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Notes on video lecture:
Opera and Oratorios: Constituent Parts
Notes taken by Edward Tanguay on November 27, 2015 (go to class or lectures)
Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:
beginning, oratorios, forward, realism, humors, London, choleric, Halle, recitative, harpsichord, still, freeze, Italians, operas, Germany, 18th, emotion
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Handel started out as a composer of             
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Handel's life
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born 1685 in           
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moved to Italy
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learned about                  produce music
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came back to               
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went to England
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died 1759 in             
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moved to                    later
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his audience moved with him
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the music of oratorios
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very like the music of operas
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         century opera
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is a wonderful creation
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the                        plays while people talk
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called reciting
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they actually sing
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it's real-time, things move               
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at some point, when you get to an interesting moment, time stands           , the orchestra begins to play, some character steps out of the circle and begins to sing a beautiful song, often accompanied by the supportive voices of other actors
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when that is over,the harpsichord begins to play again, the actors engage in more                     , action moves forward, and then someone steps out and sings a beautiful song again
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talking, song, talking, song
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the songs are like              frames which enable a particular character to express how he feels at a particular point
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it's not designed to be               , but a story structure specifically designed to explore different states of human emotions within a narrative
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a musical expression of that               
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there tend to be choruses in 18th century opera, but they tend to only sing at the                    and end of acts and are not integrated in the plot as in other musical genres such as oratorios
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choruses are not a big deal in operas but are a very big deal in oratorios
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18th century physicians believed that the emotions are governed by the four bodily             
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sanguine
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phlegmatic
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melancholic
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three musical parts of oratorios
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1. recitative or talking
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2. the songs or arias
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3. chorus

Vocabulary:

recitative, n. [RES-it-ah-teev] or Italian "recitativo", a style of delivery, much used in operas, oratorios, and cantatas, in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech ⇒ "Recitative does not repeat lines as formally composed songs do. It resembles sung ordinary speech more than a formal musical composition."

Ideas and Concepts:

18th century opera explained, via this morning's Baroque Oratorio class: "18th century opera is a wonderful creation:after a short introduction by the orchestra and the choir, the choir being less important in 18th century operas than in oratorios, the harpsichord begins to play while people talk. This is called reciting, or in Italian "recitativo", in which the actors actually sing but without any repetitive lines, but rather normal speech which moves the real-time action of the plot further. At some point the plot reaches a poignant moment, time stands still, the orchestra begins to play again, and one of the characters steps out of the circle and begins to sing a beautiful song, often supported by the voices of other actors around him or her. When this is over, the harpsichord begins to play again, the actors continue the recitative which moves the action forward to a point when a character, again, steps out of the circle and sings a beautiful song. This pattern of talking, singing, talking, singing continues until the end of the opera. The songs that are sung are like freeze frames in the plot which enable a particular character to express how he feels at a particular point. 18th century opera is not designed to be realism in any way, but is designed to present a simple story structure specifically designed to explore different states of human emotion within a narrative."
Opera and Oratorios: Constituent Parts