Aria

Aria is a type of song with instrumental accompaniment usually performed by a solo singer in an opera or oratorio. Some arias are written for two or more singers. Arias mark points of heightened feelings and expression within the dramatic action of an opera. They also mark moments of thoughtful reflection. From opera’s beginnings in the late 1500’s and early 1600’s, composers needed to make a distinction within a dramatic musical work between the process of carrying the plot forward and stopping for a moment of emotion or contemplation. They used recitative (recited singing) or spoken dialogue to develop the plot and developed the aria for emotional or contemplative moments.

Between the 1600’s and the 1800’s, arias developed into highly organized, structured musical sections. In the 1700’s, this structural approach reached its peak in the da capo aria, in which the song fell into three sections. The third section was a repeat of the first, while the second (middle) section was in marked musical contrast to the rest of the piece. There are many examples of da capo arias in the oratorios and operas of the German composer George Frideric Handel and the cantatas and passions of the German composer Johann Sebastian Bach. A typical Handel aria is “Where e’er you walk” from the oratorio Semele (1743).

Arias could be elaborate and were intended to show off a singer’s virtuoso capabilities. The Queen of the Night’s first aria from the Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart‘s opera The Magic Flute (1791) is a good example. In the time of Mozart and the German composer Ludwig van Beethoven, a type of composition called a concert aria emerged. This was a grand and elaborate aria that was not part of an opera but stood on its own and could be used as a showpiece in a concert performance.

From the 1850’s onward, operas began to take a much freer approach to the aria, integrating it with other elements—recitatives, ensembles, and choruses. In the late 1800’s, the German composer Richard Wagner almost eliminated the aria, producing a seamless flow of music in his music dramas, in which the voice was treated like another orchestral instrument. However, the aria remained a powerful element in Italian opera, where fine examples include “Celeste Aida” (“Heavenly Aida”), a tenor aria from the Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi‘s Aida (1871), and “Vesti la giuba” (“On with the motley”), again for tenor, from I Pagliacci (1892) by the Italian composer Ruggero Leoncavallo. One of the great aria composers of the late 1800’s was Giacomo Puccini of Italy, with such masterpieces as “Che gelida manina” (“Your tiny hand is frozen”), for tenor, from La Boheme (1896) and “Nessun dorma” (“None shall sleep”), for tenor, from Turandot (produced in 1926, after his death). In the later 1900’s, the use of the formal aria in new operas and oratorios largely disappeared.