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The Nature of Opera as a Composite Art
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 1946
Extract
The reflections in this paper were prompted by a chapter in Roger Fry's book, Transformations. Fry was interested in what he called the “mixture of distinct and separate arts.” He was, of course, primarily concerned with painting, but he used song and opera to illustrate his theory, which was, in his own words, as follows:—
Pictures in which representation subserves poetical or dramatic ends are not simple works of art, but are in fact cases of the mixture of the art of illustration and the art of plastic volumes … They are closely similar to song in which the psychological unity of the words is accompanied by a musical unity. What the exact possibilities and limiting conditions of mixtures of two or more arts may be has, I think, never been properly inquired into.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © Royal Musical Association, 1946
References
1 The word “Song” is used here and generally throughout this paper to mean “sung words,” including recitative as well as aria. “Opera” and “music-drama” are used mainly as synonyms, to cover all forms of “sung drama.”Google Scholar
2 The reasons for inaudibility may be: (a) faulty diction, (b) heavy or loud orchestration, (c) the setting of the words at too quick or too slow a pace, (d) the use of long words or involved sentences difficult to understand at a first hearing even in spoken recitation, and much more so when sung.Google Scholar
3 It has been necessary to condense this passage considerably.Google Scholar