Valuing Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera Fantasias for Woodwind Instruments: Trash Music
Files
Description
This book approaches opera fantasias – instrumental works that use themes from a single opera as the body of their virtuosic and flamboyant material – both historically and theoretically, concentrating on compositions for and by woodwind-instrument performers in Italy in the nineteenth century.
Important overlapping strands include the concept of virtuosity and its gradual demonization, the strong gendered overtones of individual woodwind instruments and of virtuosity, the distinct Italian context of these fantasias, the presentation and alteration of opera narratives in opera fantasias, and the technical and social development of woodwind instruments. Like opera itself, the opera fantasia is a popular art form, stylistically predictable yet formally flexible, based heavily on past operatic tradition and prefabricated materials. Through archival research in Italy, theoretical analysis, and exploration of European cultural contexts, this book clarifies a genre that has been consciously stifled and societal resonances that still impact music reception and performance today.
ISBN
9781032491769
Publisher
Routledge
Publication Date
2024
City
New York
Recommended Citation
Becker, Rachel N. (2024). Valuing Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera Fantasias for Woodwind Instruments: Trash Music. Routledge.
Comments
Valuing Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera Fantasias for Woodwind Instruments: Trash Music is a volume in the Routledge Research in Music book series.