Reformed Opera
Gluck’s new type of opera aimed at combining the best features of Italian and French operatic traditions
Singspiel
German opera using spoken dialogue resembling ballad opera
Ballad Opera
Comic opera, spoken dialogue, tunes borrowed from ballads and other popular songs
Opera
Extended dramatic composition in which all parts are sung to instrumental accompaniment
Opera comique
Not comic opera, current in France during 19th Century and characterized by spoken dialogue
Opera Seria
Enlightenment features a reduced number of characters and a simplified libretta
Intermezzo
a musical diversion between acts of an opera or play
Opera Buffa
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi composer of the famous two act intermezzo, the best known opera buffa of the first half of the 18th Century, Italian comic opera
Empfindsamer Stil
Important movement in Germany during the mid-18th Century. Variety of deeply felt emotions within a musical work
Galant Style
Music of the 18th Century that emphasized grace, lightness in texture, and symmetrical melodic structures
Sonata form
is the most important formal innovation of the Classical period. Composers usually used sonata form in fast (allegro) first movements and some finales of sonatas, quartets, or symphonies.
Symphony
during the eighteenth century it replaced the solo concerto and concerto grosso as the leading genre of large-scale instrumental music.
from the Classical period onward, the symphony formed the core of most orchestral concerts.
c.1720-1810, over 12,000 symphonies were composed
Concerto
the concerto grosso mostly disappeared most Classic concertos were for solo violin or piano
Divertimento and serenade:
Originally a musical diversion for chamber ensemble
Later, a lighter style and 5 mvmt. format
5 mvmts: fast/minuet+trio/slow/minuet+trio/fast
String quartet
created by Haydn in the 1750s by adding a viola to the old Baroque trio texture
featured four evenly matched instrumental parts
designed for private (“chamber”) performances
Sonata
instrumental chamber music in two, three, or, more rarely, four movements for soloist or small ensemble
for domestic use
Sonatina
Italian for “small sonata“
denotes a short and easy sonata
usually intended for amateur aristocratic musicians.
Harmonie
– late 18th-c. Vienna
an independent wind band playing mostly harmony
included pairs of oboes, French horns, bassoons, and clarinets
Harmoniemusik
music for a Harmonie
e.g. Mozart’s Serenade in C Minor (1782)