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141-510: Richly decorated, the theatre consisted of five levels of thirty boxes and a large stalls area. However, as an opera house, its success was short-lived and from 1751 to 1800, opera was rarely performed there. Taken over by the municipality in 1797, it became the Teatro Civico until purchased by a partnership and restored in 1819. It re-opened again, this time in private hands, with Rossini 's La gazza ladra . But deterioration continued,

282-473: A palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers, with one performer to a part (in contrast to orchestral music, in which each string part is played by a number of performers). However, by convention, it usually does not include solo instrument performances. Because of its intimate nature, chamber music has been described as "the music of friends". For more than 100 years, chamber music

423-566: A Reims caused problems for his librettists, who had to adapt their original plot and write French words to fit existing Italian numbers, but the opera was a success, and was seen in London within six months of the Paris premiere, and in New York in 1831. The following year Rossini wrote his long-awaited French grand opera, Guillaume Tell , based on Friedrich Schiller 's 1804 play which drew on

564-705: A certain amount of self-borrowing. During this period he produced his most popular works, including the comic operas L'italiana in Algeri , Il barbiere di Siviglia (known in English as The Barber of Seville ) and La Cenerentola , which brought to a peak the opera buffa tradition he inherited from masters such as Domenico Cimarosa and Giovanni Paisiello . He also composed opera seria works such as Tancredi , Otello and Semiramide . All of these attracted admiration for their innovation in melody, harmonic and instrumental colour, and dramatic form. In 1824 he

705-401: A conversation, often truly beautiful, often oddly and turbidly woven, among four people." Their awareness is exemplified by composer and virtuoso violinist Louis Spohr . Spohr divided his 36 string quartets into two types: the quatuor brillant , essentially a violin concerto with string trio accompaniment; and quatuor dialogue , in the conversational tradition. During the 19th century, with

846-410: A full orchestral section. J. S. Bach: Trio sonata on YouTube from The Musical Offering , played by Ensemble Brillante Baroque chamber music was often contrapuntal ; that is, each instrument played the same melodic materials at different times, creating a complex, interwoven fabric of sound. Because each instrument was playing essentially the same melodies, all the instruments were equal. In

987-567: A giant of Western music. Beethoven transformed chamber music, raising it to a new plane, both in terms of content and in terms of the technical demands on performers and audiences. His works, in the words of Maynard Solomon , were "...the models against which nineteenth-century romanticism measured its achievements and failures." His late quartets , in particular, were considered so daunting an accomplishment that many composers after him were afraid to try composing quartets; Johannes Brahms composed and tore up 20 string quartets before he dared publish

1128-423: A hall and collecting the receipts from the performance. Increasingly, they wrote chamber music not only for rich patrons, but for professional musicians playing for a paying audience. At the beginning of the 19th century, luthiers developed new methods of constructing the violin , viola and cello that gave these instruments a richer tone, more volume, and more carrying power. Also at this time, bowmakers made

1269-450: A halt as the requisite repeats of the da capo aria were undertaken). For example, they could be punctuated by comments from other characters (a convention known as "pertichini" ), or the chorus could intervene between the cantabile and the cabaletta so as to fire up the soloist. If such developments were not necessarily Rossini's own invention, he nevertheless made them his own by his expert handling of them. A landmark in this context

1410-809: A hero's welcome; his biographers describe it as "unprecedentedly feverish enthusiasm", "Rossini fever", and "near hysteria". The authoritarian chancellor of the Austrian Empire , Metternich , liked Rossini's music, and thought it free of all potential revolutionary or republican associations. He was therefore happy to permit the San Carlo company to perform the composer's operas. In a three-month season they played six of them, to audiences so enthusiastic that Beethoven 's assistant, Anton Schindler , described it as "an idolatrous orgy". While in Vienna Rossini heard Beethoven's Eroica symphony, and

1551-454: A hundred string quartets, and more than one hundred quintets for two violins, viola and two cellos. In this innovative ensemble, later used by Schubert , Boccherini gives flashy, virtuosic solos to the principal cello, as a showcase for his own playing. Violinist Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf and cellist Johann Baptist Wanhal , who both played pickup quartets with Haydn on second violin and Mozart on viola, were popular chamber music composers of

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1692-609: A keyboard instrument (harpsichord or organ) or by a string quartet or a string orchestra . The instrumentation of trio sonatas was also often flexibly specified; some of Handel's sonatas are scored for " German flute , Hoboy [oboe] or Violin" Bass lines could be played by violone , cello , theorbo , or bassoon , and sometimes three or four instruments would join in the bass line in unison. Sometimes composers mixed movements for chamber ensembles with orchestral movements. Telemann's 'Tafelmusik' (1733), for example, has five sets of movements for various combinations of instruments, ending with

1833-576: A little over a decade was a considerable success in cities including Trieste and Bologna , before her untrained voice began to fail. In 1802 the family moved to Lugo , near Ravenna , where Rossini received a good basic education in Italian, Latin and arithmetic as well as music. He studied the horn with his father and other music with a priest, Giuseppe Malerbe, whose extensive library contained works by Haydn and Mozart , both little known in Italy at

1974-610: A long time ago." The period after 1835 saw Rossini's formal separation from his wife, who remained at Castenaso (1837), and the death of his father at the age of eighty (1839). In 1845 Colbran became seriously ill, and in September Rossini travelled to visit her; a month later she died. The following year Rossini and Pélissier were married in Bologna. The events of the Year of Revolution in 1848 led Rossini to move away from

2115-467: A movement that contended that "pure music" had run its course with Beethoven, and that new, programmatic forms of music –in which music created "images" with its melodies–were the future of the art. The composers of this school had no use for chamber music. Opposing this view was Johannes Brahms and his associates, especially the powerful music critic Eduard Hanslick . This War of the Romantics shook

2256-634: A music lover and amateur baryton player, for whom Haydn wrote many of his string trios. Mozart wrote three string quartets for the King of Prussia, Frederick William II , a cellist. Many of Beethoven's quartets were first performed with patron Count Andrey Razumovsky on second violin. Boccherini composed for the king of Spain. With the decline of the aristocracy and the rise of new social orders throughout Europe, composers increasingly had to make money by selling their compositions and performing concerts. They often gave subscription concerts, which involved renting

2397-459: A new Rossini opera. But although Othello could at least claim to be genuine, canonic Rossini, the historian Mark Everist notes that detractors argued that Robert was simply "fake goods, and from a bygone era at that"; he cites Théophile Gautier regretting that "the lack of unity could have been masked by a superior performance; unfortunately the tradition of Rossini's music was lost at the Opéra

2538-522: A rush to meet deadlines. Between 1815 and 1822 he composed eighteen more operas: nine for Naples and nine for opera houses in other cities. In 1816, for the Teatro Argentina in Rome, he composed the opera that was to become his best-known: Il barbiere di Siviglia ( The Barber of Seville ). There was already a popular opera of that title by Paisiello , and Rossini's version was originally given

2679-459: A singer and worked in theatres as a répétiteur and keyboard soloist. In 1810 at the request of the popular tenor Domenico Mombelli he wrote his first operatic score, a two-act operatic dramma serio , Demetrio e Polibio , to a libretto by Mombelli's wife. It was publicly staged in 1812, after the composer's first successes. Rossini and his parents concluded that his future lay in composing operas. The main operatic centre in northeastern Italy

2820-648: A singer), Rossini began to compose by the age of twelve and was educated at music school in Bologna . His first opera was performed in Venice in 1810 when he was 18 years old. In 1815 he was engaged to write operas and manage theatres in Naples. In the period 1810–1823, he wrote 34 operas for the Italian stage that were performed in Venice, Milan, Ferrara , Naples and elsewhere; this productivity necessitated an almost formulaic approach for some components (such as overtures) and

2961-479: A sizeable annuity from the French government, and having written thirty-nine operas, he simply planned to retire and kept to that plan. In a 1934 study of the composer, the critic Francis Toye coined the phrase "The Great Renunciation", and called Rossini's retirement a "phenomenon unique in the history of music and difficult to parallel in the whole history of art": Is there any other artist who thus deliberately, in

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3102-424: A strong connection with the community. Composers were in high favor with orchestral works and solo virtuosi works, which made up the largest part of the public concert repertoire. Early French composers including Camille Saint-Saëns and César Franck . Apart from the "central" Austro-Germanic countries, there was an occurrence of the subculture of chamber music in other regions such as Britain. There chamber music

3243-459: A student, including a mass and a cantata, and after two years he was invited to continue his studies. He declined the offer: the strict academic regime of the Liceo had given him a solid compositional technique, but as his biographer Richard Osborne puts it, "his instinct to continue his education in the real world finally asserted itself". While still at the Liceo, Rossini had performed in public as

3384-502: A success directing Haydn's The Seasons , and a failure with his first full-length opera, L'equivoco stravagante . He also worked for opera houses in Ferrara and Rome. In mid-1812 he received a commission from La Scala , Milan, where his two-act comedy La pietra del paragone ran for fifty-three performances, a considerable run for the time, which brought him not only financial benefits, but exemption from military service and

3525-464: A succession of important roles for her in opere serie . By the early 1820s, Rossini was beginning to tire of Naples. The failure of his operatic tragedy Ermione the previous year convinced him that he and the Neapolitan audiences had had enough of each other. An insurrection in Naples against the monarchy, though quickly crushed , unsettled Rossini; when Barbaia signed a contract to take

3666-411: A trumpeter and horn player, and his wife Anna, née Guidarini, a seamstress by trade, daughter of a baker. Giuseppe Rossini was charming but impetuous and feckless; the burden of supporting the family and raising the child fell mainly on Anna, with some help from her mother and mother-in-law. Stendhal , who published a colourful biography of Rossini in 1824, wrote: Rossini's portion from his father,

3807-480: A type of music to be played as much as performed. Amateur quartet societies sprang up throughout Europe, and no middling-sized city in Germany or France was without one. These societies sponsored house concerts , compiled music libraries, and encouraged the playing of quartets and other ensembles. In European countries, in particular Germany and France, like minded musicians were brought together and started to develop

3948-659: A wealthy Jewish family in Hamburg, Mendelssohn proved himself a child prodigy. By the age of 16, he had written his first major chamber work, the String Octet, Op. 20 . Already in this work, Mendelssohn showed some of the unique style that was to characterize his later works; notably, the gossamer light texture of his scherzo movements, exemplified also by the Canzonetta movement of the String Quartet, Op. 12 , and

4089-424: A woodwind solo, whose "catchiness" "etch[es] a distinct profile in the aural memory", and that the richness and inventiveness of his handling of the orchestra, even in these early works, marks the start of "[t]he great nineteenth-century flowering of orchestration ." Rossini's handling of arias (and duets) in cavatina style marked a development from the eighteenth-century commonplace of recitative and aria. In

4230-434: A work that he felt was worthy of the "giant marching behind". Beethoven made his formal debut as a composer with three Piano Trios, Op. 1 . Even these early works, written when Beethoven was only 22, while adhering to a strictly classical mold, showed signs of the new paths that Beethoven was to forge in the coming years. When he showed the manuscript of the trios to Haydn, his teacher, prior to publication, Haydn approved of

4371-519: Is "no exaggeration to say that, in Paris, Rossini returned to life". He recovered his health and joie de vivre . Once settled in Paris he maintained two homes: a flat in the rue de la Chaussée-d'Antin , a smart central area, and a neo-classical villa built for him in Passy , a commune now absorbed into the city, but then semi-rural. He and his wife established a salon that became internationally famous. The first of their Saturday evening gatherings –

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4512-432: Is a long, lyrical solo for cello in the second movement, giving the cello a new type of voice in the quartet conversation. And the last movement of Op. 18, No. 6, "La Malincolia", creates a new type of formal structure, interleaving a slow, melancholic section with a manic dance. Beethoven was to use this form in later quartets, and Brahms and others adopted it as well. Beethoven: Quartet, Op. 59, No. 3 , played by

4653-404: Is the cavatina "Di tanti palpiti" from Tancredi , which both Taruskin and Gossett (amongst others) single out as transformative, "the most famous aria Rossini ever wrote", with a "melody that seems to capture the melodic beauty and innocence characteristic of Italian opera." Both writers point out the typical Rossinian touch of avoiding an "expected" cadence in the aria by a sudden shift from

4794-404: Is today known as) the overture to the comedy Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) . He also liberally re-employed arias and other sequences in later works. Spike Hughes notes that of the twenty-six numbers of Eduardo e Cristina , produced in Venice in 1817, nineteen were lifted from previous works. "The audience ... were remarkably good-humoured  ... and asked slyly why

4935-646: The Baroque – two treble instruments and a bass instrument , often with a keyboard or other chording instrument ( harpsichord , organ , harp or lute , for example) filling in the harmony. Both the bass instrument and the chordal instrument would play the basso continuo part. During the Baroque period, chamber music as a genre was not clearly defined. Often, works could be played on any variety of instruments, in orchestral or chamber ensembles. The Art of Fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach , for example, can be played on

5076-406: The Baroque era , the harpsichord was one of the main instruments used in chamber music. The harpsichord used quills to pluck strings, and it had a delicate sound. Due to the design of the harpsichord, the attack or weight with which the performer played the keyboard did not change the volume or tone. Between about 1750 and the late 1700s, the harpsichord gradually fell out of use. By the late 1700s,

5217-831: The Code Napoléon , the legal system established by the French Emperor. Rossini's overall style may indeed have been influenced more directly by the French: the historian John Rosselli suggests that French rule in Italy at the start of the 19th century meant that "music had taken on new military qualities of attack, noise and speed – to be heard in Rossini." Rossini's approach to opera was inevitably tempered by changing tastes and audience demands. The formal "classicist" libretti of Metastasio which had underpinned late 18th century opera seria were replaced by subjects more to

5358-535: The Grimani family. It became the biggest, most luxurious and extravagant stage in Venice, known for its sumptuous productions and high quality singers such as Margherita Durastanti , prima donna between 1709 and 1712. During its golden age, composers such as Alessandro Scarlatti whose opera seria , Mitridate Eupatore , was given its premiere performance on 5 January 1707 and Georg Friedrich Händel whose Agrippina premiered on 26 December 1709 were active at

5499-469: The Große Fuge , of the late quartets, as, "...this absolutely contemporary piece of music that will be contemporary forever." The string quartets 1–6, Op. 18 , were written in the classical style, in the same year that Haydn wrote his Op. 76 string quartets . Even here, Beethoven stretched the formal structures pioneered by Haydn and Mozart. In the quartet Op. 18, No. 1, in F major, for example, there

5640-672: The Modigliani Quartet Piano Trio, Op. 70, No. 1, "Ghost" , played by the Claremont Trio In the years 1805 to 1806, Beethoven composed the three Op. 59 quartets on a commission from Count Razumovsky, who played second violin in their first performance. These quartets, from Beethoven's middle period, were pioneers in the romantic style. Besides introducing many structural and stylistic innovations, these quartets were much more difficult technically to perform – so much so that they were, and remain, beyond

5781-487: The William Tell legend. Guillaume Tell was well received. The orchestra and singers gathered outside Rossini's house after the premiere and performed the rousing finale to the second act in his honour. The newspaper Le Globe commented that a new era of music had begun. Gaetano Donizetti remarked that the first and last acts of the opera were written by Rossini, but the middle act was written by God. The work

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5922-495: The contrabass . Beethoven: Septet, Op. 20 , first movement, played by the Ensemble Mediterrain In his 17 string quartets, composed over the course of 37 of his 56 years, Beethoven goes from classical composer par excellence to creator of musical Romanticism, and finally, with his late string quartets, he transcends classicism and romanticism to create a genre that defies categorization. Stravinsky referred to

6063-541: The opera semiseria La gazza ladra (1817), and for Rome his version of the Cinderella story, La Cenerentola (1817). In 1817 came the first performance of one of his operas ( L'Italiana ) at the Theâtre-Italien in Paris; its success led to others of his operas being staged there, and eventually to his contract in Paris from 1824 to 1830. Rossini kept his personal life as private as possible, but he

6204-446: The pianoforte became more popular as an instrument for performance. Even though the pianoforte was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori at the beginning of the 1700s, it did not become widely used until the end of that century, when technical improvements in its construction made it a more effective instrument. Unlike the harpsichord, the pianoforte could play soft or loud dynamics and sharp sforzando attacks depending on how hard or soft

6345-456: The samedi soirs – was held in December 1858, and the last, two months before he died in 1868. Rossini began composing again. His music from his final decade was not generally intended for public performance, and he did not usually put dates of composition on the manuscripts. Consequently, musicologists have found it difficult to give definite dates for his late works, but the first, or among

6486-669: The 18th century, tastes began to change: many composers preferred a new, lighter Galant style, with "thinner texture, ... and clearly defined melody and bass" to the complexities of counterpoint. Now a new custom arose that gave birth to a new form of chamber music: the serenade . Patrons invited street musicians to play evening concerts below the balconies of their homes, their friends and their lovers. Patrons and musicians commissioned composers to write suitable suites of dances and tunes, for groups of two to five or six players. These works were called serenades, nocturnes, divertimenti, or cassations (from gasse=street). The young Joseph Haydn

6627-414: The Bologna area, where he felt threatened by insurrection, and to make Florence his base, which it remained until 1855. By the early 1850s Rossini's mental and physical health had deteriorated to the point where his wife and friends feared for his sanity or his life. By the middle of the decade, it was clear that he needed to return to Paris for the most advanced medical care then available. In April 1855

6768-544: The Fredonia Quartet Program, July 2008 Schubert's music, as his life, exemplified the contrasts and contradictions of his time. On the one hand, he was the darling of Viennese society: he starred in soirées that became known as Schubertiaden , where he played his light, mannered compositions that expressed the gemütlichkeit of Vienna of the 1820s. On the other hand, his own short life was shrouded in tragedy, wracked by poverty and ill health. Chamber music

6909-640: The Grimani family decided to open a smaller theater in 1755, the San Benedetto . The opening of this new stage led to the end of the dominance of the San Giovanni, which saw a slow decrease in performance. Following the fall of the Republic of Venice and the French occupation, the theatre was among the few not to be closed. In 1819 it was sold to Gallo, who restored it in 1834; in 1837 he changed

7050-578: The Op. 59 quartets, Beethoven wrote two more quartets during his middle period – Op. 74 , the "Harp" quartet, named for the unusual harp-like effect Beethoven creates with pizzicato passages in the first movement, and Op. 95 , the "Serioso". The Serioso is a transitional work that ushers in Beethoven's late period – a period of compositions of great introspection. "The particular kind of inwardness of Beethoven's last style period", writes Joseph Kerman, gives one

7191-506: The Papal village. Giuseppe was imprisoned at least twice: first in 1790 for insubordination to local authorities in a dispute about his employment as town trumpeter; and in 1799 and 1800 for republican activism and support of the troops of Napoleon against the Pope's Austrian backers. In 1798, when Rossini was aged six, his mother began a career as a professional singer in comic opera, and for

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7332-564: The Rossinis set off for their final journey from Italy to France. Rossini returned to Paris aged sixty-three and made it his home for the rest of his life. I offer these modest songs to my dear wife Olympe as a simple testimony of gratitude for the affectionate, intelligent care which she lavished on me during my overlong and terrible illness. Dedication of Musique anodine , 1857 Gossett observes that although an account of Rossini's life between 1830 and 1855 makes depressing reading, it

7473-619: The San Moisè as an ideal theatre for a young composer learning his craft – "everything tended to facilitate the début of a novice composer": it had no chorus, and a small company of principals; its main repertoire consisted of one-act comic operas ( farse ), staged with modest scenery and minimal rehearsal. Rossini followed the success of his first piece with three more farse for the house: L'inganno felice (1812), La scala di seta (1812), and Il signor Bruschino (1813). Rossini maintained his links with Bologna, where in 1811 he had

7614-552: The Théâtre-Italien. He was also to help run the latter theatre and revise one of his earlier works for revival there. The death of the king and the accession of Charles X changed Rossini's plans, and his first new work for Paris was Il viaggio a Reims , an operatic entertainment given in June 1825 to celebrate Charles's coronation. It was Rossini's last opera with an Italian libretto. He permitted only four performances of

7755-511: The Vienna season Rossini returned to Castenaso to work with his librettist, Gaetano Rossi , on Semiramide , commissioned by La Fenice. It was premiered in February 1823, his last work for the Italian theatre. Colbran starred, but it was clear to everyone that her voice was in serious decline, and Semiramide ended her career in Italy. The work survived that one major disadvantage, and entered

7896-574: The age of seventy-six. He left Olympe a life interest in his estate, which after her death, ten years later, passed to the Commune of Pesaro for the establishment of a Liceo Musicale, and funded a home for retired opera singers in Paris. After a funeral service attended by more than four thousand people at the church of Sainte-Trinité , Paris, Rossini's body was interred at the Père Lachaise Cemetery . In 1887 his remains were moved to

8037-405: The artistic world of the period, with vituperative exchanges between the two camps, concert boycotts, and petitions. Although amateur playing thrived throughout the 19th century, this was also a period of increasing professionalization of chamber music performance. Professional quartets began to dominate the chamber music concert stage. The Hellmesberger Quartet , led by Joseph Hellmesberger , and

8178-460: The basilica of Santa Croce , Florence. "Tous les genres sont bons, hors le genre ennuyeux". Rossini, in a letter of 1868 (citing Voltaire ) The writer Julian Budden , noting the formulas adopted early on by Rossini in his career and consistently followed by him thereafter as regards overtures, arias , structures and ensembles, has called them "the Code Rossini" in a reference to

8319-426: The best music from operas unlikely to be revived in Naples." The new opera was received with tremendous enthusiasm, as was the Neapolitan premiere of L'italiana in Algeri , and Rossini's position in Naples was assured. For the first time, Rossini was able to write regularly for a resident company of first-rate singers and a fine orchestra, with adequate rehearsals, and schedules that made it unnecessary to compose in

8460-438: The chamber music instruments. Many of Schumann's chamber works, including all three of his string quartets and his piano quartet have contrapuntal sections interwoven seamlessly into the overall compositional texture. The composers of the first half of the 19th century were acutely aware of the conversational paradigm established by Haydn and Mozart. Schumann wrote that in a true quartet "everyone has something to say ...

8601-522: The company to Vienna, Rossini was glad to join them, but did not reveal to Barbaia that he had no intention of returning to Naples afterwards. He travelled with Colbran, in March 1822, breaking their journey at Bologna, where they were married in the presence of his parents in a small church in Castenaso a few miles from the city. The bride was thirty-seven, the groom thirty. In Vienna, Rossini received

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8742-450: The composer's earlier operas. It is unclear to what extent – if at all – Rossini was involved with this production, which was in the event poorly received. More controversial was the pasticcio opera of Robert Bruce (1846), in which Rossini, by then returned to Bologna, closely cooperated by selecting music from his past operas which had not yet been performed in Paris, notably La donna del lago . The Opéra sought to present Robert as

8883-574: The composer, but this was not known to the London press and public, who blamed Rossini. In a 2003 biography of the composer, Gaia Servadio comments that Rossini and England were not made for each other. He was prostrated by the Channel crossing and was unlikely to be enthused by the English weather or English cooking. Although his stay in London was financially rewarding – the British press reported disapprovingly that he had earned over £30,000 – he

9024-538: The composers who attended the salons, and sometimes performed, were Auber , Gounod , Liszt , Rubinstein , Meyerbeer, and Verdi . Rossini liked to call himself a fourth-class pianist, but the many famous pianists who attended the samedi soirs were dazzled by his playing. Violinists such as Pablo Sarasate and Joseph Joachim and the leading singers of the day were regular guests. In 1860, Wagner visited Rossini via an introduction from Rossini's friend Edmond Michotte who some forty-five years later wrote his account of

9165-470: The condition of the theatre since Lynn reports that "she refused her fee, telling the impresario to 'use it for the theatre' " At that point the opera house became the Teatro Malibran in the singer's honour and it is the name by which the theatre has been known ever since. Built upon the place where the well-known traveller Marco Polo 's residence once stood, it was designed by Thomas Bezzi for

9306-587: The cuts was Rossini's lifetime annuity, won after hard negotiation with the previous regime. Attempting to restore the annuity was one of Rossini's reasons for returning. The other was to be with his new mistress, Olympe Pélissier . He left Colbran in Castenaso; she never returned to Paris and they never lived together again. The reasons for Rossini's withdrawal from opera have been continually discussed during and since his lifetime. Some have supposed that aged thirty-seven and in variable health, having negotiated

9447-524: The development of cyclic structure. In his Piano Quintet in E ;flat, Op. 44 , Schumann wrote a double fugue in the finale, using the theme of the first movement and the theme of the last movement. Both Schumann and Mendelssohn, following the example set by Beethoven, revived the fugue, which had fallen out of favor since the Baroque period. However, rather than writing strict, full-length fugues , they used counterpoint as another mode of conversation between

9588-594: The effort of composing it left him exhausted. Although within a year he was planning an operatic treatment of the Faust story, events and ill health overtook him. After the opening of Guillaume Tell the Rossinis had left Paris and were staying in Castenaso. Within a year events in Paris had Rossini hurrying back. Charles X was overthrown in a revolution in July 1830, and the new administration, headed by Louis Philippe I , announced radical cutbacks in government spending. Among

9729-440: The elder composer to say to Mozart's father, "I tell you before God as an honest man that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by reputation. He has taste, and, what is more, the most profound knowledge of composition." Many other composers wrote chamber compositions during this period that were popular at the time and are still played today. Luigi Boccherini , Italian composer and cellist, wrote nearly

9870-649: The emerging romantic style. In his 31 years, Schubert devoted much of his life to chamber music , composing 15 string quartets, two piano trios, string trios, a piano quintet commonly known as the Trout Quintet , an octet for strings and winds , and his famous quintet for two violins, viola, and two cellos. Franz Schubert , Trout Quintet , D. 667, performed by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Schubert on YouTube : String Quintet in C, D. 956, first movement, recorded at

10011-577: The entertaining pieces Péchés de vieillesse . Guests included Franz Liszt , Anton Rubinstein , Giuseppe Verdi , Meyerbeer, and Joseph Joachim . Rossini's last major composition was his Petite messe solennelle (1863). Rossini was born on 29 February in 1792 in Pesaro , a town on the Adriatic coast of Italy that was then part of the Papal States . He was the only child of Giuseppe Rossini,

10152-575: The ethereal, dreamlike effect of open intervals between the high E string and the open A string in the second movement of quartet Op. 132; the use of sul ponticello (playing on the bridge of the violin) for a brittle, scratchy sound in the Presto movement of Op. 131; the use of the Lydian mode , rarely heard in Western music for 200 years, in Op. 132; a cello melody played high above all the other strings in

10293-416: The feeling that "the music is sounding only for the composer and for one other auditor, an awestruck eavesdropper: you." In the late quartets, the quartet conversation is often disjointed, proceeding like a stream of consciousness. Melodies are broken off, or passed in the middle of the melodic line from instrument to instrument. Beethoven uses new effects, never before essayed in the string quartet literature:

10434-481: The final, vigorous Presto movement, he returns to the opening adagio to conclude the piece. This string quartet is also Mendelssohn's homage to Beethoven; the work is studded with quotes from Beethoven's middle and late quartets. During his adult life, Mendelssohn wrote two piano trios, seven works for string quartet, two string quintets, the octet, a sextet for piano and strings, and numerous sonatas for piano with violin, cello, and clarinet. Robert Schumann continued

10575-463: The finale of Op. 132. Yet for all this disjointedness, each quartet is tightly designed, with an overarching structure that ties the work together. Beethoven wrote eight piano trios, five string trios, two string quintets, and numerous pieces for wind ensemble. He also wrote ten sonatas for violin and piano and five sonatas for cello and piano. As Beethoven, in his last quartets, went off in his own direction, Franz Schubert carried on and established

10716-502: The first two, but warned against publishing the third trio, in C minor, as too radical, warning it would not "...be understood and favorably received by the public." Haydn was wrong—the third trio was the most popular of the set, and Haydn's criticisms caused a falling-out between him and the sensitive Beethoven. The trio is, indeed, a departure from the mold that Haydn and Mozart had formed. Beethoven makes dramatic deviations of tempo within phrases and within movements. He greatly increases

10857-514: The first, was the song cycle Musique anodine , dedicated to his wife and presented to her in April 1857. For their weekly salons he produced more than 150 pieces, including songs, solo piano pieces, and chamber works for many different combinations of instruments. He referred to them as his Péchés de vieillesse – "sins of old age". The salons were held both at Beau Séjour – the Passy villa – and, in

10998-480: The four operas Rossini wrote to French librettos were Le siège de Corinthe (1826) and Moïse et Pharaon (1827). Both were substantial reworkings of pieces written for Naples: Maometto II and Mosè in Egitto . Rossini took great care before beginning work on the first, learning to speak French and familiarising himself with traditional French operatic ways of declaiming the language. As well as dropping some of

11139-456: The genial conversation between the two composers. One of Rossini's few late works intended to be given in public was his Petite messe solennelle , first performed in 1864. In the same year Rossini was made a grand officer of the Legion of Honour by Napoleon III. After a short illness, and an unsuccessful operation to treat colorectal cancer , Rossini died at Passy on 13 November 1868 at

11280-407: The government over his annuity in 1835 Rossini left Paris and settled in Bologna. His return to Paris in 1843 for medical treatment by Jean Civiale sparked hopes that he might produce a new grand opera – it was rumoured that Eugène Scribe was preparing a libretto for him about Joan of Arc . The Opéra was moved to present a French version of Otello in 1844 which also included material from some of

11421-463: The home key of F to that of A flat (see example); Taruskin notes the implicit pun, as the words talk of returning, but the music moves in a new direction. The influence was lasting; Gossett notes how the Rossinian cabaletta style continued to inform Italian opera as late as Giuseppe Verdi 's Aida (1871). Such structural integration of the forms of vocal music with the dramatic development of

11562-515: The independence of the strings, especially the cello, allowing it to range above the piano and occasionally even the violin. If his Op. 1 trios introduced Beethoven's works to the public, his Septet, Op. 20 , established him as one of Europe's most popular composers. The septet, scored for violin, viola, cello, contrabass, clarinet, horn, and bassoon, was a huge hit. It was played in concerts again and again. It appeared in transcriptions for many combinations – one of which, for clarinet, cello and piano,

11703-602: The international operatic repertory, remaining popular throughout the 19th century; in Richard Osborne's words, it brought "[Rossini's] Italian career to a spectacular close." In November 1823 Rossini and Colbran set off for London, where a lucrative contract had been offered. They stopped for four weeks en route in Paris. Although he was not as feverishly acclaimed by the Parisians as he had been in Vienna, he nevertheless had an exceptionally welcoming reception from

11844-555: The king, George IV , although the composer was by now unimpressed by royalty and aristocracy. Rossini and Colbran had signed contracts for an opera season at the King's Theatre in the Haymarket . Her vocal shortcomings were a serious liability, and she reluctantly retired from performing. Public opinion was not improved by Rossini's failure to provide a new opera, as promised. The impresario Vincenzo Benelli defaulted on his contract with

11985-484: The libretto had been changed since the last performance". Rossini expressed his disgust when the publisher Giovanni Ricordi issued a complete edition of his works in the 1850s: "The same pieces will be found several times, for I thought I had the right to remove from my fiascos those pieces which seemed best, to rescue them from shipwreck ... A fiasco seemed to be good and dead, and now look they've resuscitated them all!" Philip Gossett notes that Rossini "was from

12126-658: The middle of the 19th century, with the rise of the feminist movement, women also started to receive acceptability to be participated in chamber music. Thousands of quartets were published by hundreds of composers; between 1770 and 1800, more than 2000 quartets were published, and the pace did not decline in the next century. Throughout the 19th century, composers published string quartets now long neglected: George Onslow wrote 36 quartets and 35 quintets; Gaetano Donizetti wrote dozens of quartets, Antonio Bazzini , Anton Reicha , Carl Reissiger , Joseph Suk and others wrote to fill an insatiable demand for quartets. In addition, there

12267-556: The music before the première. Such pressures led to a further significant element of Rossini's compositional procedures, not included in Budden's "Code", namely, recycling. The composer often transferred a successful overture to subsequent operas: thus the overture to La pietra del paragone was later used for the opera seria Tancredi (1813), and (in the other direction) the overture to Aureliano in Palmira (1813) ended as (and

12408-427: The musical establishment and the public. When he attended a performance of Il barbiere at the Théâtre-Italien he was applauded, dragged onto the stage, and serenaded by the musicians. A banquet was given for him and his wife, attended by leading French composers and artists, and he found the cultural climate of Paris congenial. At the end of the year Rossini arrived in London, where he was received and made much of by

12549-698: The name to Teatro Malibran , in honor of the famous singer Spanish mezzo-soprano Maria Malibran. In 1849 the return of the Austrians to Venice provoked the closure of all the major theatres of Venice as protest, but the Malibran was the exception. Gallo's son took over in 1852; it was auctioned in 1886 then radically redecorated in the Egyptian style; it was closed for six years after a single operatic season in 1913 due to security problems, but it re-opened to present Verdi 's Otello in December 1919 plus much of

12690-466: The next twenty-five years following Guillaume Tell Rossini composed little, although Gossett comments that his comparatively few compositions from the 1830s and 1840s show no falling off in musical inspiration. They include the Soirées musicales (1830–1835: a set of twelve songs for solo or duet voices and piano) and his Stabat Mater (begun in 1831 and completed in 1841). After winning his fight with

12831-468: The opera meant a sea-change from the Metastasian primacy of the aria; in Rossini's works, solo arias progressively take up a smaller proportion of the operas, in favour of duets (also typically in cantabile-caballetta format) and ensembles. Chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments —traditionally a group that could fit in

12972-412: The origin of classical instrumental ensembles to be the sonata da camera (chamber sonata) and the sonata da chiesa (church sonata). These were compositions for one to five or more instruments. The sonata da camera was a suite of slow and fast movements, interspersed with dance tunes; the sonata da chiesa was the same, but the dances were omitted. These forms gradually developed into the trio sonata of

13113-545: The original music that was in an ornate style unfashionable in Paris, Rossini accommodated local preferences by adding dances, hymn-like numbers and a greater role for the chorus. Rossini's mother, Anna, died in 1827; he had been devoted to her, and he felt her loss deeply. She and Colbran had never got on well, and Servadio suggests that after Anna died Rossini came to resent the surviving woman in his life. In 1828 Rossini wrote Le comte Ory , his only French-language comic opera. His determination to reuse music from Il viaggio

13254-418: The outset a consummate composer of overtures ". His basic formula for these remained constant throughout his career: Gossett characterises them as " sonata movements without development sections, usually preceded by a slow introduction" with "clear melodies, exuberant rhythms [and] simple harmonic structure" and a crescendo climax. Richard Taruskin also notes that the second theme is always announced in

13395-474: The partnership broke up, and the remaining partner, Giovanni Gallo, continued with additional refurbishment, giving it the new name of the Teatro Emeronitto ( Theatre of Day and Night ) and inaugurating it in December 1834 with Donizetti 's L'elisir d'amore . When the famous soprano Maria Malibran came to sing Vincenzo Bellini 's La sonnambula on 8 April 1835, she was clearly appalled at

13536-459: The performer played the keys. The improved pianoforte was adopted by Mozart and other composers, who began composing chamber ensembles with the piano playing a leading role. The piano was to become more and more dominant through the 19th century, so much so that many composers, such as Franz Liszt and Frédéric Chopin , wrote almost exclusively for solo piano (or solo piano with orchestra ). Ludwig van Beethoven straddled this period of change as

13677-404: The period would consist of Haydn was by no means the only composer developing new modes of chamber music. Even before Haydn, many composers were already experimenting with new forms. Giovanni Battista Sammartini , Ignaz Holzbauer , and Franz Xaver Richter wrote precursors of the string quartet. Franz Ignaz von Beecke (1733-1803), with his Piano Quintet in A minor (1770) and 17 string quartets

13818-439: The period. The turn of the 19th century saw dramatic changes in society and in music technology which had far-reaching effects on the way chamber music was composed and played. Throughout the 18th century, the composer was normally an employee of an aristocrat, and the chamber music he or she composed was for the pleasure of aristocratic players and listeners. Haydn, for example, was an employee of Nikolaus I, Prince Esterházy ,

13959-637: The piano, and of symphonic composition, was not merely a matter of preference; it was also a matter of ideology . In the 1860s, a schism grew among romantic musicians over the direction of music. Many composers tend to express their romantic persona through their works. By the time, these chamber works are not necessarily dedicated for any specific dedicatee. Famous chamber works such as Fanny Mendelssohn D minor Piano Trio, Ludwig van Beethoven's Trio in E-flat major, and Franz Schubert's Piano Quintet in A major are all highly personal. Liszt and Richard Wagner led

14100-542: The piece, intending to reuse the best of the music in a less ephemeral opera. About half the score of Le comte Ory (1828) is from the earlier work. Colbran's enforced retirement put a strain on the Rossinis' marriage, leaving her unoccupied while he continued to be the centre of musical attention and constantly in demand. She consoled herself with what Servadio describes as "a new pleasure in shopping"; for Rossini, Paris offered continual gourmet delights, as his increasingly rotund shape began to reflect. The first of

14241-539: The popular Italian repertory after that. The Malibran was active in the presentation of operas, operettas, and even showed films for the first half of the 20th century. In 1992 the municipality of Venice purchased the theatre, and the action which they took—especially that following the destruction of the Teatro La Fenice in January 1996—is recounted on the Commune de Venezia's website: The Malibran became

14382-510: The present, chamber music has been a reflection of the changes in the technology and the society that produced it. During the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance , instruments were used primarily as accompaniment for singers. String players would play along with the melody line sung by the singer. There were also purely instrumental ensembles, often of stringed precursors of the violin family , called consorts . Some analysts consider

14523-406: The public and critics round. Rossini's first work for the San Carlo, Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra was a dramma per musica in two acts, in which he reused substantial sections of his earlier works, unfamiliar to the local public. The Rossini scholars Philip Gossett and Patricia Brauner write, "It is as if Rossini wished to present himself to the Neapolitan public by offering a selection of

14664-474: The quintet for violin, two violas, cello, and horn, K. 407, quartets for flute and strings, and various wind instrument combinations. He wrote six string quintets for two violins, two violas and cello, which explore the rich tenor tones of the violas, adding a new dimension to the string quartet conversation. Mozart's string quartets are considered the pinnacle of the classical art. The six string quartets that he dedicated to Haydn , his friend and mentor, inspired

14805-436: The reach of many amateur string players. When first violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh complained of their difficulty, Beethoven retorted, "Do you think I care about your wretched violin when the spirit moves me?" Among the difficulties are complex syncopations and cross-rhythms; synchronized runs of sixteenth, thirty-second, and sixty-fourth notes; and sudden modulations requiring special attention to intonation . In addition to

14946-527: The rise of new technology driven by the Industrial Revolution , printed music became cheaper and thus more accessible while domestic music making gained widespread popularity. Composers began to incorporate new elements and techniques into their works to appeal to this open market, since there was an increased consumer desire for chamber music. While improvements in instruments led to more public performances of chamber music, it remained very much

15087-654: The same title as its hero, Almaviva . Despite an unsuccessful opening night, with mishaps on stage and many pro-Paisiello and anti-Rossini audience members, the opera quickly became a success, and by the time of its first revival, in Bologna a few months later, it was billed by its present Italian title and it rapidly eclipsed Paisiello's setting. Rossini's operas for the Teatro San Carlo were substantial, mainly serious pieces. His Otello (1816) provoked Lord Byron to write, "They have been crucifying Othello into an opera: music good, but lugubrious – but as for

15228-480: The scherzo of the Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49 . Another characteristic that Mendelssohn pioneered is the cyclic form in overall structure. This means the reuse of thematic material from one movement to the next, to give the total piece coherence. In his second string quartet , he opens the piece with a peaceful adagio section in A major, that contrasts with the stormy first movement in A minor. After

15369-526: The second theme, a lilting duet in the lower voices. The alternating Sturm und Drang and relaxation continue throughout the movement. These contending forces are expressed in some of Schubert's other works: in the quartet Death and the Maiden , the Rosamunde quartet and in the stormy, one-movement Quartettsatz, D. 703 . Unlike Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn had a life of peace and prosperity. Born into

15510-830: The successes of Giacomo Meyerbeer and Fromental Halévy in the genre of grand opéra. Modern Rossini scholarship has generally discounted such theories, maintaining that Rossini had no intention of renouncing operatic composition, and that circumstances rather than personal choice made Guillaume Tell his last opera. Gossett and Richard Osborne suggest that illness may have been a major factor in Rossini's retirement. From about this time, Rossini had intermittent bad health, both physical and mental. He had contracted gonorrhoea in earlier years, which later led to painful side-effects, from urethritis to arthritis ; he suffered from bouts of debilitating depression, which commentators have linked to several possible causes: cyclothymia , or bipolar disorder , or reaction to his mother's death. For

15651-467: The taste of the age of Romanticism , with stories demanding stronger characterisation and quicker action; a jobbing composer needed to meet these demands or fail. Rossini's strategies met this reality. A formulaic approach was logistically indispensable for Rossini's career, at least at the start: in the seven years 1812–1819, he wrote 27 operas, often at extremely short notice. For La Cenerentola (1817), for example, he had just over three weeks to write

15792-723: The temporary home to the Fenice orchestra and, after a decade of work, the 900-seat Malibran was re-opened on 23 May 2001 by President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, with a gala concert which included excerpts of operas by Verdi (the centennial of his death), by Bellini (the centennial of his birth) and also work by Wagner . It continues to function as an alternative venue for productions from La Fenice as well as staging many of its own: Notes Sources 45°26′20″N 12°20′16″E  /  45.439007°N 12.337824°E  / 45.439007; 12.337824 Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868)

15933-632: The theatre. Another composer's work which was presented was Carlo Francesco Pollarolo , as has been noted. During the 1730s, the San Giovanni Grisostomo began a slow and inexorable decline, although managing to keep its position at the head of Venetian theatres until the middle of the eighteenth century. In 1737, when Carlo Goldoni was placed in charge of the Venetian stage, prose works began to be performed (many of these his own comedies). Subsequently, because of its considerable size,

16074-450: The time, but inspirational to the young Rossini. He was a quick learner, and by the age of twelve, he had composed a set of six sonatas for four stringed instruments, which were performed under the aegis of a rich patron in 1804. Two years later he was admitted to the recently opened Liceo Musicale, Bologna , initially studying singing, cello and piano, and joining the composition class soon afterwards. He wrote some substantial works while

16215-624: The title of maestro di cartello – a composer whose name on advertising posters guaranteed a full house. The following year his first opera seria , Tancredi , did well at La Fenice in Venice, and even better at Ferrara, with a rewritten, tragic ending. The success of Tancredi made Rossini's name known internationally; productions of the opera followed in London (1820) and New York (1825). Within weeks of Tancredi , Rossini had another box-office success with his comedy L'italiana in Algeri , composed in great haste and premiered in May 1813. 1814

16356-579: The treble and bass lines of the piano score. But Mozart gives the strings an independent role, using them as a counter to the piano, and adding their individual voices to the chamber music conversation. Mozart introduced the newly invented clarinet into the chamber music arsenal, with the Kegelstatt Trio for viola, clarinet and piano, K. 498, and the Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet , K. 581. He also tried other innovative ensembles, including

16497-399: The trio sonata, there is often no ascendent or solo instrument, but all three instruments share equal importance. The harmonic role played by the keyboard or other chording instrument was subsidiary, and usually the keyboard part was not even written out; rather, the chordal structure of the piece was specified by numeric codes over the bass line, called figured bass . In the second half of

16638-399: The very prime of life, renounced that form of artistic production which had made him famous throughout the civilized world? The poet Heine compared Rossini's retirement with Shakespeare 's withdrawal from writing: two geniuses recognising when they had accomplished the unsurpassable and not seeking to follow it. Others, then and later, suggested that Rossini had retired because of pique at

16779-468: The violin bow longer, with a thicker ribbon of hair under higher tension. This improved projection, and also made possible new bowing techniques. In 1820, Louis Spohr invented the chinrest, which gave violinists more freedom of movement in their left hands, for a more nimble technique. These changes contributed to the effectiveness of public performances in large halls, and expanded the repertoire of techniques available to chamber music composers. Throughout

16920-455: The way one instrument introduces a melody or motif and then other instruments subsequently "respond" with a similar motif – has been a thread woven through the history of chamber music composition from the end of the 18th century to the present. The analogy to conversation recurs in descriptions and analyses of chamber music compositions. From its earliest beginnings in the Medieval period to

17061-423: The wealth his success had brought him, and the rise of spectacular grand opera under composers such as Giacomo Meyerbeer . From the early 1830s to 1855, when he left Paris and was based in Bologna, Rossini wrote relatively little. On his return to Paris in 1855 he became renowned for his musical salons on Saturdays, regularly attended by musicians and the artistic and fashionable circles of Paris, for which he wrote

17202-505: The winter, at the Paris flat. Such gatherings were a regular feature of Parisian life – the writer James Penrose has observed that the well-connected could easily attend different salons almost every night of the week – but the Rossinis' samedi soirs quickly became the most sought after: "an invitation was the city's highest social prize." The music, carefully chosen by Rossini, was not only his own but included works by Pergolesi , Haydn and Mozart and modern pieces by some of his guests. Among

17343-400: The words of Rosselli, in Rossini's hands, "the aria became an engine for releasing emotion". Rossini's typical aria structure involved a lyrical introduction ( "cantabile" ) and a more intensive, brilliant, conclusion ( "cabaletta" ). This model could be adapted in various ways so as to forward the plot (as opposed to the typical eighteenth-century handling which resulted in the action coming to

17484-522: The words!" Nonetheless, the piece proved generally popular and held the stage in frequent revivals until it was overshadowed by Verdi's version , seven decades later. Among his other works for the house were Mosè in Egitto , based on the biblical story of Moses and the Exodus from Egypt (1818), and La donna del lago , from Sir Walter Scott 's poem The Lady of the Lake (1819). For La Scala he wrote

17625-526: Was Venice ; under the tutelage of the composer Giovanni Morandi , a family friend, Rossini moved there in late 1810, when he was eighteen. Rossini's first opera to be staged was La cambiale di matrimonio , a one-act comedy, given at the small Teatro San Moisè in November 1810. The piece was a great success, and Rossini received what then seemed to him a considerable sum: "forty scudi – an amount I had never seen brought together". He later described

17766-571: Was a less remarkable year for the rising composer, neither Il turco in Italia or Sigismondo pleasing the Milanese or Venetian public, respectively. 1815 marked an important stage in Rossini's career. In May he moved to Naples , to take up the post of director of music for the royal theatres. These included the Teatro di San Carlo , the city's leading opera house; its manager Domenico Barbaia

17907-486: Was a lively market for string quartet arrangements of popular and folk tunes , piano works, symphonies, and opera arias . But opposing forces were at work. The middle of the 19th century saw the rise of superstar virtuosi, who drew attention away from chamber music toward solo performance. The piano, which could be mass-produced, became an instrument of preference, and many composers, like Chopin and Liszt, composed primarily if not exclusively for piano. The ascendance of

18048-467: Was also one of the pioneers of chamber music of the Classical period. Another renowned composer of chamber music of the period was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart . Mozart's seven piano trios and two piano quartets were the first to apply the conversational principle to chamber music with piano. Haydn's piano trios are essentially piano sonatas with the violin and cello playing mostly supporting roles, doubling

18189-409: Was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces and some sacred music . He set new standards for both comic and serious opera before retiring from large-scale composition while still in his thirties, at the height of his popularity. Born in Pesaro to parents who were both musicians (his father a trumpeter, his mother

18330-406: Was an undoubted success, without being a smash hit; the public took some time in getting to grips with it, and some singers found it too demanding. It nonetheless was produced abroad within months of the premiere, and there was no suspicion that it would be the composer's last opera. Jointly with Semiramide , Guillaume Tell is Rossini's longest opera, at three hours and forty-five minutes, and

18471-401: Was commissioned to write several of these. Joseph Haydn is generally credited with creating the modern form of chamber music as we know it, although scholars today such as Roger Hickman argue "the idea that Haydn invented the string quartet and single-handedly advanced the genre is based on only a vague notion of the true history of the eighteenth-century genre." A typical string quartet of

18612-537: Was contracted by the Opéra in Paris, for which he produced an opera to celebrate the coronation of Charles X , Il viaggio a Reims (later cannibalised for his first opera in French , Le comte Ory ), revisions of two of his Italian operas , Le siège de Corinthe and Moïse , and in 1829 his last opera, Guillaume Tell . Rossini's withdrawal from opera for the last 40 years of his life has never been fully explained; contributory factors may have been ill-health,

18753-582: Was happy to sign a contract at the French embassy in London to return to Paris, where he had felt much more at home. Rossini's new, and highly remunerative, contract with the French government was negotiated under Louis XVIII , who died in September 1824, soon after Rossini's arrival in Paris. It had been agreed that the composer would produce one grand opera for the Académie Royale de Musique and either an opera buffa or an opera semiseria for

18894-470: Was known for his susceptibility to singers in the companies he worked with. Among his lovers in his early years were Ester Mombelli (Domenico's daughter) and Maria Marcolini of the Bologna company. By far the most important of these relationships – both personal and professional – was with Isabella Colbran , prima donna of the Teatro San Carlo (and former mistress of Barbaia). Rossini had heard her sing in Bologna in 1807, and when he moved to Naples he wrote

19035-431: Was often performed by upper- and middle-class men with less advanced musical skills in an unexpected setting such as informal ensembles in private residence with few audience members. In Britain, the most common form of chamber music compositions are the string quartets , sentimental songs and piano chamber works like the piano trio , in a way depicts the standard conception of the conventional "Victorian music making". In

19176-568: Was played primarily by amateur musicians in their homes, and even today, when chamber music performance has migrated from the home to the concert hall, many musicians, amateur and professional, still play chamber music for their own pleasure. Playing chamber music requires special skills, both musical and social, that differ from the skills required for playing solo or symphonic works. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe described chamber music (specifically, string quartet music) as "four rational people conversing". This conversational paradigm – which refers to

19317-465: Was so moved that he determined to meet the reclusive composer. He finally managed to do so, and later described the encounter to many people, including Eduard Hanslick and Richard Wagner . He recalled that although conversation was hampered by Beethoven's deafness and Rossini's ignorance of German, Beethoven made it plain that he thought Rossini's talents were not for serious opera, and that "above all" he should "do more Barbiere " (Barbers) . After

19458-453: Was the ideal medium to express this conflict, "to reconcile his essentially lyric themes with his feeling for dramatic utterance within a form that provided the possibility of extreme color contrasts." The String Quintet in C, D.956 , is an example of how this conflict is expressed in music. After a slow introduction, the first theme of the first movement, fiery and dramatic, leads to a bridge of rising tension, peaking suddenly and breaking into

19599-434: Was the true native heirship of an Italian: a little music, a little religion, and a volume of Ariosto . The rest of his education was consigned to the legitimate school of southern youth, the society of his mother, the young singing girls of the company, those prima donnas in embryo, and the gossips of every village through which they passed. This was aided and refined by the musical barber and news-loving coffee-house keeper of

19740-429: Was to be an important influence on the composer's career there. The musical establishment of Naples was not immediately welcoming to Rossini, who was seen as an intruder into its cherished operatic traditions. The city had once been the operatic capital of Europe; the memory of Cimarosa was revered and Paisiello was still living, but there were no local composers of any stature to follow them, and Rossini quickly won

19881-451: Was written by Beethoven himself – and was so popular that Beethoven feared it would eclipse his other works. So much so that by 1815, Carl Czerny wrote that Beethoven "could not endure his septet and grew angry because of the universal applause which it has received." The septet is written as a classical divertimento in six movements, including two minuets, and a set of variations. It is full of catchy tunes, with solos for everyone, including

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