with themes of fantasy, the supernatural, and romance, using nature as a mirror for the human heart.
• 🎉 **Famous Composers**: The script highlights the works of composers such as Franz Schubert, Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Wagner, and Georges Bizet, each contributing significantly to the vocal music of the Romantic period.
• 📜 **Libretto and Score**: The libretto is the text of an opera, while the score is the book containing all the musical notes, words, and ideas that help performers tell the story.
• 🎵 **Aria and Recitative**: The aria is a memorable solo part sung by a principal character, and the recitative is the declamatory singing used in the prologues and dialogue of opera.
• 🗣️ **Voice Types**: Male singers are categorized as tenors, baritones, and basses, while female singers are sopranos, coloraturas, lyric sopranos, mezzo-sopranos, and contraltos.
• 🇵🇭 **Philippine Vocal Music**: In the Philippines, the zarzuela, a traditional theater genre, dominated the scene and often showcased strong Filipino nationalism in its storylines.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the music lesson for this fourth quarter period?

The main focus of the music lesson is on vocal music during the Romantic period.

How did composers during the Romantic period express emotions in their music?

Composers explored feelings of grandiosity, intimacy, unpredictability, sadness, rapture, and longing, often through vocal forms like art songs and operas.

What is an art song and what was its inspiration during the Romantic period?

An art song is a musical composition written for solo voice and piano, often inspired by poetry. It sets a mood at the beginning with a piano introduction and concludes with a piano postlude.

Why did the birth of opera houses become significant during the Romantic period?

The birth of opera houses marked a convergence of all the arts, including music, poetry, painting, architecture, and dance, making opera an important source of musical expression.

What are the main components of an opera?

The main components of an opera include the libretto (text), score (musical notes and ideas), recitative (sung dialogue), aria (solo singing part), and acts and scenes (divisions and settings of the opera).

Which composer is known for developing the Lieder form and is considered a bridge between classical and Romantic periods?

Franz Peter Schubert is known for developing the Lieder form and is considered the last of the classical composers and one of the first Romantic ones.

What is unique about Giuseppe Verdi's approach to opera composition?

Giuseppe Verdi insisted on a good libretto and wrote operas with political overtones for a middle-class audience. His characters were often ordinary people, unlike the royal figures found in German operas.

What was Richard Wagner's contribution to the operatic medium?

Richard Wagner introduced new ideas in harmony and form, including chromaticism, and developed a compositional style where the orchestra played an equal role in dramatic expression as the singers, paving the way for atonality in the 20th century.

Why is Georges Bizet's opera 'Carmen' initially not well-received but later became a success?

Initially, 'Carmen' received poor reviews and low audience attendance in Paris. However, after Bizet's death, the opera opened in Vienna and became a hit, eventually being recognized as one of the most popular operas ever written.

What are the different types of voices for singers, and what are their characteristics?

For male singers, there are tenors (highest voice), baritones (middle voice), and basses (lowest voice). For female singers, there are sopranos (highest voice), coloraturas (highest soprano voice), lyric sopranos (bright and full sound), dramatic sopranos (darker full sound), mezzo-sopranos (strong middle voice), and contraltos (lowest female voice).

What are some key aspects that opera singers need to learn and master during their training?

Opera singers need to learn sound or tone color, bel canto technique, endurance for long performances, language proficiency for singing in various languages, proper posture for efficient breathing, vocal range development, and endurance for sustained high-level performances.