#Alessandro Scarlatti

[lesser-known-composers]

Excerpts from Alessandro Scarlatti (1660–1725) "Il Giardino di Rose - La Santissima Vergine del Rosario" Oratorio for 5 voices and instruments (1707)

LA RITIRATA

[mrbacf]

Alessandro Scarlatti: 'Dove fuggo? A che penso?', Cantata for Soprano, V...

[bl00dyghoul2]

O stop wounding me,

O leave me to die!

eyes so ungrateful, merciless,

more than ice and more than marble

cold and deaf to my sufferings!

and you enjoy my fainting. [...]

[hartshorn-and-isinglass]

The next couple of years are not going to be easy. Look after yourselves. Don't forget to rest and feed your soul along the way.

I expect this administration to take a rather dim view on support for the arts, as the fash like to pretend the arts are frivolous luxuries one can do without--so I'd like to remind you to support your favorite artists when you are able, to help keep them going financially so they can help keep you going, morale-wise.

On that note--while this blog has less reach than most pr0n spam accounts and I am most certainly not the kind of cheer squad a bunch of world-class classical musicians want or need--I'm going to take a moment to do some more blorbo-shilling anyway.

Curious about classical music but don't want to go see a full orchestra doing giant fuck-off 40-minute long symphonies? Liked Bach, Vivaldi, and Mozart in your music appreciation class and wanna listen to more 18th-century stuff? Or maybe you're a music nerd and you need more historically-informed concerts in your life? Are you within driving distance of Hudson or NYC?

Come hear the Four Nations Ensemble play this February, March, and May. For the first time, they're replicating their three-concert spring series in both NYC and Hudson, instead of just NYC. I unfortunately can't do the entire series so I'm doing a little Hail-Mary signal-boost to see if I can't recruit some other folks in my stead. (And if you're too far away to go or you only see this post years from now, go check out Andrew Appel's Youtube channel to find recordings of their performances.)

Propaganda:

And I've posted this video of Medeé before, but this time I'm gonna time-stamp it to the "Cruelle fille des enfers" part because this is just so... *chef's kiss* deliciously menacing:

Pascale Beaudin's going to have some fun stuff to sing for this concert series, themed around three soprano divas of the 18th century and the musicians in their orbits. It's an absolute delight to hear her in concert. Recordings can't fully capture that energy.

I have enjoyed listening to the recordings of Andrew and Olivier since my younger days and when I got back into classical music during the pandemic I was chuffed to discover that they're now in this excellent ensemble together. I also hope, dear God, that none of them ever find this extremely cursed blog. But I'm willing to take that risk if it puts them in front of some more eyeballs for people who wouldn't have found them otherwise. Anyway... we now return you to your regularly-scheduled shitposts and rants.

[musicwithoutborders]

Alessandro Scarlatti / Accademia Bizantina, Concerto No. 2 In C Minor: III. Minuetto I Concerti Grossi . Cello Sonatas, 2001

[tfblovesmusic]

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/lagiuditta

My early birthday gift - OPERA2DAY’s semi-staged production of La Giuditta, an oratorio by Alessandro Scarlatti. The score was the Cambridge edition.

Among the best parts are when the titular character Giuditta (soprano Ana Maria Labin) does a minuet with Oloferne (tenor Krystian Adam), in a HAZMAT SUIT, in “Non ti curo o libertà.” The former later does epic poses with Nutrice (my second-favorite countertenor Michael Chance) as he holds a lightning effect box at the end of the arioso-duetto!

His moving rendition of “Dormi, o fulmine” - while holding an OXYGEN MASK - aside, Ginong Chance’s wig slightly reminds me of my pet Pomeranian to whom I acquired a few months ago…

[paul-archibald]

Sicily

https://on.soundcloud.com/zsEoRr2fHVyXaunn7 Sicily is the largest and most populous island in the Mediterranean Sea. It has a picturesque coastline and historic towns, and offers beaches, mountains, active volcanoes, and even skiing in winter. It produces wine, almonds, pistachios, olives, citrus, and seafood but also has a rich culture in arts, music, literature, cuisine, and architecture. In…

[sunset-supergirl]

Happy birthday Alessandro Scarlatti

[elmartillosinmetre]

Mi crítica del concierto de la OBS esta noche en el Espacio Turina.

[lesser-known-composers]

Alessandro Scarlatti (1660–1725) - Misere mei Deus in D Minor (A 4 voci) ·

L'Escadron Volant de la Reine

[music-crush]

Alessandro Scarlatti

Happy birthday, Pietro Alessandro Gaspare Scarlatti!

[mrbacf]

Alessandro Scarlatti - Stabat Mater

[bl00dyghoul2]

O cessate di piagarmi, o lasciatemi morir, o lasciatemi morir.

Luc'ingrate, dispietate, luc'ingrate, dispietate, più del gelo e più del marmi

Fredde e sorde a' miei martir, fredde e sorde a' miei martir.

O cessate di piagarmi, o lasciatemi morir, o lasciatemi morir.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Classical Music Eras

Classical Music - describes orchestral music, chamber music, choral music, and solo performance pieces, yet within this broad genre, several distinct periods exist. Each classical era has its own characteristics that distinguish it from classical music at large.

Eras of Classical Music

Musicologists divide classical music into historical eras and stylistic subgenres. One way to examine classical music history is to divide it into 7 periods:

Medieval period (1150 to 1400): Music has existed since the dawn of human civilization, but most music historians begin cataloging classical music in the Medieval era. Medieval music is known for monophonic chant—sometimes called Gregorian chant due to its use by Gregorian monks. In addition to singing, Medieval musicians played instrumental music on instruments like the lute, the flute, the recorder, and select string instruments.

Renaissance period (1400 to 1600): Renaissance-era music introduced polyphonic music to wide audiences, particularly via choral music, which was performed in liturgical settings. In addition to the lute, Renaissance musicians played viol, rebec, lyre, and guitar among other string instruments. Brass instruments like the sackbut and cornet also emerged during this era. Perhaps the most notable Renaissance composers were Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, John Dowland, and Thomas Tallis.

Baroque period (1600 to 1750): During the Baroque era, classical music surged forward in its complexity. The Baroque era saw a full embrace of tonal music—music based on major scales and minor scales rather than modes—and it maintained the polyphony of the Renaissance era. Many of the instruments used by today's orchestras were common in Baroque music, including violin, viola, cello, contrabass (double bass), bassoon, and oboe. Harpsichord was the dominant keyboard instrument, although the piano first emerged during this era. The most renowned composers of the early Baroque era include Alessandro Scarlatti and Henry Purcell. By the late Baroque period, composers like Antonio Vivaldi, Dominico Scarlatti, George Frideric Handel, and Georg Philipp Telemann achieved massive popularity. The most influential composer to come from the Baroque era is Johann Sebastian Bach, who composed extensive preludes, fugues, cantatas, and organ music.

Classical period (1750 to 1820): Within the broad genre of classical music exists the Classical period. This era of music marked the first time that the symphony, the instrumental concerto (which highlights virtuoso soloists), and the sonata form were brought to wide audiences. Chamber music for trio and string quartet was also popular during the Classical era. The signature classical composer is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, although he was far from the only star of the classical era. Joseph Haydn, Franz Schubert, and J.S. Bach's sons J.C. Bach and C.P.E. Bach were also star composers during this period. Opera composers like Mozart and Christoph Willibald Gluck developed the operatic form into a style that remains recognizable today. Ludwig van Beethoven began his career during the Classical era, but his own innovations helped usher in the next musical era.

Romantic period (1820 to 1900): Exemplified by late-period Beethoven, the Romantic era introduced emotion and drama to the platonic beauty of Classical period music. Early Romantic works like Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 set a template for nearly all nineteenth-century music that followed. Many of the composers who dominate today's symphonic repertoires composed during the Romantic era, including Frederic Chopin, Franz Liszt, Felix Mendelssohn, Hector Berlioz, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Anton Bruckner, Gustav Mahler, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Richard Strauss, Jean Sibelius, and Sergei Rachmaninoff. Opera composers like Richard Wagner, Giuseppe Verdi, and Giacomo Puccini used Romanticism's emotional power to create beautiful melodic lines sung in Italian and German. The Romantic era also saw the creation of a new instrument in the woodwind family, the saxophone, which would gain special prominence in the century to come.

Modern period (1900 to 1930): The Modern era of art and music came about in the early twentieth century. Classical composers of the early twentieth century reveled in breaking the harmonic and structural rules that had governed previous forms of classical music. Igor Stravinsky defiantly stretched instruments to their natural limits, embraced mixed meter, and challenged traditional notions of tonality in works like The Rite of Spring. French composers like Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel led a subgenre of twentieth-century music called Impressionism. Others like Dimitri Shostakovich, Paul Hindemith, and Béla Bartók stuck with classical forms like the piano concerto and the sonata, but challenged harmonic traditions. Perhaps most radical was the German composer Arnold Schoenberg who, along with disciples like Alban Berg and Anton Webern, disposed of tonality altogether and embraced serial (or 12-tone) music.

Postmodern period (1930 to today): The art music of the twentieth century shifted starting in the 1930s and continuing into the post-World War II era, ushering in a style of music that is sometimes called postmodern or contemporary. Early purveyors of postmodern music include Olivier Messiaen, who combined classical forms with new instruments like the ondes martenot. Postmodern and contemporary composers like Pierre Boulez, Witold Lutoslawski, Krzysztof Penderecki, Henryk Górecki, György Ligeti, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, John Adams, and Christopher Rouse have blended the lines between tonal and atonal music, and they’ve blurred the lines between classical music and other forms like rock and jazz.

Source ⚜ More: Notes & References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[landrysg]

Have you heard Mass today?

Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725), Messa di Santa Cecilia (1720)

[insteading]

Right near the beginning of s2 e3, there's another classical banger: La Folia. The first instance of the bassline shows up around 1670, and then for centuries, composers all over Europe have a go at writing variations on it. (Honestly, composers are still having a go at it, not limited to in Europe. This website attempts to catalogue all the compositions based on or inspired by La Folia, and, well, there are A LOT.

What we hear in this episode is a "later folia," in which a set melody in a minor key is put over that bassline. The result is a sober, stately dance tune, in a triple meter, with the emphasis on the second beat, which shows up in the beginning and ending of later folia settings. (In between the beginning and end, composers improvise more freely, as performers would in jazz or blues.)

Lully, Corelli, Marin Marais (whom I imprinted on), Alessandro Scarlatti and Vivaldi all had Folia variations in circulation by the time Ed and Stede met, though we know that this show is historically inspired rather than tied to history.

The piece's title means "madness" or "folly"-- perhaps of the sort that might lead you to bellyflop into the ocean to board a ship with no sails and no wheel, in the hope that someone you love is still there and alive.