Italian Music Presentation

The History of Music

History of Italian Opera

History of Italian Opera

Italy is most widely known for its opera. Italy's opera music started with the Gregorian Chant, or the Gregorian Hymn. Gregorian Chants are forms of church music from the Roman Catholic Church named after Pope Gregory II. The first Gregorian Chants were monophony music. Monophony music is music with a single vocal or instrumental melody. The monophony forms of the Gregorian chants eventually progressed into polyphony forms. Polyphony music means music with more than one vocal or instrumental melody, or music with harmony.

The Progression of Italian Music

From the opera music in Italy, Aria music was created. Aria, which means air in Italian, is an expressive melody or tune performed by a single vocalist with or without orchestral accompaniment. From Aria music, the bel canto technique was developed. The bel canto technique, bel canto meaning beautiful singing, is a singing technique that uses control of breath. When singing with the bel canto technique, vocalists had to take in an ample amount of air to support and maintain a beautiful tone for many different kinds of long phrases. Eventually, Canzone, a form of Italian pop music, was developed from the bel canto technique, and from Canzone, Progressive Rock music was developed.

Genres

Italy has many of the genres of music that we have today.

Opera: One of those genres of music was opera, which originated in the northern Italian city of Florence.

Italian Folk Music: Many Italian folk musics reflect on numerous invasions by using instruments like the piano, accordion, flute, and various types of pipes.

Italian Sacred Music: Traditional hymns are sung at the Roman Catholic Church.

Italian Rock Music: Since the 1950s, Italians favored and enjoyed listening to rock music.

Interesting Facts

Fun Facts:

• Italian composers composed the first symphonies.
• Many musical terms are in Italian becuase the innovators of music (starting from the 16th century) were Italian.
• Italians developed an instrument from a jar. The quartara is really a jar, but when wind is blown into it, it creates a deep sound. This resulted in the idea of using it for traditional folk music.
• A scacciapensieri is also an Italian instrument that is small and lyre-shaped.
• Bel Canto is not only a singing technique but also a style of opera.

Italy's Contributions

Italy's Contributions

Italy's contributions to instrumental music are ...

• Piano
• Violin
• Art of opera
• Some music terms (sonnet, concert, quartet, legato, staccato)
• musical scale

Bibliography

Sources We Used For Our Project:

Bibliography

• Internet Studios Spain S.L. group. “Italian Music.” Italian Language, www.italianlanguageguide.com/culture/music/.
• “Italian Music.” Edited by Jodi Coston, Italian Music (Music of Italy), Italy Bit by Bite, www.yourguidetoitaly.com/italian-music.html.
• “Italian Music: The Various Forms Of Italian Music.” Italian Legacy, Site Build It!, www.italianlegacy.com/italian-music-1.html.
• Williams, Lacey. Beautiful Free Images, unsplash.com/photos/0c9CmxU0EJI.
• Grabianowski, Ed. “How Italian Traditions Work.” Traditional Italian Music and Dance - Traditional Italian Music and Dance | HowStuffWorks, HowStuffWorks, 25 July 2011, people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/national-traditions/italian-tradition4.htm.