Topic and Questions We Can Help You To Answer
Paper Instructions:

In 1607, the composer Claudio Monteverdi’s brother Giulio Cesare Monteverdi wrote that the “‘Second Practice’… is that style which is chiefly concerned with the perfection of the setting; in which harmony does not rule but is ruled, and where the words are mistress of the harmony” (Weiss and Taruskin 146). In all vocal music, there is a push and pull between the technical elements of the music (as prioritized in the “First Practice”) and the way a song musically
expresses its lyrics (as prioritized above in the “Second Practice”). In this paper, you will discuss how this relationship reflects and/or contributes to the context in which a specific song was originally written and performed. In the first part of your paper, you will examine seventeenth-century Venetian Opera, the cultural and economic circumstances in which it rose to prominence, and how it reflects the attitudes and priorities of the people involved in its production. What were their aesthetic priorities, and how did composers like Monteverdi satisfy
these priorities—specifically regarding how he sets the text (i.e. the lyrics) in his Venetian Operas? In the second, more substantial part of your paper, you will discuss one of the three songs from the nineteenth century listed above and examine the aesthetic priorities of the producers and consumers of your chosen song. Consider the interplay of music and text—does the music enhance, change, or subvert the meaning of the text? In what ways does virtuosity play
into your chosen piece? How do these specific musical elements reflect and/or contribute to the context in which your chosen song was created and performed? You may compare your song with instrumental works discussed in the first half of the course in order to bolster your argument, and you are encouraged to consider some of the broader issues of the class, such as the private/public dichotomy or the musical canon.