Advantages: Monteverdi's music, gorgeous musical performance Disadvantages: Lots of cuts
Claudio Monteverdi is widely regarded as the father of opera. Only 3 of his survive today. Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria (The Return of Ulysses to His Homeland) is the 2nd oldest, having premiered in 1640.
Ancient masterpieces age like fine wine. Musically this opera is full of simple beauties. The only scores that exist contain the vocal lines and the bass (continuo) line.... and that's it. The rest of the orchestration is interpolated. I think Nikolaus Harnoncourt does a marvelous job at that, and the period instruments orchestra delivers beautifully.
Unlike later Baroque opera, there is no show-stopping aria, but the music is very drama-oriented, moving very smoothly from each arias and ensemble pieces. The opera proper is preceded by an allegorical prologue that tells of the fragility of man against the will of the gods ...
Advantages: An extra hours worth of glorious 16th century florentine music Disadvantages: deletion of the original "music from the Crusades"/"the triumphs of maximillian"
ballads and jolly little jigs and madrigals by the great blind genius, Francesco Landini. many of these ballads have stuck in my soul all these years, and i never forgot the tunes. everything is in Latin, and all the words are printed for you in both Latin and English. Truly excellent composer of songs. the remainder of this cd is taken up with instrumental music by other composers or anons, using original or copies of medeival instruments, the viol, recorder, flute, shawm, etc. really puts you in a festival mood, man!! Any true romantic or lover of fine music should love this, and also i should think most hippies!! (all the music here is of secular origin.)
The 2nd CD (which in a mood of indignance at the omissions from the original collection, i didn't venture to listen to straight away) contains 16th century Florentine music, which ...
Advantages: Friendly with a strong course Disadvantages: Not many opportunities for solo performance
for performance and composition), though with some strategic choosing it's possible to end up with more coursework and less exams. In the third year a special study is compulsory - either performance, composition, theory and analysis, or a dissertation on anything you like - but the rest of what you do is almost entirely up to you.
Examples of courses for choice include historical modules, or modules on a fairly general area, such as German Music Between the Wars, Music in 1920s Paris, Music and Religion, Music and the Moving Image (film music), or Music and the French Revolution. There are modules more specifically on one area or composer, for example Chopin, or Bach, or Elgar, or Mozart's piano concertos, and Monteverdi's madrigals. There are a number of world music modules: Rural Andean Music, Music of the Mediterranean, and gamelan performance ...
butimba 15.09.2003
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