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Carlo Broschi, better known as Farinelli, arrived in Madrid on 7 August 1737. King Philip V and his wife Elisabeth Farnese were deeply impressed by his vocal qualities and invited him to remain in their service, on extremely rewarding terms. Although few sources concerning his first months in Spain are available, a newly discovered libretto, L'ombra di Luigi XIV il Grande, sheds light on his position at the Spanish court and his response to the privileged situation he enjoyed. The work is a short solo cantata commissioned by Farinelli and offered to Philip V for his name day in 1738. The title-page indicates Francesco Feo as the composer, but no sources for the musical setting have yet been located, nor any information about a performance of the work. This article examines the content of the cantata's text and situates it within what is known about the life of Farinelli. It also reconstructs in detail the literary career of the author of the text, Giuseppe di Rosa, who was also a magistrate and historian. Additionally, it links the genesis of this encomiastic piece with the activity of Giovanni Battista Filomarino, Neapolitan ambassador at the court of Madrid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the various formal structures employed in the arias of Handel's oratorios is a ternary form in which the last section is newly written, rather than being a verbatim repeat of the first section, as in the ubiquitous da capo aria. This form, for which I propose the term "recomposed return aria," is rarely mentioned by scholars, and has never been the subject of a comprehensive study, despite its considerable aesthetic interest. In this article I focus on Handel's use of the recomposed return aria, exploring in particular the array of recapitulatory designs that it encompasses, and the reasons why Handel may sometimes have chosen this form instead of the regular da capo. I then turn to the oratorio Alexander Balus, as a case study through which to show how the compositional freedom intrinsic to the recomposed return aria allows for the portrayal of various aspects of erotic attraction experienced by the protagonists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses religious poetry and choral music, and the Our Father songs by Peter Cornelius. Peter Cornelius' Liederzyklus Vater unser. Neun geistliche Lieder op. 2 is a collection of solo cantatas among the many issued in the nineteenth century. Illustrations of some sheets contained in Cornelius' collection are presented.

The article presents a guide to the sacred solo cantatas of composer Johann Sebastian Bach, which enables professional performer, teacher or student to select a cantata for a solo voice or voices. The cantatas of Bach's escape the title of solo cantata because such cantatas contain a single choral movement which is inappropriate for congregational singing. Bach's sacred solo cantatas were written during his years in Weimar, Germany, from 1708-1717, as well as in Leipzig, from 1723-1750, and such cantatas employ texts for the Lutheran liturgy. It also states that the reason why Bach wrote cantatas for solo voices is because of the popularity of opera in the eighteenth century in Germany. A chart depicting Bach's sacred solo cantatas in the Lutheran church calendar is also presented.

The Lautenlied from Korngold's Die tote Stadt and the Schiummerlied from Schreker's Die Schatzgräber flaunt their `folksong' styie in ways that are clearly similar. Contemporary criticism reveals the significance of this stylization. Folksong symbolized genuineness, but also, in its supposedly degenerate form, emotional manipulation of the masses. Both topics informed critics' reaction to these two arias. Alongside analysis of the many recordings of Korngold's aria up to 1933, the article suggests how folksong characterization contributed to the opera's plot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reception of Haydn's early string quartets is chequered. Professional performers tend to avoid the quartets before op. 20 (1772). In scholarship, essential features of 'Classical' string quartets are typically thought to be in place at the earliest with Op. 20, but more usually with Op. 33. This essay contributes to a critique of these assumptions, and offers an alternative view of the earlier works. The slow movements in particular, with their solo 'arias' for first violin, have been considered especially problematic. From a historical perspective, however, these movements can he understood to exemplify a fundamentally new mode of expression that was extolled by mid-eighteenth-century theorists: that of the tableau. This concept was discussed, for example, by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Denis Diderot, and was brought to the stages of Vienna and Eszterháza in the ballets of Jean-Georges Noverre and the operas of Gluck and Haydn, among others. As sonic tableaux, or instrumental 'arias', movements from Haydn's early string quartets epitomize a dramatic mode that was of fundamental importance to music of the Classical era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the second part of a two-part series on the doctoral dissertations on the three baroque cantatas for the alto voice. It examines how form, melody, rhythm, and harmony meld with the text and develop the drama. A detailed analysis of each cantata, diagramming relationships between text, section, vocal period and harmonic change is discussed.

THIS STUDY EXAMINED THE EFFECTS of repeated hearings on 74 participants' responses to two types of musical compositions. Intact compositions consisted of short classical piano solos. Patchwork compositions were created by combining excerpts from three different musical works. The findings showed that listeners' ratings of unity and liking for intact compositions were initially higher than those for patchwork compositions. With repeated hearings, however, ratings of patchwork compositions increased linearly while ratings of intact compositions showed a general downward trend. After four repeated hearings, ratings of patchwork compositions even exceeded those of the intact compositions. These trends across repeated hearings were contrary to what would be predicted if listeners were focusing on thematic relationships. Implications for Berlyne's two-factor arousal theory and competing theories are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information related to the invasion of technology in the private voice studio. The voice studio of yesterday often included only one essential bit of technology--a piano. Numerous software programs are available to meet the technological needs of the private studio teacher. CD Sheet Music produces a series of disks upon which the teacher will find German, French, and Italian classic songs and arias. Each disk contains hundreds of pages of songs. Music writing programs are priced according to the numbers of features needed.

Whereas earlier Italian baroque cantatas usually began arias in the key in which the preceding recitative had ended, there was an increasing tendency after 1700 to create a tonal disjunction between recitative and aria and to utilize for affective purposes the harmonic progression linking the last chord of the former to the first chord of the latter. Vivaldi, who almost invariably placed his arias in a contrasting key, was a leading exponent of this technique and employed a surprisingly large variety of key relationships at the recitative-aria interface. For illustration, the article draws on cantatas by Vinaccesi, Albinoni and Vivaldi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the solo cantatas of Dietrich Buxtehude where the use of recitative and communal style is minimal. Topics covered include the prominence of Latin Bible texts and devotional poetry in his choral works, his frequent use of text repetition which violates the primary rules of stile recitativo but appears to be a deliberate musical device and his treatment of a prose text in "O Clemens, O Mitis" where he combines stylus luxurians commmunis with recitativo accompagnato.

The article discusses the attributes of the existing oboe parts by German composer Johann Sebastian Bach and other composers. Topics covered include the keys for the obbligato parts in the arias, the misconception over the evidence regarding D major, and a table outlining the keys used by various other Baroque composers for their oboe concerti.

The article reviews several music releases including "Cantatas vol. 22," "Cantatas vol. 19," and "Cantatas vol. 21."