RECOMMENDED LISTENING MUSICAL DEVICES AND HOW TO LISTEN: • Tempo and rhythm: is the music fast, slow, steady? Are the rhythms stately, playful, grave? • Key: is it in major or minor? (does it sound bright and happy or sad?) • Contour of a line: does the voice move smoothly or does it make frequent or erratic jumps? Do the vocal lines move noticeably downward or upward? Does the type of voice singing (baritone, soprano, etc.) have an effect on the listener? • Dynamics/volume : is the music loud or soft? Are there sudden changes in volume (either in the voice or orchestra)? • Predictability: do the melodies end as you would expect or do they surprise you? SECOND LISTENING AND FOLLOW-UP QUESTIONS: • What is the orchestra doing in contrast to the voice? / How do they interact? • What sorts of images or atmospheres come to mind when listening to the music? Does it remind you of something? • Do particularly emphatic notes (low, high, held) correspond to dramatic moments in the text? • Does this sound like music for a serious or comic character? CARO NOME (GILDA, SOPRANO) • Major key (E major) • Accompaniment supports the vocal line and sometimes parallels it. • The prominence of the woodwinds in the accompaniment give the aria a bright timbre. • Vocal line moves down by step for large portions of the aria. (Like in Pamina’s aria, “Ach ich fühl’s,” it creates a sighing sound, only more hopeful due to the major key.) • Trills and heavily ornamented passages show the innocent character’s excitement and nervousness. • Phrases have a lot of dynamic contrast (crescendo, decrescendo). Singer can create a sense of longing, tenderness, bashfulness, etc. with their dynamic inflection. • The aria begins with a very simple melody that becomes more distorted with rhythmic variation and the aforementioned ornamentation, showing the characters convoluted feelings of both love and uncertainty. ELLA MI FU RAPITA/PARMI VEDER LE LAGRIME (DUKE, TENOR) • “Ella mi fu Rapita” begins in a minor key and intermittently shifts to F major. • The portions in minor have forte choppy accompaniment indicating anger, while the major shifts have piano, legato accompaniment, indicating sympathy and/or sadness. • The vocal line of the minor segments is similarly choppy, broken up by rests, where the major sections (including the main aria, “Parmi Veder le Lagrime” in G flat major) contain legato, shapely phrases. • Similar to “Caro Nome,” “Parmi Veder le Lagrime” has tender melodies that can be tenderly shaped with dynamics. • The phrase beginning with “Ned ei potea soccorrerti,” indicates harmonically that there is a sadness to the aria as well as tenderness. (Begins on a lowered 7th) CORTIGIANI VIL RAZZA DANNATA (RIGOLETTO, BARITONE) • Few leaps and little ornamentation in the vocal line makes it very direct and accusatory. • Accompaniment, contrastingly, is very busy at the start with surging sixteenth notes. This creates the agitated and stormy atmosphere. Even during Rigoletto’s lyrical plea to the courtiers, the orchestra always retains a moving sixteenth note line that indicate Rigoletto’s restlessness throughout. • Dotted rhythms and syncopation in the vocal line help create this agitation as well, but also give a sense of Rigoletto’s disorientation (especially after his outburst “Assassini”). Repeated, syncopated notes throughout the aria mimic stammering, frenzied accusation, and weeping.
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