Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and exercises for Music for Baccalaureate

Dolce Stil Nuovo

The Dolce Stil Nuovo, christened by Dante, was a fresh new style of a poetic school of thirteenth-century Italian love, applying philosophical ideas of the time. According to the philosophy of the time, she is a recipient of the virtues that emanate from God, hence the frequent descriptions of angels or stars and spiritualized suffering. Love is no longer a sin, but a tool that brings man to God. Next to love (the single topic of the dolce stil nuovo) appears idealized nature in poems composed entirely of idyllic landscapes: spring, flower meadows... Hendecasyllables verbs are used and new stanzas, most notably the sonnet. The influence of this school was enormous: it included Dante, Petrarch, and Garcilaso de la Vega. The best...

Understanding the Baroque Concept

To Eugenio d'Ors, the Baroque is a historical constant that occurs regularly in very different times. It is synonymous with the ornate and the artificial. A Baroque phase can be understood as one that includes many characters and elements, often seen as an opposite trend to classicism.

As an artistic period, the Baroque primarily spans the 17th century and the first half of the 18th century. The term 'Baroque' was coined in the 19th century, initially carrying a negative connotation. This style was often interpreted as ornate, decadent, and overly verbose by subsequent generations.

Its birthplace was Italy, particularly the city of Rome, from where it spread throughout Europe and eventually reached the Americas....

Key Characteristics of the Theatrical Genre

• Union of Text and Representation: Although the work is readable, it does not acquire its true dimension until it is represented. The written text and the performance are inseparable.
• Double Communicative Situation: Communication is established, first, between the actors themselves and, second, between the actors and the public.
• Multiple Issuers and Receivers: A work requires several issuers (actors, director, set designers, etc.) and multiple receivers (the public) who experience the work simultaneously.
• Asides: This is a special communicative use where a character establishes a relationship of complicity with the audience, sharing a secret or important fact while the other characters on stage pretend

Diverse Musical Works: Analysis and Context

Zarzuela Duo: "Manila Manton" from La Verbena de la Paloma (Bretón)

• 1. Form: Binary.
• 2. Meter: 2/4.
• 3. Tempo: Lento de abanico (Fan tempo).
• 3.1. Upbeat: Anacrusic start.
• 4. Melody: Characterized by leaps.
• 4.1. Character: Popular.
• 5. Texture: Accompanied melody.
• 5.1. Key: In a major key.
• 6. Vocal Part: Tenor.
• 6.1. Instrumentation: Soprano, flute, flautinos, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, trumpets, etc.
• 7. Context: Duo from a zarzuela.
• 7.1. Significance: The culminating moment of the zarzuela.
• 8. Genre: Scenic and theatrical zarzuela, popular in Mexico and within the lyrical tradition.
• 9. Style: Nationalism.
• 10. Year: 1894.
• 11. Title/Context: "Dúo con mantón de Manila" (Duo with Manila Shawl), from La Verbena de la

Core Characteristics of Lyrical Expression

Lyric poetry is defined by several key features:

• The author conveys a particular mood, expressing emotion immediately and directly.
• It requires an effort of interpretation from the reader.
• It often involves the accumulation of large value items with symbolic images.
• It is characterized by its brevity, highest concentration, and density.
• It provides the direct expression of the poet's sentiment to the reader.
• Poems typically conform to formal standards.

Key Elements of Lyric Poetry

The Verse: Definition and Classification

A verse is a set of words subject to rhythm and cadence in relation to other verses. Verses are classified according to the number of syllables:

• Minor Art (Arte Menor): Eight or fewer syllables.

Spanish Baroque Poetry and Its Main Trends

Baroque poetry reached some peaks unrivaled in the history of Spanish poetry. In this period, two trends lived side by side:

• Popular: This trend is more accessible and includes carols and letrillas, composing songs in the traditional Castilian lyric or faux-romance, as well as themes of traditional ballads and the Romancero Nuevo. In these compositions, the standard is the clarity of expression and simplicity in language.
• Culta (Cultivated): Characterized by an intricate elaboration of language that requires the reader to perform a difficult intellectual exercise to understand the poems. Two streams stand out: Conceptivismo and Culteranismo. Both constitute the opposite point of the balance sought by

Daily Life and Celebrity Encounters

How many kilometers did Jason walk each day?
After looking at his map, he realized that he had walked four or five kilometers each day.

What did Jason advise Antonio to do regarding celebrities?
Jason advised him not to go crazy and not to ask for their autographs. He told Antonio to notice them but not bother them if he wanted to act like a true New Yorker.

Why do famous people like living in New York?
They like living there because they can maintain a little anonymity.

Cultural Visits: Chinatown and Little Italy

Who was Lin?
Lin was Peter’s uncle. He owned a shop in one of the food markets in Chinatown.

Who did Antonio go to Chinatown with?
Antonio went to Chinatown with Peter, the ballet dancer.

Why did the food

Quiz 4

David by Donatello

Origin: Florence, 1440, Early Italian Renaissance

Reappearance of the nude figure, contrapposto, of a biblical hero.

Madonna of the Rocks

Origin: Milan, 1483, High Italian Renaissance

David by Michelangelo

Origin: Florence, 1501, High Italian Renaissance

Symbolizes civil liberties embodied in the Republic of Florence.

Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo

Origin: Rome, 1508, High Italian Renaissance

Commissioned by Pope Julius II. Four years work on 300 figures in the Creation of Mankind.

Villa Rotonda by Palladio

Origin: Vicenza, 1550, High Italian Renaissance

Shows Roman aspects like columns and a dome, similar to the Parthenon.

Merode Altarpiece by Robert Campin

Origin: Tournai, 1430, Northern Renaissance

Controversial painting triggering...

Romanticism: A school of thought that valued feeling and intuition over reason. It first emerged in Germany in the 18th century. Romantics believed that the imagination could apprehend truths, usually accompanied by powerful emotion and associated with natural, unspoiled beauty. To the Romantic sensibility, the imagination, spontaneity, individual feelings, and wild nature were of greater value than reason, logic, planning, and cultivation. To the Romantic mind, poetry was the highest and most sublime embodiment of the imagination. Romanticism emphasized feeling and intuition over reason, sought wisdom in natural beauty, and valued poetry above all other works of the imagination.

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer and His *Rimas*

We are confronted by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer's *Rimas*, written during the second half of the nineteenth century. It was the era of Realism, but his rhymes belong to the Romanticism movement. They are a model of romance, and he is considered a late Romantic. The mid-century poetry is marked by the intimate melancholy of Bécquer and Rosalía de Castro. Lengthy narrative poems of the Romantics were abandoned for shorter compositions, following the style of German ballads. The legend versified prose replaces. In the *Legends* of Bécquer (*Maese Pérez, the Organist*, *The Miserere*, *El Monte de las Ánimas*, etc.), the narrator acts as a correspondent or columnist for prodigious and mysterious events,...