Amilcar Amlcare Ponchielli's Dance Of The Hours

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Romantic composers aimed for expression of emotion in their pieces. Romantic music is not just about the emotion of love, it can also be about hate or death. During the Romantic era the composers widened the range of their musical material, with richer harmonies, enthusiastic melodies, and greater use of chromaticism. Ponchielli’s work was typical of a sincerely symphonic spirit with freedom, imagination, and variety to be found in his opera’s making them his own. Ponchielli expressed his emotions in Dance of the Hours when Alvise showcases Laura’s supposed dead body telling a story of good and evil. Dance of the Hours use of rich variety, dramatic, and dynamic climaxes is typical of the Romantic era. Ponchielli’s wasted no time in Dance of the Hours to showcasing his use of chromatism and dramatic contrasts of dynamics occurring immediately after the introduction with the birth of the daytime melody. Throughout the composition his chromatic harmonies continue, combined with the use of thick textures with bold dramatic contrasts, wide range of dynamics and tone display the elements typical of the Romantic era. …show more content…

He was taught the basic of music by his father, a church organist in a village near Cremona. (Osborne 2004). From 1844 through 1854 he studied music conception and composition at Milan Conservatory which in turn influenced his entire career. (Budden et al, 2014). After graduation he settled in Cremona as a music teacher and organist for a local church. Ponchielli was a leading Italian Composer whose works were influenced by the Italian tradition of Opera. Throughout the 1860s Ponchielli made his living as municipal bandmaster at Piacenza (from 1861 to 1864), then at Cremona (from 1864 to 1873). Also during this time, he composed works for wind band, directed several operas and his ballets. (Budden et al,

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