Jacop Peri Pride And Prejudice Essay

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Throughout Baroque music history, Italy flourished noticeably due to the mere fact that they had financial support from churches, wealth and trade, as well as rulers supporting the best musicians. Therefore, throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Italy was the primary European country to develop the musical drama, or opera, and it remained the dominating force of the genre. Techniques, such as recitative and aria, evolved throughout Italian opera, and they became a model for future opera composers. Jacop Peri’s, “L’Euridice,” is a fine example of these Italian elements. Nearly eight decades later in France, Jean-Baptiste Lully composed, “Armide,” in which there exists a utilization of a basic skeleton of Italian opera, however new techniques were introduced. Because French were averse to Italy’s politics and cultures, they were equally reluctant to adopt Italy’s musical guidelines. French and Italian opera were similar in structure, however French opera composers embraced …show more content…

It is a story about the lives of Ancient Greek Orpheus and Euridice, and is based on books from “Metamorphoses,” by Roman poet Ovid, although there were alterations to the ending. Italian opera styles are evidently present throughout. Peri matches the text of the libretto by introducing a new singing style, recitative. Recitative imitates speech in a way that it is halfway between speech and song. This style helps to better communicate the emotions and the intellect to audience members, and it is modeled after Ancient Greek drama. The recitative within “L’Euridice” consisted of a texture that gave the singer more freedom to express the text. This technique was contrasted by the aria. The aria was an accompanied song for a solo voice within an opera, most typically after a recitative, and was more song-like and lyrical than the

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