Neapolitan School (music)

A. Scarlatti	N. Porpora	T. Traetta
Ms. Durante	GB Pergolesi	N. Jommelli
N. Piccinni	D. Cimarosa	G. Paisiello
Composer of the Neapolitan school

The Neapolitan School is the name of a group of composers who from 1650 onwards - starting from Naples - decisively determined the history of opera .

description

In a narrower sense, the Neapolitan school is associated with a musical style that was particularly successful throughout Europe from the 1720s onwards, is stylistically between the late baroque and pre-classical periods and is characterized by a certain lightness and transparency. The Neapolitan sixth chord was used relatively often for pieces in minor , which is why it was named after the Neapolitan school from the 19th century.

In the 18th century, Naples was the capital of the kingdom of the same name and the third largest city in Europe after Paris and London . The French scholar Charles de Brosses described it in 1739 as the "capital of the musical world".

A decisive prerequisite for the development of the phenomenon were the four conservatories in Naples, which are known throughout Europe, where local and foreign musicians and composers received a sound education and / or were active as teachers themselves: The Santa Maria di Loreto , the Pietà dei Turchini , the Sant'Onofrio and the Poveri di Gesù Cristo . The conservatories were also among the best-known training centers for young castrati , who later shone in the churches and opera houses of Naples and all of Italy, famous singing stars such as Matteuccio , Farinelli and Caffarelli emerged from them.

Francesco Provenzale is considered to be the founder of the Neapolitan School, and Alessandro Scarlatti is often regarded as the first leading master , although he did not come from Naples or grew up there, and was also active in Rome. The Naples specialist Dinko Fabris even completely doubts Scarlatti's role as the “head of the Neapolitan school”; he sees him more as an inspiring foreign body, which, however, has given Neapolitan theater music an “international and European dimension” for the first time.
The best-known and most important composers of the Neapolitan School of the 18th century include Nicola Porpora , Francesco Durante , Leonardo Vinci , Francesco Feo , Leonardo Leo , Francesco Mancini , Giovanni Battista Pergolesi and Johann Adolph Hasse . Niccolò Jommelli , Tommaso Traetta , Niccolò Piccinni , Giovanni Paisiello and Domenico Cimarosa followed later . Well-known lyricists, whose libretti were set to music by the composers of the Neapolitan School, were Pietro Metastasio and Apostolo Zeno .

The defining genre was initially the opera seria with its idealized mythological heroes or kings and a fixed musical sequence of recitative (for the plot) and da capo aria (description of the state). In the second half of the 18th century, the rigid forms were expanded in favor of greater drama through the increased use of orchestral Accompagnato recitatives and the merging of individual numbers into larger scenes. The overture was a three-part sinfonia - none of the features mentioned are typical or exclusively Neapolitan, but also appear in works by Venetian or other composers ( Bononcini , Albinoni , Pollarolo , Vivaldi , Caldara , Galuppi, etc.).

The Neapolitans also played an important pioneering role in the success of the opera buffa in the 18th century. The key work is La serva padrona by Pergolesi , which was originally performed as a cheerful interlude between the acts of an opera seria. Later, the opera buffa developed into an independent genre, the most famous and internationally recognized masters of which were Piccinni, Cimarosa and Paisiello.

A typical Neapolitan opera form of the early 18th century was the Commedia per musica (or in Neapolitan “Commeddeja pe mmuseca”). The action usually takes place in the (then) present in the area of ​​Naples. The scene is rigid and depicts a street between two country houses. The characters are either based on those of the Commedia dell'arte or are in love. Usually there is a foundling who grew up unrecognized and is loved by several other people at the same time. Towards the end, the real identity of this person turns out to be a close relative of most of the suitors, so that only one applicant remains. In addition to burlesque elements, there are allusions to the opera seria and social life. A frequently used form of music is the simple "canzona", which is often in verse form. The opera usually begins with such a “canzona” in Sicilian rhythm. The use of the Neapolitan dialect is also typical, but was gradually pushed back from 1720 and limited to the buffo parts. Examples of this genre are Vinci's Li zite 'ngalera (1722), Pergolesi's Lo frate' nnamorato (1734) and Il Flaminio (1735), as well as Leonardo Leo's opera L'Alidoro from 1740, which was rediscovered at the beginning of the 21st century .

The most important theater in the city was initially the San Bartolomeo , which was founded in 1621, but was completely rebuilt after a fire in 1681. From 1737 it was replaced by the Teatro San Carlo . In these two houses the aristocratic opera seria was practiced almost exclusively (apart from intermezzi). In addition, several other theaters had opened since the beginning of the 18th century, specializing primarily in comic operas, which were particularly popular with the common people: the Teatro dei Fiorentini 1707, the Teatro della Pace 1724 and the Teatro Nuovo.

An overly rigid limitation to the opera does not do justice to the phenomenon of the Neapolitan school, as important composers such as Provençale, Scarlatti, Francesco Durante, Pergolesi, Jommelli and others. a. also created important things in the field of church music , which was the focus of Neapolitan music until the beginning of the 18th century. An outstanding and most famous example is Pergolesi's Stabat Mater .

Purely instrumental music played no special or no role at all in the work of most Neapolitans, the harpsichord sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti must be considered an exception , who, due to its originality and style, is more of a single phenomenon, albeit with Neapolitan (and later Iberian ) influences.

A differentiation of the Neapolitan school from other musical currents of the time is difficult in principle, since z. For example, German composers such as Hasse or Johann Joachim Quantz had studied with Alessandro Scarlatti in Naples and were influenced by the style of the younger Neapolitan generation. Christoph Willibald Gluck and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , among others, were less directly influenced by the Neapolitan school .

literature

• Dinko Fabris: Naples, City of Spectacles from the 14th to the 19th Century , Art Book + 2 CD + Art Book, Opus 111, Paris, 1999.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Dinko Fabris: Naples, City of Spectacles from the 14th to the 19th Century , Art Book + 2 CD + Art Book, Opus 111, Paris, 1999, p. 58
2. ^ Dinko Fabris: Naples, City of Spectacles from the 14th to the 19th Century , Art Book + 2 CD + Art Book, Opus 111, Paris, 1999, pp. 68–74
3. ^ Dinko Fabris: Naples, City of Spectacles from the 14th to the 19th Century , Art Book + 2 CD + Art Book, Opus 111, Paris, 1999, pp. 72–74.
4. ↑ Helmut Hucke: Lo frate 'nnamorato. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater. Vol. 4. Works. Massine - Piccinni. Piper, Munich and Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-492-02414-9 , p. 679.
5. ^ Dinko Fabris: Naples, City of Spectacles from the 14th to the 19th Century , Art Book + 2 CD + Art Book, Opus 111, Paris, 1999, pp. 57–58
6. ^ Dinko Fabris: Naples, City of Spectacles from the 14th to the 19th Century , Art Book + 2 CD + Art Book, Opus 111, Paris, 1999, p. 68