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Some Forerunners of Italian Opera by Henderson, W. J. (William James) ( Author )
Lemonjar
N.A
01-01-1911
Click "free sample" to read the whole book no need to purchase. The purpose of this volume is to offer to the English reader a short study of the lyric drama in Italy prior to the birth of opera and to note in its history the growth of the artistic elements and influences which finally led the Florentine reformers to resort to the ancient drama in their search for a simplified medium of expression. The author has not deemed it essential to his aims that he should recount the history of all European essays in the field of lyric drama, but only that of those which directly affected the Italians and were hence the most important. For this reason, while some attention is given in the beginning to the French and German liturgical plays, the story soon confines itself to Italy. The study of the character and performance of the first Italian secular drama, the "Orfeo" of Poliziano, unquestionably a lyric work, is the result of some years of labor. The author believes that what he has to offer on this topic will be found to possess historical value. The subsequent development of the lyric drama under the combined influences of polyphonic secular composition and the growing Italian taste for luxurious spectacle has been narrated at some length because the author believes that the reformatory movement of the Florentines was the outcome of dissatisfaction with musical conditions brought about as much by the indulgence of the appetite for the purely sensuous elements in music as by blind adherence to the restrictive laws of ecclesiastic counterpoint.
230724206
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epub
2,666.71 KB
English
Language and Literature
MYR 0.01
1
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