Musical drama
A whole series of works for musical theater can be described as musical drama . The term is originally based on the Italian dramma per musica , but it was usually not used for German-language counterparts of this type of opera seria . In general, it is quite rare as a generic term and is primarily associated with a special form of sacred music-dramatic works, such as the Magdeburg composer Johann Heinrich Rolle , whose works were extremely popular in German-speaking countries towards the end of the 18th century.
Rolles' musical dramas, which consist of musical numbers with accompanying recitatives (or ariosi) and therefore have a certain relationship to the so-called "reform operas" by Christoph Willibald Gluck , were usually only performed in concert performances like oratorios. But there are also a few works by Rolle that are suitable for theatrical performances - especially since they also contain scenic instructions and stage design information - and that were also performed on stage from time to time. This was partly the case in the theaters of the Benedictine monasteries of Bavaria, Austria and Switzerland.
The genre of musical dramas also includes a work commonly referred to as an oratorio : Franz Schubert's Lazarus , which Schubert wrote on a libretto by August Hermann Niemeyer , which Rolle had already set to music in 1778.
The designation musical drama introduced by Theodor Mundt in 1833 for the opera as a “unity of poetry and musical art”, in contrast to the “musical drama in which the music only played as an interlude”; on the other hand does not assume the type of Role's "musical drama", nor does it correctly represent its characteristics or those of Wagner's so-called musical dramas in the sense that they are commonly understood today.
literature
- Ralph-Jürgen Reipsch (2001): Johann Heinrich Rolles 'Musical Dramas' - Notes on the Fundamentals and Appearance of a Musical Genre . In: Händel-Jahrbuch der Georg-Friedrich-Händelgesellschaft 47. pp. 203–223.
- Andreas Waczkat (2007): Johann Heinrich Rolles musical dramas: theory, work inventory and tradition of a genre in the context of bourgeois sensitivity . In: Writings on Central German Music History ; Vol. 15. Beeskow: Ortus-Musikverlag. Zugl .: University of Rostock, habilitation theses, 2005 ISBN 978-3-937788-13-5 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Riemann Musiklexikon, Mainz 1967, subject part, p. 605.