Blog Post 10: Rossini: The Barber of Seville

Rossini in his Barber of Seville uses the symphony and voice to write a story. Rossini's overture is crisp and clear, and gradually increases in intensity as the piece seems to be ushering "out of control" The timbre of opera is warm, sometimes dark to create an intense tone, but along with the strong brass, the complimentary winds create a "airy" timbre quality. The rhythm is strong and pulsatile, the phrases often repeat, and build up gradually in intensity. The "harmonies aren't complex" but are simply composed to create a strong and succinct tone. There also seems to be a quality of call and response going on within the piece to help create it dialogue effect for the story. The different timberal colors of the different instruments go back and forth with each other and respond in similar, yet slightly varied forms of the main melody. The higher winds might take the melody up an octave, or add a slight ornamentation to the melody, or extend the melodic phrase in response to the first simple phrase often initiated by the brass, low-winds, and percussion. There is a main melody or phrase that is repeated over and over that will have slight variations and might change its location from the tonal, say raised to a minor third for added tension, or a fifth for added color, but the melody is simple, and can be recognized by humming that one part to some one and they will instantly recognize it.

I could not get the embedded code to come up on Youtube, they changed their formatting and the code is taking until eternity to pull up so I'll just give the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OloXRhesab0