(It.: ‘air’).
A term normally signifying any closed lyrical piece for solo voice (exceptionally for more than one voice) with or without instrumental accompaniment, either independent or forming part of an opera, oratorio, cantata or other large work. It has also been applied to instrumental music, particularly in the 17th and 18th centuries, implying a piece written on a vocal model, a subject suitable for variations or a piece of light dance music. Like Air in English, ‘aria’ can also mean just melody or tune on the one hand, or on the other, a more general ‘manner’, ‘way’ or ‘mode of proceeding’ in a technical or stylistic sense; in either case it may be joined with geographical labels (aria (alla) napoletana) or with aesthetic qualifiers (a piece with ‘good’ or ‘bad’ aria).
1. Derivation and use to the early 17th century.
JACK WESTRUP (1–3), MARITA P. McCLYMONDS (4), JULIAN BUDDEN (5), ANDREW CLEMENTS (6) (with TIM CARTER, THOMAS WALKER, DANIEL HEARTZ, DENNIS LIBBY)
The collateral forms aer, aere are derived from the Latin aer (‘air, atmosphere’), which is a simple transliteration of the Greek. The expressions ‘aer ytalicus’ and ‘aer gallicus’ used by an anonymous 14th-century Italian theorist (see Ruf, 1993) are probably equivalent to Marchetto da Padova’s ‘modus gallicus’ and ‘modus italicus’, and thus imply ‘way’ or ‘manner’. A similar relationship between ‘aiere’ and ‘maniera’ occurs in the 15th-century dance treatises of Guglielmo Ebreo da Pesaro and Antonio Cornazano, and much the same thing is implied by a statement of Nicolò Sagudino (early 16th century) to the effect that certain English organists ‘non eseguiscono la musica con troppo bono aiere’.
In the late 15th century Duke Sforza’s chancellor proposed to ask for the music of two or three of the canzoni of the poet Leonardo Giustiniani, ‘per intendere l’aere veneziano’ (‘in order to hear the Venetian type of melody’); a letter dated 1460 from a certain Nicolò Tedesco in Ferrara to the Marquis of Mantua recommends Giovanni Brith as singing master for his ability ‘in cantare moderno massime arie alla veneziana’ (‘at singing in the modern way, and particularly Venetian-type songs’). Here ‘aere’ and ‘aria’ mean ‘tune’, but they also imply a strophic song or a scheme for singing strophic poetry. In particular, ‘aria veneziana’ referred to the giustiniana and like forms. The sense of scheme or formula for poems of a given form applies to several pieces in the fourth book of Petrucci’s collection of frottolas (RISM 15055), which has the title Strambotti, ode, frottole sonetti, et modo de cantar versi latini e capituli. No.62 in this collection is a textless piece by Antonio Caprioli entitled ‘Aer de versi latini’ (in the index ‘Aer de cantar versi latini’). Similarly no.91 is an ‘Aer de capituli’ and the rubric to no.19, ‘Modo de cantar sonetti’, has an analogous meaning. Baldassare Castiglione (Il libro del cortegiano, 1528) preferred singing to the viol because thus ‘si nota e intende il bel modo e l’aria’.
By the 1530s ‘aria’ was commonly used to describe simple settings of light strophic poetry in such terms as ‘aria napolitana’ (see Villanella); in a related vein, it was probably the homophonic melody-dominated character of certain madrigals printed in collections from 1555 onwards that earned them the name madrigale arioso (see Madrigal, §II, 5). Arias as melodies or schemes for singing fixed poetic types – often sonnets or stanzas in terza and ottava rima – continued to appear throughout the 16th century in instrumental as well as vocal prints and manuscripts: the Aeri racolti … dove si cantano sonetti stanze e terze rime (15778) and the Bottegari Lutebook (I-MOe Mus.C.311; ed. in WE, viii, 1965) are useful examples. The most familiar of these formulae (whether as melodies or bass patterns is sometimes unclear) are the aria della romanesca and the aria di Ruggiero (the latter after Ariosto), both often associated with ottave rime. They and others continued to be published in prints of monodies of the early 17th century: the five books of Antonio Cifra’s Li diversi scherzi (1613–17) have numerous examples.
The ‘arie della battaglia’ of Andrea Gabrieli and Annibale Padovano (Dialoghi musicali, 159011) are probably so called because they are paraphrases of an existing model or groundplan; whereas ‘manner’ or ‘style’ is the key to such pieces as M.A. Ingegneri’s ‘arie di canzon francese per sonar’ (Il secondo libro de madrigali … a quattro voci, 1579), Viadana’s ‘aria di canzon francese’ (Canzonette, libro primo, 1590) and Banchieri’s ‘sonata in aria francese’ (L’organo suonarino, 1605). Something of the same sort was doubtless intended by the ‘concertini italiani in aria spagnuola’ noted on the title-page of Montesardo’s I lieti giorni di Napoli (1612).
From the last quarter of the 16th century ‘aria’ is found in close association with the (at least in origin) poetically more specific term ‘canzonetta’, in strophic pieces mostly for three or four voices (e.g. Orazio Vecchi, Selva di varia ricreatione, 1590; Bargnani, Canzonette, arie et madrigali, 1599). Vincenzo Giustiniani may have been thinking of canzonetta-related styles when he referred (in his Discorso sopra la musica, 1628) to the ‘aria nuova et grata all ’orecchie’ (‘air new and grateful to the ear’) as typical of the music of the 1580s onwards, but he was also following earlier theorists (including Gioseffo Zarlino and Vincenzo Galilei) in speaking in broader aesthetic terms as he attempted to rationalize the new technical and stylistic procedures associated with the so-called new music.
Although around 1600 the term did not have a strong connotation of music for solo voice, ‘aria’ played a leading role in the early development of monody. Settings of such poetic forms as strophic quatrains (particularly in prologues) and ottave and terze rime appear frequently in opera and related genres from Peri’s and Corsi’s setting of Dafne (Ottavio Rinuccini, 1598) onwards. ‘Possente spirto’ from Monteverdi’s Orfeo (Alessandro Striggio (ii), 1607) is a particularly elaborate example of an ‘aria per cantar terza rima’, though not so indicated.
The arias in Giulio Caccini’s Le nuove musiche (1601/2), a collection that also includes non-strophic madrigals, are characteristic in range and type for the first two decades of the 17th century. Caccini called these pieces ‘canzonette à uso di aria’, suggesting a relationship between poetic and musical form. The poems, which are all strophic and set for solo voice with continuo accompaniment, reflect the metrical variety sought by Italian poets from the 1580s on and most notably by Gabriello Chiabrera, whom Caccini acknowledged in his preface. Those arias whose verse remains closest to the mainstream of tradition by using lines of seven and 11 syllables are irregular in melodic and harmonic rhythm, have considerable ornamentation and differ from the madrigals only in that they have a strophic form. The verse types, such as lines of five or eight syllables, that most sharply depart from classical norms provoke the simplest tunes, the greatest regularity of rhythm and even, in some cases, triple metre.
One canzonetta is set without musical repetition, several are strophic variations in which the bass is substantially the same for each stanza and the rest are simply strophic. Caccini’s second book, Nuove musiche e nuova maniera di scriverle (1614), contains a larger proportion of straightforward strophic settings of five- and eight-syllable lines in triple metre, however, and this trend is followed in other monody books of the time. Such pieces are at least not inconsistent with Praetorius’s definition (Syntagma musicum, iii, 1618) of ‘Aria vel Air’ as ‘eine hübsche Weise oder Melodey, welche einer aus seinem eignen Kopffe also singet’ (‘a pretty tune or melody which one sings by heart [literally ‘from one’s head’]’).
In general the defining distinction between solo madrigal and aria in the early 17th century is in the manner of repetitive – usually strophic – poetic form. A similar distinction between ‘cantata’ and ‘aria’ is apparent in the Cantade et arie a voce sola (four books, 1620–29) of Alessandro Grandi (i) and perhaps those of G.F. Sances (1633, 1636). Exceptionally, ‘aria’ is used in a more inclusive way, as in Kapsberger’s Libro primo di arie passeggiate (1612). Frescobaldi, too, used the term in a general sense in the title of his Primo libro d’arie musicali (1630), since the collection includes pieces of other kinds; but in fact only the strophic songs for solo voice are called ‘aria’ in the body of the work. Sometimes settings of specific forms such as sonnets and ottave rime are set apart from arias, as in Borboni’s Musicali concenti, the collection Vezzosetti fiori (162211) and as late as Domenico Mazzocchi’s Musiche sacre, e morali (1640).
Strophic variations are common throughout the first half of the 17th century, both in opera to early Cavalli and in printed books such as Vittori’s Arie a voce sola (1649). Most are in recitative style, but some use more regular rhythms. These include pieces, often laments (see Lamento), built on ostinatos, particularly frequent in the 1630s and 40s. Monteverdi included strophic arias for one or more voices in a range of styles (from recitative to triple-time dance-song, with or without variation) in most of his later Venetian publications; one, the duet Chiome d’oro (Seventh Book, 1619), is in duple time over a quasi-ostinato walking bass with instrumental ritornellos.
Occasionally a series of strophes is distributed over two or more musical units, as in Il carro di Madama Lucia (1628) by ‘Il Fasolo’ (Franceso Manelli); many ensemble finales to acts of operas, from Landi’s La morte d’Orfeo (1619) to Vittori’s La Galatea (1639), are constructed in this way. There is a specially curious instance, actually marked ‘aria’, sung by Amor towards the end of Act 2 of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea (Busenello, 1643). There are four verses, separated by the same ritornello. The first and the fourth have the same music, although in different notation; the second and the third, though not identical, are closely allied. If one accepts the ritornello as part of the structure the form is ARBRB'RA. Variation forms, including those built on ostinatos, except for modulating ones, are rare after 1650.
‘Recitative’ and ‘aria’ are not musically exclusive terms in the early 17th century: the former refers to style, whereas the most reliable implication of the latter is a formal one: hence the designation ‘aria recitativa di sei parti’ (six-strophed aria in recitative style) in Mazzocchi’s opera La catena d’Adone (1626), which also continues to indicate strophic ensemble pieces as arias. In this work Mazzocchi introduces the term ‘mezz’aria’ to refer to passages having the lyrical character expected of an aria but lacking a clear strophic form, although several non-strophic pieces without ritornellos for solo voice, mostly using a walking bass, are called ‘aria’ in the score. Recitative intrusions into more regular movement occur in Cavalli’s earlier operas, but went out of fashion in the early 1650s, as did recitative arias generally. The opposite phenomenon, a lyrical moment (arioso) in the setting of poetry meant for recitative, remained an essential ingredient of Italian opera throughout the 17th century and beyond.
In Venetian operas before 1660 the majority of arias are in triple time or a mixture of triple and duple; the same pattern occurs in many aria books from Pesenti’s Arie a voce sola (1636) to P.P. Sabbatini’s Ariette spirituali (1657) and in Michelangelo Rossi’s opera Erminia sul Giordano (1633). Before 1630, however, duple time often held its own (Domenico Crivellati, Cantate diverse, and Orazio Tarditi, Amorosa schiera, both 1628). Many early arias have four or five strophes, or even more; after 1650, in opera at least, two rapidly became the standard number.
Most 17th-century opera arias have continuo accompaniment to the vocal line and ritornellos for three to five parts between the strophes. In this respect they differ from those of printed songbooks, which mainly have no ritornello at all, a prescription for one (e.g. the ‘riprese di ciaccona’ of Crivellati’s Cantate diverse) or a ritornello for continuo only. This difference is probably more apparent than real, since many manuscript collections of opera arias from late in the century give only the bass part or leave out altogether the ritornellos found in the full scores.
Arie concertate, in which an instrumental ensemble intervenes between vocal phrases within a strophe or accompanies the voice, first penetrated opera to any extent in the 1640s; early Cavalli works offer several examples. Although their number grew during the second half of the century, they remained a minority until the age of Metastasian opera seria. Their accompaniment nearly always consists of string orchestra and continuo, just as for ritornellos. The only wind instrument to gain currency before 1690 (except in such isolated court extravaganzas as Cesti’s Il pomo d’oro, 1668) was the trumpet, used in dialogue with the voice from about 1670, apparently first in Venice and Bologna. The texts of trumpet arias express bellicose sentiments, and the voice imitates the instrument’s characteristic figures.
Aria strophes exhibit great variety of form, but the same procedure of composition underlies most of them: the text is set line by line, by and large syllabically despite isolated flourishes, and often with modest repetition of single words or phrases; the end of each line (or sometimes couplet) is marked by a cadence, with or without a rhythmic hiatus. Two formal schemes, each corresponding to a distinct poetic type, account for the bulk of arias in the later 17th century. In the so-called ABB (better ABB') aria, the last line or group of lines is rendered twice to similar music, having a cadence on the tonic only the second time; the repeat may involve anything from simple transposition to complete reworking of material. The form at its most complete consists of two strophes and ritornellos, for example, ABB'–R–ABB'–R, as in ‘Adorisi sempre’ in Cesti’s Orontea (1656); some arias, however, have only a single strophe. The two poetic strophes often have parallel or identical final lines, with an epigrammatic or emphatic quality that justifies their musical repetition: an example is ‘Frena il cordoglio’ from Cavalli’s Ormindo (1644). In the other type of aria the first line or couplet is repeated as a refrain at the end of the same strophe; the music for the repeated text is often varied in pieces of the 1650s and 60s (ABA', as in ‘Chi mi toglie’ from Ormindo) but comes increasingly to be a literal restatement of the opening (ABA; or, giving the complete form, ABA–R–ABA–R). This is one source of the da capo aria.
An extension of the possibilities of prosody continued throughout the period 1640–80, yielding line lengths of nine, ten and 12 syllables and a range of internal rhythms, of which the anapaest was particularly favoured. The object of this extension was to inspire variety of musical rhythm, just as Caccini had sought inspiration in the poetic licence of Chiabrera. The generation of P.A. Ziani, Antonio Sartorio, Legrenzi and Carlo Pallavicino had to hand poetry of this sort, which moreover often changed pattern in mid-strophe – a procedure not unknown to the early 17th century, but less assiduously applied. These changes usually produced a corresponding change of musical metre. In general the range of figure and type of movement greatly expanded during these years.
Most arias even of the later 17th century are short and simple, commensurate with their number (30 to 50 per opera is a fair average; see, for example, Alessandro Scarlatti’s Gli equivoci nel sembiante, 1679). Many have rhythmic patterns in which some writers have seen a relationship to contemporary dance music, but it remains uncertain to what extent the resemblance is a by-product of regular text accent in a syllabic setting. Perhaps the clearest evidence of a connection is in G.L. Gregori’s Arie in stil francese (1698), which includes titled examples of vocal galliards, minuets and bourrées.
Passage-work, often associated with a conventionally placed text image, waxed during the 1670s. The aria with motto opening, or Devisenarie, came into vogue; in it a brief vocal proclamation is repeated by the accompaniment, then taken up again by the voice and given its continuation, as in ‘Gigli alteri’ (Gli equivoci nel sembiante). A parallel development is the ‘tag’ ending, or repeated final short phrase. The works of Legrenzi and his contemporaries afford numerous examples of these, and of bass lines built on a single melodic or rhythmic idea, or on a modulating ostinato, as in ‘Onde, fero, fiamme e morte’ (Gli equivoci). The sections of many arias are marked off, as if for repetition.
By 1680 the da capo aria had gained a dominant position, though its dimensions remained small into the early 18th century. The trend seems first to have taken hold in Venice, still the principal market-place of opera. It certainly does not have the connection with Alessandro Scarlatti that many writers, mainly out of a limited knowledge of the repertory, have suggested.
The cantata, earlier used as a term of contrast to ‘aria’, in the second half of the 17th century includes arias among its components. Their form and style obey the laws of contemporary opera: thus the majority of labelled arias in G.B. Mazzaferrata’s Primo libro delle cantate da camera (1673) and Antonio del Ricco’s Urania armonica (1686) are strophic pieces in a variety of forms, while G.B. Bassani’s Languidezze amorose (1698) has mostly da capo arias. A small but surprising number of these 17th-century operatic and chamber pieces (not all arias), as well as some 18th-century ones and a few forgeries, became canonized as the ‘arie antiche’ of 19th- and 20th-century vocal anthologies and tutor books.
The use of ‘aria’ as a subject for variation in instrumental music has a history nearly coinciding with that of the vocal strophic variation. Antonio Brunelli’s Varii esercizii (1614) contains an ‘aria di Ruggiero per sonare’, and Frescobaldi’s first book of Toccate e partite (1615–16) has ‘partite sopra l’aria della romanesca’. As late as 1664 Bernardo Storace’s keyboard book, Selva di varie compositioni, includes an ‘aria sopra la Spagnoletta’. The aria in Bach’s Goldberg Variations falls into a similar category. Mattheson, in Der vollkommene Capellmeister (1739), gave as a subordinate definition of aria ‘a short, singable, simple melody, divided into two parts, which in most cases is so plainly drawn that one may turn it about, embellish it and vary it in countless ways’.
Pieces called ‘aria’ join company with ‘sinfonie’, ‘sonate’ and ‘balletti’ in Biagio Marini’s Affetti musicali (1617), and are common in ensemble dance music of the second half of the century, particularly in the works of composers published at Bologna, such as Giuseppe Colombi (from 1668), Pietro Degli Antoni (from 1670), G.M. Bononcini (from 1666, Venice), Orazio Pollarolo (1673) and G.B. Viviani (from 1678). Most of these are brief binary forms with regular harmonic rhythm in crochets or quavers and patches of short-breathed imitation. In a similar vein, arias occur as movements of ‘sinfonie’ by Pietro Sanmartini (1688) and of sonatas by Corelli and B.G. Laurenti (1691). The earlier meaning of ‘style’ survives in G.F. Biumi’s ‘aria de correnti à 4’ (Partito delle canzoni alla francese, 1627) and in Viviani’s ‘aria di gigha’ (Concertino per camera, after 1687), similar to the sense of, for example, ‘tempo di gavotta’ in Corelli’s op.2 and in many instrumental pieces of the 18th century.
The formal aria had by now become the chief means of emotional and musical articulation in theatrical, sacred and secular music in Italy. Other countries retained their own traditions (for France see Air, §3, and for Germany see Singspiel), but even here Italian or italianate models increasingly made their presence felt. Similarly, the opera house provided the chief focus for the development of such models, for all their influence on other spheres of musical activity.
(iii) Later aria types in ‘opera seria’ and ‘opera buffa’.
The da capo form dominated the Italian aria by the beginning of the 18th century, but there was then still some fluidity in its relationship to the words. There is usually a binary construction of the setting of the first part of the text, although arias from this date tend to be so short that this binary structure often consists only of two periods with a half cadence, rather than a modulation, at the end of the first (and the second often repeated); see ‘Penso far ciò che brami’ in Scarlatti’s Eraclea (1700). The text of this, the A part of the ABA da capo structure, usually consists of two to four lines of verse. If a couplet, it was nearly always repeated completely in the second part of A (which was in binary form), but with quatrains sometimes only the second couplet was repeated. The middle or B section of the aria was often treated exactly like the A section, even occasionally using the ‘motto’ beginning, which remained popular in the early years of the century – an example is ‘Saper tu vuoi’ in Eraclea. In many arias of this period the A and B sections of the aria are equal in length and musical weight, but in others (for example ‘Chi lascia la sua bella’, Eraclea) A is as much as twice as long as B, and when the text of B consists of a quatrain it is seldom repeated in full. The accompaniment of arias in this period also tended towards diversity. The continuo aria continued into the 1720s but became increasingly rare. In the works of conservative composers at the beginning of the century, independent ritornellos in several parts following a continuo aria are still occasionally found; and arias in which the voice is accompanied only by continuo, but with instruments playing between the phrases, are quite common. More individual textures, such as the accompaniment of the voice in unison and octaves or with several instruments weaving contrapuntal parts above the voice as lowest sounding part, also had periods of vogue. A considerable variety of instruments in combination or solo were used.
By the 1720s longer arias were favoured, but not to such an extent as to destroy the intimacy of the relationship between music and text. This might be called the ‘classic’ moment in the development of the da capo aria, especially as it was accompanied by the rise to prominence of a generation of composers – including Vinci, Hasse and Pergolesi – who were to be regarded as the originators of the modern style of 18th-century music, as well as by the appearance of a poet, Metastasio, who provided a body of aria poetry that was to be the main source for composers and the model for other poets until near the end of the century.
Metastasio codified a number of emerging conventions for the da capo aria, including its role as some kind of emotional climax to a scene (usually followed by the exit of the character delivering the aria) and the principle of presenting contrasted affective types in successive arias. Aria texts are normally in two poetic stanzas generally of equal length (quatrains are less common than often assumed) and similar rhyme scheme; each stanza normally ends with a cadential verso tronco (with the accent on the final syllable). The standard musical setting, although traditionally expressed ABA (where A and B have the first and second stanzas respectively), can more usefully be seen as a five-part form AA'BAA', with each part delineated by ritornellos, hence RARA'R–B–RARA'R (see Table 1, section 1.a). In its mature form, the aria begins with an instrumental introduction varying in length but usually self-contained with a full close in the tonic, then a statement of the first stanza of the poem moving from tonic to dominant (or, in a minor key, to the relative major); the voice usually enters with the material heard at the beginning of the ritornello. A further ritornello in the secondary key, usually shorter, leads to the second setting (A') of the first stanza. As in instrumental binary forms, this might begin with the opening vocal phrase transposed to the new key, or a transformation of it. A' moves sooner or later back to the tonic; in longer arias, A' will be developmental, and material previously heard in the new key in A will tend to reappear in the tonic in A'. A third ritornello in the tonic brings the section to a close (it will also close the aria after the da capo). The second stanza (set in the B section) is usually stated only once, with or without internal repetitions, and it is often in a contrasting key and/or style. The music usually develops material from the A section but the accompaniment is often reduced, while particular dramatic effects could be achieved by having the B section in a different metre and tempo. This section commonly moves through several related keys, often ending in the minor or on a Phrygian cadence preparing for a return to the tonic key and the introductory ritornello. The first section is then repeated. Fioriture often appeared in both statements of the final line of the first stanza; cadenzas could be inserted at the ends of both sections, and the da capo provided an opportunity for the singer to add ornamentation.
Metastasio and many critics, particularly those who held that the opera belonged to the tragic genre, compared the function of the aria with that of the chorus in Greek tragedy. This accounts for the large number of aria texts in his works and those of his imitators that might be said to trope the action sententiously or imagistically (as in the so-called Simile aria) rather than forming a direct part of it. Such a function for the aria helped justify it for critics of a primarily literary orientation, but it was seen as a grave defect by reformers later in the century, who began to form a concept of the opera in which music was to take a more central role in the drama. Dramatic arias, however, are by no means lacking in Metastasio’s work as a whole.
The da capo form was so universal, and its affective types so stereotyped, that arias could be transplanted from opera to opera, whether by the impresario, librettist or composer, or at the behest of singers (hence the ‘suitcase aria’). However, a dramatic effect could be won by playing on its very predictability. Handel was a master of this technique. Thus the opening ritornello could be dropped if the dramatic situation suggested that the singer should begin impetuously without one. In some remarkable, and much rarer, cases the dramatic situation might cause the aria to be interrupted before its completion, as in Apollo’s ‘Mie piante correte’ in Handel’s early cantata Apollo e Dafne, where the second section has hardly begun before it breaks off into recitative, and there is no da capo; or Saul’s aria ‘A serpent in my bosom warm’d’ in Saul (1739), where the second section stops abruptly as Saul hurls his javelin. In Micah’s aria ‘Return, O God of Hosts’ in Samson (1743) the return to the first section includes the chorus, while the second section of ‘Why do the nations’ in Messiah (1742) is followed not by a return to the first but by a chorus, ‘Let us break their bonds asunder’. A recitative could be substituted for the middle section (Elvira’s ‘Notte cara’, in Act 2 of Floridante, 1722) or could be interpolated between the second section and the return to the first, as in Cleopatra’s ‘V’adoro, pupille’ in Giulio Cesare (1724) or Susanna’s ‘If guiltless blood’ in Susanna (1749).
During the 1730s and 40s the music of the A section of the da capo aria continued to expand in length. The text, however, did not; and that led to a weakening of the closeness of their previous union. The text had now to be much more repeated, in whole or in part, and this tended to dissolve it into the music. Perhaps partly for this reason, a chronological survey of Metastasio’s arias reveals that while in his earlier work he had used a considerable variety of metres and stanza lengths, in his later ones arias in quatrains of settenario (seven-syllable) verse increasingly predominate. Even by the 1720s the first two solos each occasionally have a second statement of all or most of the text as a coda-like appendage to the main statement, with music that is an extension or reinforcement of the new key in the first or the return to the original one in the second. This became the standard format for the da capo aria, as a result of which the first stanza could be heard eight times in a complete performance of an aria, the second usually only once; by mid-century composers often set the middle section in a contrasting tempo and metre (for example a moderate 3/8 if the main section was an Allegro in common time, as it usually was) as if to emphasize it and relieve the sameness. The aria and the opera seria in general underwent increasing criticism after the middle of the century, both from those who felt that musical expansion was now out of hand in the arias and that the old balance should be restored, and from those, including Gluck and Calzabigi, who wanted an altogether new relationship.
By the middle of the century, however, a tendency to retrenchment had set in with regard to aria form. At first this was entirely mechanical, replacing the da capo with the dal segno, that is, the indication of a return not to the beginning of the piece but to a point marked by a sign within it. The dal segno (or ‘da capo al segno’) had been used earlier, with the sign placed at the first vocal entry, to eliminate the repeat of the opening ritornello or part of it (see Table 1, section 1.b). But from about 1760 composers used the sign to shorten the repeat of the A section substantially (see Table 1, section 1.c). Often it was placed at the beginning of the second solo, as in ‘Al destin che la minaccia’ (Mitridate, Mozart, 1770). Where the second solo began in the dominant, however, composers sometimes preferred to write out the beginning of the first solo after the middle section (with or without an intervening orchestral passage), indicating by the sign a return to that point in the second solo where the music had originally returned to the tonic in preparation for closure, as in ‘Dopo un tuo sguardo’ (Adriano in Siria, J.C. Bach, 1765). If the second solo had begun with new material, a similar procedure might be used to create a rounded form by providing a recapitulation of the first solo adjusted to remain in the tonic, as in ‘Disperato mar turbato’ from Adriano (AA'BA); but just as often only the second solo was retained (AA'BA'), as in ‘Cara la dolce fiamma’ (Adriano). Occasionally the setting of the opening words after the middle section would be different from either the first or the second solo though closely related rhythmically and melodically (AA'BA''); an example is ‘Son quel fiume’ from Jommelli’s Fetonte (1768). There were also dal segno arias in which the first couplet of text never returned. When the final section was severely shortened, the formal proportions of the aria were so radically changed that the middle section had the effect of an episode within the second part of a binary structure.
Early in the 1770s the dal segno aria gave way to a through-composed, compound ternary aria: AA'BA''A''' (see Table 1, section 2.a), as in ‘Se dal suo braccio oppresso’ (Armida, Haydn, 1784) and ‘Se il tuo duol’ (Idomeneo, Mozart, 1781); and AA'BA'' (see Table 1, section 2.b), as in ‘L’odio nel cor frenate’ (Mitridate, Mozart). The form with the compound return has been viewed as coming close in tonal and thematic plan to both the contemporary instrumental sonata-form pattern and the classical concerto form in which the double exposition and ritornellos parallel those in the aria; the associating of aria types with instrumental models is somewhat problematic, however. Here the first solo moves to the dominant or relative major, the second presents new material in the newly established key, in which it closes, and the middle section provides thematic, textural and tonal or modal contrast before a return to the tonic for a recapitulation of the first or second solos, or both, adjusted to close in the tonic. An example is ‘Se colà ne’ fati’ from Idomeneo. Unlike the instrumental sonata, the middle section of an aria is seldom developmental in the instrumental sense, usually consisting of melodically stable phrases; arias only rarely have large, tonally and motivically unstable transitional or development sections. By the 1780s arias frequently remained in the dominant throughout the middle section. After the initial statement of the opening lines of the first stanza, fragmentation of the text and the lack of articulating ritornellos sometimes make it difficult to talk of the number of complete statements of the first stanza. Depending on the style, there may be as many as three or four or as few as one preceding the middle section and the same or fewer following it. Unlike its instrumental counterpart, in an aria the recapitulation may not begin in the tonic, and the thematic material for one or both solos may be disguised, varied or totally new as in ‘Se il tuo duol’ with a new second solo and ‘Nò, la morte’ with a new first solo (Idomeneo; see Table 1, section 2.a). The return usually presents a clear recapitulation of earlier material within a few phrases but it may be so heavily reworked as to qualify as another version of the material, as in ‘L’odio nel cor frenate’ (Mitridate, Mozart).
Operas now tended to contain only a few long arias, usually concentrated in the first acts. The rest were relatively short; the shortest dispensed with the second stanza of poetry and simply set the first stanza twice – the first moving to the dominant and the second returning to the tonic. The composer also might shorten the aria by reducing the number of statements of the first stanza (ABA') as in ‘Se tu seguir mi vuoi’ (Armida, Haydn; see Table 1, section 2.c). For longer arias the composer had a number of options besides the compound ternary. The single-tempo rondo (ABAB'(C)A), introduced into Italian opera in the 1760s, appeared occasionally, as in ‘Torna pure al cara bene’ (Armida), and in the 1780s the da capo form returned to opera seria in the shape of the newly fashionable minuet (‘minue’ or ‘minuetto’). Arias might also take compound binary form in which the composer simply sets two stanzas of text twice through in more equal proportions (ABA'B'; see Table 1, section 3) with a tonal plan similar to the first and second solos in a da capo aria (moving to the dominant for B and back during A'), as in ‘Padre, germani, addio’ (Idomeneo). The Neapolitan poet Saverio Mattei – who called this form ‘shortened rondo’ (Elogio del Jommelli, 1785), though this does not accord with modern terminological usage – advocated such a form because it maintained the original order of the poetry; he took credit for having persuaded Piccinni to use it in his opere serie by the early 1770s. The form may also be viewed as a borrowing from comic opera, where it had been in use since the 1750s. Arias in this form may carry little or no contrast between the settings of the first and second stanzas, or the stanzas may be set apart with changes of tempo, metre or style to produce strong contrasts, perhaps with a coda or a faster closing section in the tonic (stretta). The addition of the stretta produces the form ABA'B':CC', as in ‘Non mi dir’ (Don Giovanni, Mozart, 1787).
This form is similar to that of the two-tempo rondò (slow–fast) which was developing as a showpiece aria for the leading singers in opera seria during the 1770s and 80s. Its simplest and earliest serious form appears to be a two-tempo Mattei-type ‘shortened rondo’ (slow–fast–slow–fast) that avoids the return to the primo tempo for the reprise of the first solo (A:BA'B'); an example is ‘Non ho colpa’ in Idomeneo. Rondòs based on only two strophes of poetry persist into the 1790s, but those using three strophes are more numerous and offer an almost endless variety of textual repetition patterns. A reprise of the whole first stanza, or at least the first couplet, normally precedes the change of tempo: hence ABC:C. In the fast section, a resetting of the second stanza can appear between the initial setting of the third stanza and its reprise (ABA':CB'C'), as in ‘Dei pietosi’ (Armida). As the fast section became longer and more complex, composers alternated texts from all three stanzas.
In the late 1780s and the 1790s composers of opera seria and related genres continued to prefer compound ternary forms (for example ‘Torna di Tito a lato’, La clemenza di Tito, Mozart, 1791) and the two-tempo rondò (‘Non più di fiori’, La clemenza di Tito). In the middle section the dominant began to be replaced by third-related keys of the flat major mediant and submediant, as in ‘Tempra il duol’ in Andreozzi’s Amleto (1792) as well as by keys of the subdominant and supertonic minor and major, as in ‘S’altro che lagrime’ (La clemenza di Tito), thus placing this section in much starker contrast with the rest of the aria than had been the practice earlier. A few of the arias for the principals acquire yet a fourth stanza, presenting an even greater contrast in length with the rest of the arias in the opera. These were usually set in three or four tempos, either gradually growing quicker in tempo or in an alternating fast–slow–fast pattern (see ‘A vendicar un padre’, Amleto). Arias again acquire sections in recitative style, as in ‘Non temer’ (k490, a 1786 addition by Mozart to Idomeneo); and the combination of a slow cantabile, a ‘tempo di mezzo’ in recitative style and a fast final section akin to the cabaletta in 19th-century opera makes an appearance (‘Caro è vero’, Armida, Haydn). However, there are also steadily fewer independent solo arias in each opera until they almost disappear. Many incorporate pertichini (the name for other characters or chorus when they intrude into a solo number; see ‘Ah chi mi dice mai’ from Don Giovanni), and from about that period in centres where a chorus was available the use of the chorus in solo numbers increased (as in ‘Deh ti placa’, Amleto). Many solo pieces function as cavatinas in scene complexes that move freely from declamatory to lyrical sections without clear articulations; an example is ‘Ah non ferir’ from Armida.
Arias in comic operas were generally freer and more varied in form than in opera seria. Few comic operas are extant from the first half of the 18th century, but the da capo aria appears to have been widely used in them as well; see, for example, ‘A Serpina penserete’ (La serva padrona, Pergolesi, 1733). The parti serie sang in much the same style as well as in the forms of opera seria (for example ‘Furie di donna irata’, La buona figliuola, Piccinni, 1760), and arias developed to include compound binary forms (Table 1, section 3) with or without strong musical contrasts (compare ‘Colla bocca, e non core’ and ‘Senti l’eco, ove t’aggiri’ in Mozart’s La finta semplice, 1769) and sometimes with a coda or stretta (for the latter, see ‘Non sparate … mi disdico’ in Haydn’s La vera costanza, 1779). It is in the arias of the more comic characters that texts tend to become longer, and the development of a rapid patter style for such characters, as in ‘Già sento i cani’ from La serva padrona, may have contributed to this. In the second half of the century the form in which the whole text is stated completely and then run through a second time, as in ‘Che superbia maledetta’ (La buona figliuola), became very common, as did multi-tempo arias, particularly those with a slow beginning and a conclusion in a faster 6/8 movement (for example ‘È pur bella la cecchina’ in La buona figliuola, or Despina’s ‘In uomini, in soldati’ in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, 1790). Extended text forms often consist, for example, of two or three regular stanzas, a longer middle section perhaps in a contrasted line length, and a final envoi (e.g. Bartolo’s ‘La vendetta’ in Act 1 of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, 1786).
The range of aria types for both the parti buffe and the parti serie in comic opera expanded along the lines observed in opera seria, although simpler strophic forms and short cavatina-type pieces (whether or not so styled) could be used for special effects, for character delineation or to maintain the dramatic flow. In terms of larger-scale arias, da capo types declined in favour of more through-composed forms with varying degrees of text repetition and musical recapitulation. Texts could range from one or two stanzas to longer sequences with or without clear stanzaic structures, and they could be handled musically in many different ways. Paisiello returned from Russia in 1783 with a setting of Goldoni’s Il mondo della luna in which nearly all the aria texts are new; many have three statements of the complete text, the central one functioning as a development. Two-tempo rondòs become showpiece standards (for example ‘Per pietà’ in Così fan tutte), while in Cimarosa’s Il matrimonio segreto (1792) many arias have either a short stretta or a sizable concluding fast section: the section preceding the tempo change may assume the characteristics of the old middle section by moving into a contrasting tonality or carrying developmental characteristics.
With the loosening of the boundaries between opera seria and opera buffa, and the generic cross-overs from one to the other, as well as the expansion of aria forms in the late 18th century, it is very hard to establish clear procedures and standard formal paradigms. Similarly, there is a great deal more research to be done on opera of this period and its relationship to instrumental music. The aria forms listed in Table 1 are certainly distinctive but cannot yet be regarded as all-embracing or definitive (for a different attempt for Mozart, see Webster, 1991).
The history of the operatic aria in the 19th century lies in various shifts from formal modes of virtuoso display and emotional articulation to more fluid, ostensibly naturalistic approaches to the creation of drama through music. The international nature of the opera industry – for all the strong presence of national traditions – and the fact that theoretical considerations of the aria (whether or not the Italian aria) tend to be found in French and German sources (Koch, Castil-Blaze, Reicha, La Fage, Marx; see Ruf, 1993, and ‘Arie’ in MGG2) encourage a broader focus for the following discussion of the genre in this period.
In an age of vocal virtuosity the solo set piece continued to occupy pride of place in opera. The aria in two contrasting tempos, the first slow and expressive, the second fast and brilliant, prepared by a half close in the dominant key, survived as late as Rossini’s Semiramide (1823; ‘Ah, qual giorno’). By this time, the general practice was to separate the movements into two self-contained units, the ‘cantabile’ and ‘cabaletta’, the latter repeated at first in part (as in ‘Io sono docile’, Il barbiere di Siviglia, 1816), later complete, with an intervening orchestral ritornello which is resumed in the coda. The singer was expected to embellish the repetition with improvised decorations. Three-movement arias are occasionally to be found, such as ‘Ah sì, per voi già sento’ (Otello, Rossini, 1816). As the formal units of Italian opera expanded so it became usual to widen the gap between cantabile and cabaletta so as to allow the action to evolve in the meantime. Each aria would be preceded by a recitative, part declamatory, part arioso, described as ‘scena’. The cantabile would end with a cadenza tailored to the means of the original singer. A ‘tempo di mezzo’ would follow, consisting of short phrases in strict time punctuated by instrumental figuration and leading to the cabaletta, the opening strain of which would be anticipated by the orchestra. Rossini frequently bridged the gap between scena and cantabile by starting the latter with a succession of declamatory flourishes that give way to a more periodic motion (for example ‘Pensa alla patria’, L’italiana in Algeri, 1813). His successors, especially Bellini, favoured a lyrical character from the start (again with orchestral anticipation). Choral intervention is common, particularly in the cabaletta. A classic instance of the grand aria is ‘Casta diva’ (Norma, Bellini, 1831), where the ‘tempo di mezzo’ includes a snatch of music from the stage band. The cantabile itself provides an instance of extended, non-repeating melody of which Bellini was a master (see also ‘Ah! non credea mirarti’, La sonnambula, 1831). A more common design may be summarized as AA'BA'' followed by a coda, as in ‘Ah! per sempre’ (I puritani, Bellini, 1835), ‘Io sentii tremar la mano’ (Parisina, Donizetti, 1833) or ‘Come rugiada al cespite’ (Ernani, Verdi, 1844). Several arias feature an obbligato wind instrument – horn in ‘Languir per una bella’ (L’italiana in Algeri, Rossini, 1813), clarinet in ‘Fatal Goffredo’ (Torquato Tasso, Donizetti, 1833), trumpet in ‘Cercherò lontana terra’ (Don Pasquale, Donizetti, 1843). A variant is the aria con pertichini to which the occasional intervention by a minor character, as in ‘Ah rimiro il bel sembiante’ (Maria Stuarda, Donizetti, 1835) or even a principal, as in ‘Cedi, cedi, o più sciagure’ (Lucia di Lammermoor, Donizetti, 1835) gives the sense, if not the form, of a duet. When an aria marks the singer’s first appearance it is termed a ‘cavatina’; if it concludes the opera it is called a ‘rondò finale’, for example ‘Era desso il mio figlio’ (Lucrezia Borgia, Donizetti, 1833) or ‘Sciagurata, in questi lidi’ (Oberto, Verdi, 1839).
After 1850 aria patterns became more various. ‘Ah fors’è lui’ (La traviata, Verdi, 1853) has a cantabile in two strophes, each of which finishes with a major-key refrain in the manner of a French couplet. The same melody recurs in the ritornello and coda of the cabaletta as a pertichino allocated to a different voice. The cantabile of ‘Come in quest’ora bruna’ (Simon Boccanegra, Verdi, 1857) follows a ternary design with a modulating episode and a reprise of the opening section with its accompaniment elaborated. With the gradual disappearance of the cabaletta, single-movement arias start to prevail. An early instance is ‘Cortigiani, vil razza dannata!’ (Rigoletto, Verdi, 1851), articulated in three sections, each expressing a different sentiment. In ‘Eri tu che macchiavi quell’anima’ (Un ballo in maschera, Verdi, 1859) and ‘Madre, pietosa vergine’ (La forza del destino, Verdi, 1862), the minor–major design associated mostly with the romanza but also certain cantabile arias – such as ‘Regnava nel silenzio’ (Lucia di Lammermoor) or ‘Ah sì, ben mio’ (Il trovatore, Verdi, 1853) – is expanded into a unit of larger proportions. ‘Ma dall’arido stelo divulsa’ (Un ballo in maschera) offers an elementary species of bar-form with refrain, which Verdi defined more sharply in ‘Piangea cantando nell’erma landa’ (Otello, 1887). Until 1860 the rule was for all movements in the minor key to end with at least a cadence in the major; even in ‘Addio, del passato’ (La traviata) it is left to the oboe to bring back the key of A minor after the singer’s last note. But in ‘Morrò, ma prima in grazia’ (Un ballo in maschera) the music, for the first time, remains in the minor key throughout.
Tradition allowed greater freedom of form to narrative arias, for example ‘Nella fatal di Rimini’ (Lucrezia Borgia), ‘Un ignoto, tre lune or saranno’ (I masnadieri, Verdi, 1847) and ‘Condotta ell’era in ceppi’ (Il trovatore). With the invasion of Italian theatres by foreign works, especially French, during the 1860s, the same freedom came to be extended to those that depict a complex emotional state. In ‘Ritorna vincitor!’ (Aida, Verdi, 1871) and ‘Dio! mi potevi scagliar’ (Otello) the form is dictated purely by the ebb and flow of the singer’s feelings. A varied strophic form is also common, as in ‘Cielo e mar’ (La Gioconda, Ponchielli, 1876), where the second strophe, initially abbreviated, is expanded into near-symmetry with the first by means of a codetta. Instances of couplet form abound: extended in Meyerbeer’s manner in ‘Son lo spirito che nega’ (Mefistofele, Boito, 1868), subtly varied in ‘Sul fil d’un soffio etesio’ (Falstaff, Verdi, 1893). But in the age of Italian grand opera (1870–90) it is the French ternary form with modulating episode that prevails, as in ‘Suicidio!’ (La Gioconda), ‘Mio bianco amor’ (Dejanice, Catalani, 1883) and ‘Ebben, ne andrò lontano’ (La Wally, Catalani, 1892). With Puccini and his generation conventional formalism disappears from the aria, whose construction varies according to the sense of the text, as for example in ‘Voi lo sapete, o mamma’ (Cavalleria rusticana, Mascagni, 1890), ‘La mamma morta’ (Andrea Chenier, Giordano, 1896), ‘È la solita storia del pastore’ (L’arlesiana, Cilea, 1897) and ‘Sola, perduta, abbandonata’ (Manon Lescaut, Puccini, 1893). Only Leoncavallo, who wrote his own librettos, would often allow his verse forms to impose a similar regularity on his settings, as in ‘Vesti la giubba’ (Pagliacci, 1892) and ‘Testa adorata’ (La bohème, 1897). Puccini, who tended to organize his acts motivically, showed considerable skill in incorporating cardinal motifs into his arias, as in ‘Che gelida manina’ (La bohème, 1896) and ‘Vissi d’arte’ (Tosca, 1900). During the 19th century and the early 20th, with few exceptions – and those mainly by Puccini, such as ‘Un bel dì vedremo’ (Madama Butterfly, 1904), ‘Ch’ella mi creda libero e lontano’ (La fanciulla del West, 1910), ‘O mio babbino caro’ (Gianni Schicchi, 1918) and ‘Nessun dorma’ (Turandot, 1926) – arias become increasingly difficult to divorce from their context, and thus effectively cease to exist.
In France the two most characteristic aria designs are the ternary with modulating central episode and the couplet. The first, inherited from Gluck and his contemporaries, remained the model for large-scale pieces for most of the century. Among earlier examples are ‘Toi que j’implore avec effroi’ (La vestale, Spontini, 1807), ‘Ah quel plaisir d’être soldat’ (La dame blanche, Boieldieu, 1825) and ‘Quand je quittai la Normandie’ (Robert le diable, Meyerbeer, 1831). Later, the central section might be set in a different tempo, as in ‘Avant de quitter ces lieux’ (Faust, Gounod, 1859, rev. 1862), or even a different time signature, as in ‘Je dis que rien ne m’épouvante’ (Carmen, Bizet, 1875). The same pattern, modified and loosened up, can be found as late as ‘Reste au foyer, petit grillon’ (Cendrillon, Massenet, 1899). The couplet, which originates in opéra comique, found its way into grand opera after 1830. It consists of two strophes, each ending with the same strain set to the same words, sometimes echoed by the chorus. It may form the basis of a narrative ballade, as in ‘Jadis régnait en Normandie’ (Robert le diable), a character piece, as in ‘Piff, paff, piff, paff’ (Les Huguenots, Meyerbeer, 1836), or even a love song, as in ‘Plus blanche que la blanche ermine’ (Les Huguenots). A classic instance of couplets with chorus is ‘Votre toast’ (Carmen). Offenbach’s operettas depend on this form almost exclusively for their solo numbers; not surprisingly its last appearance in serious opera is with the same composer’s ‘Les oiseaux dans la charmille’ (Les contes d’Hoffmann, 1881). Meyerbeer, in his later operas, enlarged both couplet and ternary designs with a multiplicity of ideas.
During the Rossinian ascendancy of the 1820s the cantabile–cabaletta pattern is sometimes found, as in ‘A celui que j’aimais’ (La muette de Portici, Auber, 1828). ‘O beau pays de la Touraine’ (Les Huguenots) has a slow movement followed by a fast one, both in ternary design. However, the two contrasted movements of ‘Je vais le voir’ (Béatrice et Bénédict, Berlioz, 1862) have no connection with an Italian form which had become obsolete even in its country of origin. As in Italy, the aria structured according to the text was soon making headway: an example is ‘La fleur que tu m’avais jetée’ (Carmen).
In Germany during the first two decades of the century opera was dominated by a mixture of Italian and French forms. In Beethoven’s Fidelio (1805), ‘O wär’ ich schon mit dir vereint’ is in couplet form, while ‘Komm, Hoffnung’ follows the current Italian bipartite pattern, as does ‘In des Lebens Frühlingstagen’, though the concluding movement in the revision, where the melody is shared between voice and oboe, blazes a new trail of formal freedom. Weber and his successors conceived the aria more dramatically from the start. The three small movements (ending in a new key) of ‘Durch die Wälder’ (Der Freischütz, Weber, 1821) are determined purely by the conflict of the singer’s feelings; while ‘Leise, leise’ (Der Freischütz), though set out in two substantial contrasting movements, entirely avoids the formalism of the cantabile–cabaletta design. The tradition of ending an aria with a section in faster time persists as late as ‘Die Frist ist um’ (Der fliegende Holländer, Wagner, 1843). Both couplet and ternary forms are found in the early Wagnerian canon, together with the strophic aria, such as ‘O du mein holder Abendstern’ (Tannhäuser, 1845). In the music dramas of Wagner’s maturity the aria has scant place (neither the Prize Song from Die Meistersinger, 1868, nor even ‘Winterstürme’ from Die Walküre, composed in 1855, can qualify as such), even if formal entities of lyrical and/or dramatic effusion may be identified. His contemporaries, operating within the more restricted area of Singspiel, mostly followed the path of Weber, while drawing sometimes on the aria forms of opéra comique. Only Nicolai, who had served his operatic apprenticeship in Italy, availed himself here and there of Italian techniques in Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor (1849). During the last quarter of the 19th century the term ‘Arie’ virtually disappears from German opera.
In English opera, which up to the mid-19th century mostly followed the pattern of opéra comique with spoken dialogue, the aria is usually cast in the form of the Victorian strophic ballad with couplet refrain, for example ‘I dreamt that I dwelt in marble halls’ (The Bohemian Girl, Balfe, 1843). In later, through-composed scores the detachable solo piece is still sometimes found, such as the recitative and aria ‘Woo thou thy snowflake’ (Ivanhoe, Sullivan, 1891). A late instance is Hugh’s ‘Song of the Road’ (Hugh the Drover, Vaughan Williams, 1924). In the Slavonic countries, in spite of obvious folk elements, the aria was accepted as a natural form of expression, for example Lyudmila’s aria (which even includes a cadenza) in Act 4 of Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila (1842), Tatyana’s Letter Song in Act 1 and Lensky’s aria in Act 2 of Tchaikovsky’s Yevgeny Onegin (1879) and Premsyl’s ‘Již plane slunce’ (‘The sun now burns’) in Smetana’s Libuše (composed 1872), even if Smetana’s operas owe more to Wagner than to Italian models. The operas of The Five, however, tend to follow the continuous arioso-like pattern of heightened declamation found in Dargomïzhsky’s The Stone Guest (written in the 1860s) except in the lyrical music apt to love scenes. This declamatory style is particularly well suited to the great contemplative monologues such as that of Musorgsky’s Boris Godunov (composed in the late 1860s), which, like several arias by Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov, keeps to a free, ternary design.
If Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande (1902) brought the Wagnerian operatic model (and Parsifal in particular) to the brink of modernism, abandoning almost all distinctions between an organization based upon vocal set pieces and through-composed music drama, subsequent 20th-century composers did not forsake ‘number opera’ altogether. Diegetic arias (such as the tenor’s song in Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, 1911) are presumably exceptional (if with a long history). But a heterogeneous collection of composers from Schoenberg (in Von heute auf morgen, 1930) and Stravinsky (The Rake’s Progress, 1951) to Hindemith (Cardillac, 1926) and Henze (from Boulevard Solitude, 1952, to Elegy for Young Lovers, 1961) evoked the aria and other closed vocal forms in a selfconsciously historical, neo-classical sense. Berg, in Lulu (1935), on the other hand, utilized the aria so as to develop its function musically and dramatically in a way that was not compromised by a Wagnerian durchkomponiert symphonism: both the large-scale aria for Dr Schön in the second act and the ‘Lied der Lulu’ that interrupts it are embedded in a hierarchy of musical forms that are ramified through the operatic structure. Such examples bear directly upon Britten’s operas, whose set pieces in works such as Peter Grimes (1945), Billy Budd (1951) and Death in Venice (1973) merge such ideas with Puccinian melodic rapture, and even Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten (1965) contains passages that may be related back to the Bergian archetype.
Even in those examples, however, the dramatic function of the aria was blurred, and its purpose combined with those of monologue and narration: in the operas of Janáček, too, the distinctions between such constructions seem more concerned with terminology than musical effectiveness. In opera since 1945 especially the term ‘aria’ has come to signify any large-scale solo vocal item that could be distinguished musically and dramatically from the surrounding structure: in Birtwistle’s The Mask of Orpheus (1986), for instance, the narration for Orpheus that provides the substance of the second act may not be an aria in any strict historical sense, but the term seems to describe its character and its dramatic effect more truthfully than any other.
V. Giustiniani: Discorso sopra la musica de’ suoi tempi (MS, c1628); ed. A. Solerti: Le origini del melodramma (Turin, 1903/R), 98–128; Eng. trans., MSD, ix (1962), 68–80
J.-J. Rousseau: Dictionnaire de musique (Paris, 1768; Eng. trans., 1771)
J.G. Sulzer: Allgemeine Theorie der schönen Künste (Leipzig, 1771–4, 4/1792–9; partial Eng. trans., 1995)
H.C. Koch: Versuch einer Anleitung zur Composition (Rudolstadt and Leipzig, 1782–93; partial Eng. trans., 1995)
H.C. Koch: Musikalisches Lexicon (Frankfurt, 1802/R)
A. Reicha: Traité de mélodie (Paris,1814)
Castil-Blaze [F.-H.-J. Blaze]: Dictionnaire de musique moderne (Paris, 1821, 3/1828)
P. Lichtenthal: Dizionario e bibliografia della musica (Milan, 1826/R)
A. Reicha: Art du compositeur dramatique (Paris, 1833)
J.A.L. de La Fage: Manuel complet de musique vocale et instrumentale (Paris, 1836–8)
A.B. Marx: Die Lehre von der musikalischen Komposition, praktisch-theoretisch, iii (Leipzig, 1845), 471; iv (Leipzig, 2/1851), 477
‘Arie’, Allgemeine Theater-Lexicon oder Encyklopädie alles Wissenswerthen für Bühnenkünstler, Dilettanten und Theaterfreude, ed. R. Blum and others (Altenburg, 1846)
J.A.L. de La Fage: ‘Air’, Grand dictionnaire universelle du XIXe siècle (Paris, 1866)
G. Cesare: ‘Aria come termine musicale’, Enciclopedia italiana, iv, ed. G. Gentile and C. Tumminelli (Milan, 1929)
W. Ruf: ‘Aria/air/ayre/Arie’ (1993), HMT
A. Einstein: ‘Die Aria di Ruggiero’, SIMG, xiii (1911–12), 444–54
A. Einstein: ‘Ancore sull’ “aria di Ruggiero”’, RMI, xli (1937), 163–9
E. Gerson-Kiwi: Studien zur Geschichte des italienischen Liedmadrigals im XVI. Jahrhundert (Würzburg, 1937)
H.C. Wolff: Die venezianische Oper in der zweiten Hälfte des 17. Jarhunderts (Berlin, 1937/R)
N. Fortune: ‘Italian Secular Monody from 1600 to 1635: an Introductory Survey’, MQ, xxxix ( 1953), 171–95
C.V. Palisca: ‘Vincenzo Galilei and some Links between “Pseudo-Monody” and Monody’, MQ, xlvi (1960), 344–60; repr. in Studies in the History of Italian Music and Music Theory (Oxford, 1993), 346–63
M. Robinson: ‘The Aria in Opera Seria, 1725–1780’, PRMA, lxxxviii (1961–2), 31–43
N. Fortune: ‘A Handlist of Printed Italian Secular Monody Books, 1602–1635’, RMARC, no.3 (1963), 27–50; no.4 (1964), 98 only
N. Fortune: ‘Solo Song and Cantata’, The Age of Humanism, 1540–1630, NOHM, iv (1968), 125–217
N. Pirrotta: ‘Early Opera and Aria’, New Looks at Italian Opera: Essays in Honor of Donald J. Grout, ed. W.W. Austin (Ithaca, NY, 1968), 39–107; repr. in PirrottaDO, 237–80
S. Reiner: ‘Vi sono molt’altre mezz’arie’, Studies in Music History: Essays for Oliver Strunk, ed. H. Powers (Princeton, NJ, 1968), 241–58
S. Döhring: Formgeschichte der Opernarie vom Ausgang des achtzehnten bis zur Mitte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts (Marburg, 1969)
R. Hudson: ‘The Ripresa, the Ritornello, and the Passacaglia’, JAMS, xxiv (1971), 364–94
W. Kirkendale: L’aria di Fiorenza, id est Il ballo del gran duca (Florence, 1972)
F. Lippmann: ‘Der italienische Vers und der musikalische Rhythmus: zum Verhältnis von Vers und Musik in der italienischen Oper des 19. Jahrhunderts, mit einem Rückblick auf die 2. Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts’, AnMc, no.12 (1973), 253–369; no.14 (1974), 324–410; no.15 (1975), 298–333
R. Dalmonte: ‘La canzone nel melodramma italiana del primo Ottocento: ricerche di metodo strutturale’, RIM, xi (1976), 230–312
R. Strohm: Italienische Opernarien des frühen Settecento (1720–1730), AnMc, no.16 (1976)
J.E. Solie: ‘Aria Structure and Ritornello Form in the Music of Albinoni’, MQ, xliii (1977), 31–47
C. Rosen: Sonata Forms (New York, 1980)
R.S. Freeman: Opera without Drama: Currents of Change in Italian Opera, 1675 to 1725 (Ann Arbor, 1981)
J. Haar: ‘Arie per cantar stanze ariostesche’, Ariosto, la musica, i musicisti, ed. M.A. Balsano (Florence, 1982), 31–46
E. Weimer: Opera Seria and the Evolution of Classical Style (Ann Arbor, 1984)
M.F. Robinson: ‘The Da Capo Aria Seria as Symbol of Rationality’, La musica come linguaggio universale: Latina 1987, 51–63
A.B. Caswell, ed.: Embellished Opera Arias, RRMNETC, vii–viii (1989)
J. Platoff: ‘The Buffa Aria in Mozart’s Vienna’, COJ, ii (1990), 99–120
G. Buschmeier: Die Entwicklung von Arie und Szene in der französischen Oper von Gluck bis Spontini (Tutzing, 1991)
N. Dubowy: Arie und Konzert: zur Entwicklung der Ritornellanlage im 17. und frühen 18. Jahrhunderts (Munich, 1991)
E. Rosand: Opera in Seventeenth-Century Venice: the Creation of a Genre (Berkeley, 1991)
P. Allsop: The Italian ‘Trio’ Sonata: from its Origins until Corelli (Oxford, 1992)
T. Carter: ‘“An Air New and Grateful to the Ear”: the Concept of Aria in Late Renaissance and Early Baroque Italy’, MAn, xii (1993), 127–45
S. Leopold: Al modo d’Orfeo: Dichtung und Musik im italienischen Sologesang des frühen 17. Jahrhunderts, AnMc, no.29 (1995)
E.O.D. Downes: The Operas of Johann Christian Bach as a Reflection of the Dominant Trends in Opera Seria 1750–1780 (diss., Harvard U., 1958)
H.S. Powers: ‘Il Serse trasformato’, MQ, xlvii (1961), 481–92; xlviii (1962), 73–92
B. Hjelmborg: ‘Aspects of the Aria in the Early Operas of Francesco Cavalli’, Natalicia musicologica Knud Jeppesen septuagenario collegis oblata, ed. B. Hjelmborg and S. Sørenson (Copenhagen, 1962), 173–98
W.V. Porter: ‘Peri and Corsi’s Dafne: some New Discoveries and Observations’, JAMS, xviii (1965), 170–96
M. Chusid: ‘The Organization of Scenes with Arias: Verdi’s Cavatinas and Romanzas’, Studi verdiani I: Venice 1966, 59–66
R. Celletti: ‘Il vocalismo italiano da Rossini a Donizetti’, AnMc, no.5 (1968), 267–94; no.7 (1969), 214–47
S. Döhring: ‘Die Arienformen in Mozarts Opern’, MJb 1968–70, 66–76
F. Lippmann: ‘Vincenzo Bellini und die italienische Opera seria seiner Zeit’, AnMc, no.6 (1969), 1–104
H.W. Hitchcock: ‘Caccini’s “Other” Nuove musiche’, JAMS, xxvii (1974), 438–60
S. Döhring: ‘La forma dell’aria in Gaetano Donizetti’, Studi donizettiani I: Bergamo 1975, 149–78
R.A. Moreen: Integration of Text Forms and Musical Forms in Verdi’s Early Operas (diss., Princeton U., 1975)
E. Rosand: ‘Comic Contrast and Dramatic Continuity: Observations on the Form and Function of Aria in the Operas of Francesco Cavalli’, MR, xxvii (1976), 92–105
F.L. Millner: The Operas of Johann Adolf Hasse (Ann Arbor, 1979)
M. McClymonds: Niccolò Jommelli: the Last Years, 1769–1774 (Ann Arbor, 1980)
M.K. Hunter: Haydn’s Aria Forms: a Study of the Arias in the Operas Written at Eszterháza, 1766–1783 (Ann Arbor, 1982)
S.L. Balthazar: ‘Ritorni’s Ammaestramenti and the Conventions of Rossinian Melodramma’, JMR, vii (1989–90), 281–311
S.A. Crist: Aria Forms in the Vocal Works of J.S. Bach 1714–24 (diss., Harvard U., 1989)
M. Hunter: ‘Text, Music, and Drama in Haydn’s Italian Opera Arias: Four Case Studies’, JM, vii (1989), 29–57
J. Webster: ‘The Analysis of Mozart’s Arias’, Mozart Studies, ed. C. Eisen (Oxford, 1991), 101–99
T. Carter: ‘Intriguing Laments: Sigismondo d’India, Claudio Monteverdi, and Dido alla parmigiana (1628)’, JAMS, xlix (1996), 32–69
D.E. Freeman: ‘J.S. Bach’s “Concerto” Arias: a Study in the Amalgamation of Eighteenth-Century Genres’, Studi musicali, xxvii (1998), 123–62