[Footnote 10: [Koch-Stemfeld] Die letzten 30 Jahre d. Hochst. Salzburg, p. 348.] [Footnote 11: It is noticed anonymously in Schubart's Teutsche Chronik, 1775, p. 324, Cf. Rudhart, I., p. 102.] [Footnote 12: "Nissen is mistaken in saying that it was composed in Munich in 1781. The "Offertorium in Contrapunkt in D minor," of which Mozart had a copy made at Augsburg in 1777, was, according to a letter from his father (December n, 1777), this same "Misericordias Domini."] [Footnote 13: Mdme. Campan, Mém. sur Marie Antoinette, V., p. 107. Ires, III., p. 224.] [Footnote 14: Sammartini's Serenate were performed in the open air at Milan (Carpani, Le Haydine, p. 58).] [Footnote 15: [Koch-Sternfeld] Die letzten 30 Jahre, pp. 30,187.] [Footnote 16: Mozart mentions the "zwei Caesationen fur die Grafin," which his father calls the Lodron Nocturnes. The "last Cassation in B," which Wolfgang played at Munich (October 6, 1777), is the divertimento (287 K.) for quartet and horns; the earlier one is a similar divertimento in F major, composed in June, 1776 (247 K.).] ==== MOZART By David Widger CHAPTER VII. OPERA SERIA. THE OPERA[1] owes its rise to the attempt which was made in Florence at the beginning of the sixteenth century to discover the musical method of ancient tragedy and to reproduce it in conformity to the spirit of the Renaissance.[2] {GRADUAL RISE OF OPERA.} (155) In opposition to the predominant madrigal style of part-singing, worked out in counterpoint, there arose strivings after a method which should give freedom and independence to the solo singer, and which should render the poet's words comprehensible and sympathetic to the hearer. The conviction that this was accomplished to perfection in ancient tragedy led to a search after lost musical traditions, traces of which are observable in the opera seria, even in its latest development. First, recitative was introduced as a middle course between song and ordinary speech, distinguished by accent and rhythm, and sustained by a simple harmony, which emphasised the dialogue. Time and effort were needed to establish this compromise between song and speech, and to convert recitative into the pliable, expressive instrument of musical dialogue. The first attempt to place an opera in this _stilo rappresentativo_ on the stage was made by Jac. Peri with Ottavio Rinuccini's "Dafne," performed in 1594 at the Palazzo Corsi;[3] the same poet's "Euridice" followed in 1600, publicly performed on the occasion of the marriage of Henry IV. with Marie de Medicis. The whole dialogue is rendered in a simply accompanied recitative, without the introduction of anything resembling an air; to this are added choruses, after the example of the old tragedies, not worked out in contrapuntal form like madrigals, as was already the custom with the intermedii of spoken tragedies, but in simple harmonies, and in a key corresponding to the recitatives.