(it ) - A melodic composition like an air, a song or a tune Originally for a single voice with or without accompaniment Often also an instrumental piece with a singable melody [back]
[ah-ree-ah] (Italian) "Air " A self-contained, melodic section of a large-scale vocal work (opera , cantata, or oratorio) sung by a soloist with instrumental or orchestral accompaniment It is distinct from the more speech-like recitative sections There are also arias that exist independent of any larger work, and in the Baroque period, some instrumental works were called arias, such as the theme of Bach'sGoldberg Variations
an elaborate composition for solo voice with instrumental accompaniment; its emphasis is on expression rather than on text, as opposed to the recitative which emphasizes the text
An aria is a song for one of the leading singers in an opera or choral work. a song that is sung by only one person in an opera or oratorio. Solo song with instrumental accompaniment in opera, cantata, or oratorio. The strophic or stanzaic aria, in which each new stanza might represent a melodic variation on the first, appeared in opera in Claudio Monteverdi's Orfeo (1607) and was widely used for decades. The standard aria form 1650-1775 was the da capo aria, in which the opening melody and text are repeated after an intervening melody-text section (often in a different key, tempo, and metre); the return of the first section was often virtuosically embellished by the singer. Comic operas never limited themselves to da capo form. Even in serious opera, from 1750 a variety of forms were used; Gioacchino Rossini and others often expanded the aria into a complete musical scene in which two or more conflicting emotions were expressed. Richard Wagner's operas largely abandoned the aria in favour of a continuous musical texture, but arias have never ceased to be written