Sample Essay
The following essay is an example of an exceptional essay written in recent years by a student. It is not intended to be a model, but merely to show how one student successfully responded to an essay question. Please note the topic of this essay was not one that demanded the use of musical examples to improve its argument. This is not generally the case. A more analytical style essay topic, for instance, would benefit from more musical examples and the examiners would be looking for them.
This following criteria may also help you gain some idea of what it is that is looked for in a 'good essay'.
Criteria Used for Marking Assignments
1. Is the essay structured around a clear central argument which is stated in the introduction, developed in the body of the essay and summarised in the conclusion?
2. Does the central argument respond directly to the essay question?
3. To what extent does the essay engage with the critical literature?
4. Are footnotes used to acknowledge the use of critical literature?
5. Are arguments expressed clearly and concisely?
6. Are well-chosen musical examples incorporated, where relevant, to support the arguments being expressed?
7. Does the essay have a thoroughly researched and well presented bibliography?
8. Is the essay carefully presented, avoiding spelling mistakes and similar errors?
9. Does the assignment adhere to the set word limit?
Essay question
To what extent is our current understanding of Classical period opera dependent on formal models derived from instrumental music?
No description of sonata form can be given that will fit the Haydn quartets but not the majority of forms in a Mozart opera.1
This confident statement, taken from Charles Rosen's The Classical Style, typifies the traditional analytical approach towards Mozart's operatic music. This approach, a hangover from the nineteenth century's bias towards "absolute" music, has seen scholars attempt to explain the structural features of Mozartian vocal music primarily using forms commonly associated with instrumental works. In particular, the so-called "sonata form" has served as the basis for a plethora of analyses, not only on the individual movement level, but also on the levels of acts and even entire operas. The latter instances are symptomatic, more generally, of a highly reductionist approach in which large-scale dramatic works are "summarised" into their supposedly important structural and tonal movements.2
This analytical method has resulted in a situation where the greatest attention is given to the larger individual movements (in terms of length and orchestration), at the expense of smaller forms, such as the aria. It is these smaller movements which are all too often ignored in "big picture" descriptions if they fail to measure up to the author's expectations, a situation Webster has amusingly termed the "marche ou je t'assomme" method of music analysis.3
Implicit in Rosen's statement is the assumption that the quartets under discussion are Haydn's later ones, and that "a Mozart opera" means one of the Viennese "masterpieces". While Rosen's limitation may be valid for the traditional interpretation of the musical "canon", any deeper appreciation of Classical operatic form requires the investigation of a wider range of composers, works and numbers.
Thus, those seeking insights into the extent of the relationship between instrumental and operatic music in the Classical period have been hampered, in effect, by several "levels" of imbalance: the traditional primacy of instrumental over vocal, the emphasis on opera buffa as opposed to seria, the greater attention given to ensembles (particularly finales) over arias, and the tendency to view the mature works of Mozart in "lonely splendour",4 divorced from both the works of his Viennese contemporaries, and the earlier operas of himself and others.
In recent years, an increasing number of scholars have begun to question this late Mozart-centric, sonata form-based view of Classical opera. Authors such as John Platoff have analysed Mozartian arias and ensembles in the context of contemporary operas by lesser masters (Salieri, Soler, Paisiello, Cimarosa),5 while James Webster has concentrated upon developing new "'Mozartian' critical paradigms and analytical methods",6 recognising the need for an appreciation of operatic forms on their own terms. It is studies such as these which represent a new approach to Classical opera: a view not based primarily on applying the instrumental "template" to the late works of one composer, but instead perceiving his operas as part of a broader musical spectrum in which all influences, vocal and instrumental, can be included in our appreciation of this remarkable music.
I. Forms and Contexts
The conception of a "formal model" covers many differing aspects of musical construction. In its most obvious sense, a movement is considered to be in the "form" of a rondo, for example. In comparing the relationship between vocal and instrumental music of the Classical period, it is this aspect which has received the most attention. When considering what formal models are derived from instrumental music, one naturally thinks of such terms as sonata form, minuet and ritornello. All three of these have been used in connection with the analysis of Classical operatic music, the first as a paradigm for the structure of arias and ensembles, the second as a descriptive term for arias in 3/4 time of moderate tempo, and the third for orchestral tutte preceding and following entries by the soloist in a concerto.
While the application of instrumental terms to vocal genres is a common method of descriptive analysis, the reverse situation is rarely found, except under more general considerations of "dramatic" elements, or where a close formal affinity exists (between the aria and "concerto first movement" form, for example). Features of instrumentation, orchestration and other aspects common to the two genres are appropriate as formal models for depicting dramatic situations.7 Particularly appropriate for operatic music is the consideration of the text and its metre, and how this has influenced musical phrase structure. Although this might seem to apply only to vocal music, investigations into the dramatic qualities of Mozart's piano concertos, for example, can gain substantially from inquiries into "declamatory" techniques in the operatic genres.8 Since considerations of Classical dramatic form are so dependent upon individual numbers, and the numbers themselves very widely in style, it will be appropriate to describe the range of movements under discussion and the principle genres in which they occur.
The Classical period saw the transition from the da-capo aria structure to a much wider range of formal designs. Opera buffa in particular was quick to respond to this loosening of structural conventions; by the 1750s and early 1760s, buffa had virtually abandoned the da-capo format,9 replacing with forms including binary, rondo, bipartite (for example, slow-fast), and alternating (a-b-a-b). Significant, too was the presence of a substantial "action" finale, first introduced by the playwright Carlo Goldoni (1707-93), necessitating a "freeform" musical structure with simple melodies and rapid changes of tempo.10
Opera seria continued to utilise the da-capo structure well into the Classical period, with substantial orchestral ritornellos at the beginning and end of the aria, cadenze, and plenty of opportunities for vocal display. This type of seria continued to be written until the late 1770s.11 There was, however a tendency to tighten the structure by indicating only an abbreviated return to the first section (effectively, a dal segno aria12) and formulating a second section with contrasting tempo and key to the first. By the time of Mozart's Idomeneo (1780) and La Clemenza di Tito (1791), however, the developments of opera buffa had reached seria, too; both mainly make use of the more recent forms mentioned above.
While the structural forms of buffa did infiltrate seria, very few other features of the lighter genre influenced the more serious. However, as buffa operas grew in number, length and (it seems) respectability, they began to incorporate "serious" features. Particularly with the tension of social classes found in later buffe, the aristocratic figures often assume a more "dignified" pose in their music compared to the servants (at times a parody of such); this has important implications for structural variety within comic opera.13 On a wider structural level, seria reduced in length from the usual three acts to two, and the archetypal seria libretti of Metastasio were evidently thought outdated by the end of the century. Mozart's comment on Pietro Mazzolà's adaptation and shortening of Metastasio's La Clemenza di Tito is significant in this respect: "Turned into a real opera by Signore Mazzolà".14
The move from a relatively restricted range of da capo forms to the variety of structures found in late eighteenth century opera is well documented. However, there has been considerable scholarly debate as to how these structures relate to one another, how they should be described, and in particular, how they can be reconciled with instrumental forms such as "sonata form". Let us now examine some of the problems associated with these questions, and how the approach of scholars from earlier this century has arguably led to a distorted view of Classical operatic form.
II. The Traditional Formal Approach to Classical Opera
In analysing Classical opera, authors are faced with a problem unique to this genre: only one composer has operas represented in the "canon": Mozart. Additionally, of his c. 22 operas, only four (Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Cosi Fan Tutte, Die Zauberflöte) receive high levels of critical attention, while a further three (Idomeneo, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, La Clemenza di Tito) are somewhat marginalised due to their lack of conformity to the favoured operatic traditions. Also unique for Mozart is his equal fame as a composer of both instrumental and vocal music. Despite the fact that Haydn, as the other "great" composer of this time, wrote around the same number of operas as Mozart, including examples from all the major forms of the period (buffa, seria, festa teatrale, singspiel), his works have had neither the continuous performance tradition nor the scholarly attention that those of his younger colleague have received. Beethoven, represented by his one completed opera, has been largely ignored due to the difficulty of reconciling the musical style of Fidelio with that of earlier examples.
Within the operas themselves, the ensemble numbers and particularly the finales have been the critical focus for much of the twentieth century, to the detriment of other forms such as the aria. This is primarily due to the nineteenth and early twentieth century bias towards the conception of "absolute" music, first propagated by German artists and philosophers in the early nineteenth century. A central tenet of the "absolute" theory was the primacy of instrumental music, supposedly because the text in vocal works inhibits the appreciation of the music on its own terms.15 With the study of Mozart's operas primarily undertaken by German musicologists, whose intellectual climate was more conducive to the idea of "absolute" music, this view of Mozart's music has held sway until recently. Further ideological issues exist when such scholars allege that Mozart's operas transcend the "Italianate" models on which the former are supposedly based.16
Arias, the "normative dramatic structure"17 of Classical period opera, have received little attention from an analytical point of view until recently, notwithstanding a few isolated examples.18 This is surprising, given their great number in comparison with larger forms, but not unexpected. The Wagnerian æsthetic of "continuous drama" sits uneasily with the reflective qualities and suspended plot tension in the seventeenth and eighteenth century aria, and with the field dominated by German musicologists, it is natural that the ensembles and finales have been deemed more worthy of analysis.
Compared with opera buffa, seria has received little attention. A primary reason for this is the fact that the majority Mozart's "greatest" operas are examples of opera buffa. His two later seria operas have been hampered by unfortunate circumstances: Idomeneo because it was composed before Mozart's full maturity, and Tito by its haste in writing and the generally unfortunate comparisons between it and the contemporary Zauberflöte. In addition, current æsthetic judgement favours buffa as more "human", compared to the "artificial", "stiff" and "formal" world of opera seria.
All these factors contribute to an understanding of Classical period opera which is decidedly limited in its scope, and looks primarily to instrumental music for its formal models. By far the most common instrumental model applied to Classical opera is that of "sonata form", and we turn now to this most controversial aspect of operatic structure.
III. The Operas of Mozart: Sonata Forms?
To say that the sonata style provided an ideal framework for the rendering of what was most dynamic on the stage is to oversimplify only infosar as it does not take account of the important role that opera itself played in the development of the sonata style. Opera buffa, in particular, was influential, and the classical style moves with the least strain [!] in its depiction of comic intrigue and comic gesture.19
The conception of sonata form as the "ideal" representation of musical structure in the Classical period has been an attractive one for theorists, associated as it is with the popular ideas of "balance", "symmetry" and "unity" in the music of this period.20 Indeed, one author has gone so far as to claim that "the sonata principle governs nearly all Classical instrumental and vocal forms".21 An interesting feature of these discussions is the softening of the specific "form" to the more general "style" or "principal". Implicit in this change, it seems, is the acknowledgment that operatic numbers employ a wider and more flexible range of "sonata styles" than instrumental music. Yet even the word "sonata" demonstrates the form's association with instrumental music, since the term itself refers to a common instrumental genre.
Issues of semantics aside, there is no doubt that operatic arias, and to some extent, ensembles follow a pattern common to Classical instrumental music and indeed to much other music of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: a initial section in the tonic key, a contrasting section in a closely related key (commonly the dominant, or relative major for minor-key works) and a return to the tonic which resolves harmonic "tensions", possibly proceeded by a modulatory passage which withholds the tonic.22 While this scheme does bear a resemblance to sonata form in a more general sense, one can hardly infer from this similarity that most Classical forms are "governed by the sonata principle". Rather, "sonata form" refers to a specific application of this scheme in which the tonic-dominant polarity is clearly defined in two "subject groups", the modulatory passage constitutes a substantial part of the movement (as the "development"), the opening material is recalled later in the movement, and the harmonic tension is resolved by the recalling of the second group melodic material in the tonic key. This design is widely found in instrumental music, but the extent to which it is found in vocal music is debatable. As Platoff observes, "the term 'sonata form', if we apply it so broadly as to encompass all such pieces, loses its usefulness to distinguish some musical forms from others".23
Do Classical operatic numbers conform to the plan given above? The evidence for an affirmative answer is scarce. As an example, let us study Susanna's Venite inginocchiatevi from Figaro, Act II, which is the strongest candidate for a sonata form aria in the entire opera, and the only example of this type to be listed by Webster from the Viennese operas.24 The structure of this movement is shown in Figure 1.
music example
Figure 1. Structure of Venite, inginocchiatevi (Le Nozze di Figaro, II/3)
The crux of the matter is the return to G major tonality from bar 80. Here Mozart restates the second section motive in the tonic key, yet there is no recapitulation of first section material at all. Webster classes this aria as "sonata form with tonal return section", yet even he acknowledges the problems associated with this classification.25 Even if one accepts this movement as some variation of sonata form, the disparity between the aria's structure and that commonly found in instrumental music leads one to question the validity of Rosen's "universal" approach.
Sonata form has been extended to forms beyond the individual aria. Probably the most frequently studied piece of Classical operatic music from a structural point of view is the Act 2 finale of Figaro. This is due to Mozart's alleged use of a sonata form key-structure (Scene 8: E flat, Scene 9: B flat, Scenes 10-11: G, C, F, B flat, Scene 12: E flat). Attempts have been made to explain the opening duet of this in terms ranging from a "loose two-part structure",26 sonata form with modified recapitulation, and sonata form without development.27 The lack of consensus on this matter should give pause to those wanting evidence of the unequivocal use of the "sonata principle" within a particular movement, yet even if one does accept it, recent studies suggest that the unusual structural planning found in the entire movement is the exception rather than the rule, when compared to the other finales of Mozart and his Viennese contemporaries.28 Platoff, for example, concludes that
[the] movements of finales by [Mozart's] contemporaries...show much less interest in such highly organised structures. The type of movement in which tonal and thematic planning are closely linked to create a clear high-level organization is virtually never found in buffo finales, outside of a few examples in Mozart's operas.29
Scholars such as Platoff and Webster contend that the variety of formal designs found in Classical operatic music constitute not variations of the sonata paradigm, but rather distinct forms demanding attention in their own right. Webster, for example, distinguishes no less than eleven "principal formal types" in Mozart's arias of the 1780s.30 Leonard Ratner has coined the term "key-area form" to describe the various implementations of the tonal plan I-V-various-I found in this music.31 Whether or not one disagrees with the suggestion that sonata form as a formal structure should be abandoned completely as a term to describe operatic music,32 the assertion that it governs nearly all Classical vocal forms has been called into serious question.
IV. Towards an Appreciation of Classical Operatic Form
It is evident from this discussion that our understanding of Classical operatic form is decisively influenced by formal models found in instrumental music. However, the conception of what constitutes a "formal" model has broadened in recent years to include not only the most obvious structural features (sonata form, rondo) but also a consideration of issues more related to dramatic content. Increased attention has been given to the text, an aspect unique to vocal music. There is a growing realisation that the form of a movement can be dictated not by tonal structure, as in sonata form, but by the divisions of the poetry. James Webster, for example, has analysed the use of the "quatrain" structure in Classical period themes from both an instrumental and vocal point of view.33 Several recent essays have focussed upon the relationship between operatic form and that of Mozart's piano concertos - a valuable line of research because of the similarity of the aria ritornello and the typical concerto first movement.
These developments suggest a structural viewpoint more sympathetic to operatic music on its own terms, instead of following the formal dictates of instrumental music. Ultimately, it is this path for analysing operatic music, with its great variety of verse metres and dramatic situations, which will provide the most profound insights into the structural thinking of Classical operatic composers. Most importantly, we will come to appreciate the masterpieces of Mozart, in ever more detail. Our "understanding" of an opera constitutes more, of course, than an appreciation of its form, but our view can only be helped by a deeper understanding of this most integral aspect of music.
1Charles Rosen, The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven (New York: Viking, 1971) 296.
2See, for example, Siegmund Levarie, Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro: A Critical Analysis (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1952) 233, in which the author claims that the "overall structure" of the opera is an enormous I- II-V-I progression!
3James Webster, "To Understand Verdi and Wagner we must Understand Mozart", 19th-Century Music 11 (1987-8): 180.
4John Platoff, "The Buffa Aria in Mozart's Vienna", Cambridge Opera Journal 2 (1990): 100.
5Platoff, "The Buffa Aria", and "Musical and Dramatic Structure in the Opera Buffa Finale". Journal of Musicology 7 (1989): 191-229.
6James Webster, "The Analysis of Mozart's Arias", Mozart Studies, ed. Cliff Eisen (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991) 102. See also Webster, "Verdi and Wagner".
7See, for example, Webster, "Analysis of Mozart's Arias", 106-7.
8James Webster, "Are Mozart's Concertos 'Dramatic'? Concerto Ritornellos versus Aria Introductions in the 1780s", Mozart's Piano Concertos: Text, Context, Interpretation, ed. Neal Zaslaw (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1996) 107.
9Michael F. Robinson, "The Origins of Mozart's Style: Opera", The Mozart Compendium, ed. H.C. Robbins Landon (London: Thames and Hudson, 1990) 76.
10See, for example the finales to all three acts of Mozart's first opera buffa, La Finta Semplice K. 51/46a (1768).
11Robinson, "Mozart's Style", 76.
12See, for example "Al destin che la minaccia" (No. 1) from Mozart's Mitridate K. 87/74a (1770).
13Hence Da Ponte's designation of Don Giovanni as a dramma giocoso; it includes a number of arias reminiscent of seria (Donna Elvira's Ah fuggi il traditor No. 8, Donna Anna's Or sai chi l'onore No. 10).
14"ridotta a vera opera dal Signore Mazzolà", Albi Rosenthal and Alan Tyson, eds., Mozart's Thematic Catalogue: A Facsimile (New York: Cornell University Press, 1990) f. 28v.
15Roger Scruton, "Absolute Music", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musician, ed. Stanley Sadie, vol. 1, (London: Macmillan, 1980) 26-7.
16Webster, "Analysis of Mozart's Arias", 102.
17Platoff, "The Buffa Aria", 99.
18Sieghart Döhring, "Die Arienformen in Mozarts Opern", Mozart-Jahrbuch. (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1950) 66-76; Rolf Damann, "Die 'Register-Arie' in Mozart's Don Giovanni", Archiv für Musikwissenschaft 33 (1976): 278-308; 34 (1977): 56-78; Wye Jamison Allanbrook, Rhythmic Gesture in Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983).
19Rosen, The Classical Style, 289.
20James Wester, "Mozart's Operas and the Myth of Musical Unity". Cambridge Opera Journal 2 (1990): 187.
21Tim Carter, W. A. Mozart: 'Le Nozze di Figaro' (Cambridge: CUP, 1987) 90.
22Platoff, "The Buffa Aria", 117.
23Platoff, "The Buffa Aria", 119-20.
24Webster, "Analysis of Mozart's Arias", 115-6.
25Webster, "Analysis of Mozart's Arias", 115, 119.
26"vollständing frei zweiteiling", Hermann Abert, W.A. Mozart, ed. Otto Jahn, vol. 2 (Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, 1921) 359.
27Hans Engel, "Die Finali der Mozartschen Opern", Mozart Jahrbuch (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1954) 126; Levarie, Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, 109.
28Webster, "Analysis of Mozart's Arias", 103.
29Platoff, "Musical and Dramatic Structure", 193.
30Webster, "Analysis of Mozart's Arias", 115-6.
31See Leonard G. Ratner, Classic Music: Expression, Form, and Style (New York: Schirmer, 1980) 209-47.
32For opposing views on this matter see Platoff, "The Buffa Aria", 117-20 and Webster, "Analysis of Mozart's Arias", 119. Even though Webster supports the retention of the term for operatic music, he acknowledges that it plays a "relatively minor role" (101).
33Webster, "Analysis of Mozart's Arias", 119-21.
34See Martha Feldman, "Staging the Virtuoso: Ritornello Procedure in Mozart, from Aria to Concerto" in Zaslaw, Mozart's Piano Concertos, 149-86.