What is the name of German traditional music?

Opera originated in Florence, Italy in the17th century, and did not spread to Italy until the second half of the17th century, and developed to other countries. German opera began at this time, but after 100 years, influenced by Italy and other countries, it developed slowly. It was not until the Gluck reform in the18th century that German opera gradually flourished. 19th century is the most glorious period of German opera, with some outstanding composers, the most famous being Wagner, who pushed German opera to its peak.

First, the germination and rise of German opera

/kloc-German and Italian operas in the 0/7th century were widely welcomed by court nobles. Only a few cities are supporting their own operas, and the most important opera center is Hamburg. There, the first open opera house in Europe except Venice was established.

At that time, many German operas were translated or imitated by Venetian poets, while the music of German composers was influenced by both Venetian and French models. In the process of its formation, it was mainly influenced by school plays and German solo songs.

Germans usually call opera singing. By 1700, German operas were still in the shadow of Italian operas, and the themes of operas were generally fairy tales. The only difference from the Italian opera style at that time was that this kind of works used plain rather than recitative. In aria, German composers are relatively independent, but they are inevitably a bit like a hodgepodge. They sometimes adopt French style and the rhythm of French dance music, and sometimes combine the styles of Germany and Italy. The most commonly used is short segmented songs, which are generally based on German folk songs.

Among the early German opera composers, kessel (R? Kaiser,1674-1739). He is a prolific composer, and has composed more than 100 works for the Hamburg stage. His operas are rich in genre and varied in musical techniques, including orchestration. Another feature is that he will insert an Italian aria into German works. In his masterpiece Venice Carnival, kessel created some arias and comedy scenes in Hamburg dialect. In his peak works, the characteristics of Italy and Germany are integrated. The most outstanding contribution is that he let Xi opera take root in Germany.

Second, the reform and development of German opera

With the development of 100 years, German composer Gluck (christoph willibald gluck 17 14- 1787) reformed Handel's previous operas, mainly Italian operas. He thought that the composers at that time paid too much attention to showing off their skills, created a lot of arias and added many dance scenes to the opera, in addition to which they needed gorgeous costumes and exquisite stages. Abandoned chorus, band and other means of expression, was disgusted by the audience at that time. Therefore, Gluck put forward reform suggestions. Gluck's opera is touching because of its simplicity, simplicity and naturalness. The aria in his opera is the true expression of the characters' feelings. Gluck demonstrated the successful exploration of an artist with ideals with his own reform practice. His new ideas and musical language attracted the attention of many composers.

/kloc-an opera that was welcomed by the German people at the end of the 0/7th century gradually flourished in Germany in the middle of the 0/8th century, and it also added elements of comic opera. German comic opera was greatly influenced by British folk opera from the beginning. But in the end, the British flavor gradually disappeared and became pure German entertainment. The outstanding composer who liked opera in this period was John? Adam. Shearer (J? Answer? Hiller, 1728— 1804), whose music is simple and beautiful, represented by Die Jagol.

At that time, many composers used relaxed and fluent folk songs, which directly inspired Mozart at the same time. Opera can be said to be the most important genre in his music creation. It can also be said that he was a master of opera at that time, dabbling in various forms of opera with different styles, and left immortal masterpieces. But he only created four German operas for Germany, such as Temptation of Harem and Magic Flute.

Mozart is an important figure who injected new vitality into German music after Gluck. But his view is different from Gluck's. He believes that music should be subordinate to singing, the character and inner feelings of the role should be expressed by music, and music plays a leading role in opera. Mozart was a dramatic genius. He integrated, refined and processed the opera styles before the second half of the18th century into his own operas, skillfully combined music and plot perfectly, and made a touching opera. Therefore, Mozart's operas still have infinite charm and are deeply loved by the audience.

In this period, we have to mention a great composer-Beethoven. Although he only wrote a one-step opera Federio, it fully embodies Beethoven's great enthusiasm for social reality and ethical themes. His works mainly tell the story of a young woman disguised as a man and alias Federio in order to save her imprisoned husband. This theme is a typical model to express people's inner world-"hero" In the social background at that time, justice will eventually overcome evil. This theme is also reflected in Mozart's works. They not only drew a perfect ending for classical opera, but also opened the curtain for later romantic opera.

Third, the stage of prosperity and innovation of German opera.

/kloc-German operas in the 0/9th century have drawn a rich and colorful stroke in the history of opera development. 182 1 is known as the first real German opera, and Weber's magic bomb shooter was born. This work not only marks the emergence of German romantic opera, but also is the pioneer of romantic opera in Europe. Weber's operas embody romanticism and nationalism. Before Weber stepped onto the German opera stage, opera was an international art. Handel created his own works in the traditional form of Italy, while Gluck was Italian, and later changed his style to French. Mozart and Beethoven combined all the opera styles of the time. Weber consciously wants to change this phenomenon of internationalization of opera, break the old frame that opera always takes classical legends as its theme, and turn it into a national art form, an art with German folk stories as its theme and German folk music style as its characteristics. Weber's music directly influenced later Wagner, who developed German opera to the extreme.

Richard. Wagner ≥ Eachard Wagner (1813-1883) is very famous in the history of European music, but he is a controversial great composer. Wagner acquired musical knowledge and artistic accomplishment through self-study, making friends and concrete practice. It was not until 1832 that he began to try to write operas. On the one hand, he used his work to conduct operas of various styles. On the other hand, he conceived and created his own early operas. His first successful opera was Rienzi, and the next year he completed another masterpiece, Der Fliegen de Holland, which indicates that his opera style will change in the future, and the opera will go to the road of musical. Tristan and isolde and Nuremberg Famous Singer are two operas that mark the realization and success of Wagner's musical ideal. Tristan and isolde had a profound influence on later composers. It embodies Wagner's mature style in many ways. In Tristan and isolde, the complex chromatic changes of chords, coupled with key signature's constant displacement and overlapping of solutions, together with the overtones outside chords and other vocal ambiguities, have produced novel, unique and ambiguous tonality. It is the first step of the kind of harmony system that marks the development of music after 1890. It laid the foundation for the later twelve-tone system and harmony style.

Wagner demanded that his musical be a comprehensive work of art, and he attached great importance to the scripts of each of his works. His opera scripts were all created by himself. Wagner believes that the function of music is to serve dramatic expression. In order to pursue his own requirements, he put his "comprehensive works of art" into full play. He integrated Weber's "dominant motivation", Berlioz's "fixed thinking" and Liszt's "theme deformation" and other ideas. Wagner's motives are mostly short, pithy and well designed. Wagner's works are not only full of post-romantic passion, but also reflect the music trend of19th century of "comprehensive art" and "titling". Liszt once praised Wagner as "a composer who depicts emotions, sadness and ecstasy with music, and Wagner is unparalleled."

/kloc-At the beginning of the 9th century, Rashard was the most influential German composer. Strauss (Richard Strauss, 1864— 1949). The three most famous operas in his life are Salome, Elektra and der rosenkavalier. In his operas, there are some decadent tendencies of literature and art at the end of the century, seeking sensory stimulation, expressing abnormal lust and exaggerating brutal murder. But his writing skills are very high. In these works, the musical modeling is strong, the plot description is vivid and vivid, and the dramatic effect is outstanding. Music language skills are used freely; The melody breaks through the symmetrical structure and is very free and smooth; Harmony shows a multi-tone trend and is colorful; The orchestration is novel and exquisite, with full voice; The band's voices are densely interlaced, and the linear polyphony is rich and colorful.

Romantic music was still popular in Germany in the early 20th century, and many works with different styles appeared in the later period. There is a composer who combines the strong feelings of romanticism with the strictest and most abstract formalism. He's Berger. The music in his operas is mostly atonal, which indicates that some twelve-tone technique inherited the traditional tonal music and organically combined the natural scale, chromatic scale and "musical order". There are various forms of vocal music works in Berg's opera, such as the melody similar to that in German lyric opera, the "chanting" sound used by Schoenberg in opera, music and so on. His famous masterpieces include Wozek and Lulu (unfinished).

To sum up, German opera has gone through a long process from germination to development and finally to the peak, and many composers who have made great contributions to the development of German opera and even the whole European opera history have also been born. German opera is also a bright pearl in the whole opera history.