Mimi's Aria And Madamina- A Discussion Of Angst And Simplicity
An analysis of classical and romantic music by Selin Talay
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The Classical period was a time of simplicity and perfection in the arts. The romantic period represented a radical departure from this style, where the composers sought complexity and angst in their works. The classical piece Madamina (or the catalogue aria) from Mozart's La Boheme and the romantic piece Mimi's Aria by Puccini demonstrate this through duration, pitch, dynamics and expressive techniques, tone colour, texture and structure.
The Catalogue Aria from Mozart's La Boheme' demonstrates the simplicity and perfection characteristic of classical music in its duration very well. Set in 4/4 throughout the Aria, the tempo remains inconsistent but simply structured and therefore predictable. The piece starts with an allegro introduction, its fast paced matched by the introduction consisting of constant quavers,
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broken momentarily only by the arrival of the first verse, and then becoming much more legato in the chorus. This pattern of rapid excitement followed by a soothing passage allows us to appreciate the comedy of the eager returns, and heightened by syncopation in the voice for a feeling of fun, quaver and crotchet rests to create a climax, as well as some staccato in the accompaniment, the overall emotion created by the music is that of light-hearted comedy- an irony in that the words aimed at a female convey the deepest betrayal by her lover. The rhythmic pattern is sudden and unpredictable, and adapts to suite the context of the music, creating for each section of Mozart's Madamina rhythmic perfection in a simplistic way.
The duration of Mimi's Aria from Puccini's Don Giovanni is a very good example of how the stylistic breakaway from classical music helped to create complexity and angst. The main...
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