The completed piece of a major vocal piece, which is usually performed by a singer, accompanied by an orchestra, is what an aria is. This work has a melody, mainly of a song depot. Emotionally, an aria generalizes a certain stage of action. Its structure is many-parted.
French aria
In the Middle Ages, this term was already used in Western Europe. Some time later, he came to France. At first they called an ordinary stanza song an aria, and since the seventeenth century they began to call it instrumental pieces of a song or dance character.
The heyday of this genre was the emergence of various varieties of solo vocal arias, as well as works for voice, accompanied by various instruments. Many composers of this time use this genre as a source of inspiration. The aria has become not only an independent play, but also part of such major works as ballet or orchestral suite.
With the development of opera, the characteristic features of the French aria were song and a simple structure.
Italian aria
In Western Europe, the evolution of aria is associated with the development of opera and chamber vocal music. A variety of species appear here: one-voice arias or works with several contrasting parts.
A further stage in the development of the genre was the heyday of Italian opera. Here, the question of what an aria is can be answered: this is the culmination of an opera work, its center. Arias vary depending on the character. The more complex ones belong to the main characters and usually include development, coloratura, recitative and repetitions. And minor characters usually play a simple opera aria of a song-dance character.
The aria takes on a different character with the development of the opera-series genre in the Neapolitan opera school. Here, in the aria, a demonstration of vocal virtuosity prevails, and the musical and dramatic content of the opera fades into the background. Such a schematization leads to a crisis of this opera genre.
Gluck Reform
One of the most important milestones in the development of the aria is the opera reform, which belongs to K.V. Gluck. What is an aria, here we can say so - it is an element that is organically associated with the musical and dramatic action of the opera. She conveys all the wealth of emotional states that arise in various situations. The aria is enriched with new forms and species that are vividly represented by the Viennese classics.
The most outstanding in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is the work of the composer-verstist J. Puccini. Aria in his work moves to a new round of development.
Russian aria
The formation of the characteristic features of the Russian aria consisted mainly of the development of a comic opera. Basically, it used folk, city and peasant songs, everyday romances. It was they who influenced the structure and intonation structure of this genre, but at the same time, one can notice the influence of the traditions of the West European opera.
Glinka's opera was the heyday of an aria. In his works, as well as the work of other composers, she occupies a crucial place. Here, the role of vocal melodics and melodic generalizations, which are based on the intonational richness of a folk song, is very significant. What is an aria in the works of Glinka? First of all, it is the wide chant and the particular plasticity of the melody.
In the pre-revolutionary period, in parallel with the classical representatives of this genre, peculiar forms of aria and its specific forms arose that appeared in the works of composers of that time. But along with them, the interpretation of the Russian original aria, characteristic of Russian classics, also found a continuation.