An aria (Italian for air; plural: arie or arias in common usage) in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment. Perhaps the most common context for arias is opera, although there are many arias that form movements of oratorios and cantatas. Composers also wrote concert arias, which are not part of any larger work, such as "Ah perfido" by Beethoven, and a number of concert arias by Mozart, such as "Conservati fedele".

The aria first appeared in the 14th century when it signified a manner or style of singing or playing. Aria could also mean a melodic scheme (motif) or pattern for singing a poetic pattern, such as a sonnet. It was also attached to instrumental music, though this is no longer the case. Over time, arias evolved from simple melodies into a structured form. In the 17th century, the aria was written in ternary form (A–B–A); these arias were known as da capo arias. The aria later "invaded" the opera repertoire with its many sub-species (Aria cantabile, Aria agitata, Aria di bravura, and so on). By the mid-19th century, many operas became a sequence of arias, reducing the space left for recitative, while other operas (for instance those by Wagner) were entirely through-composed, with no section being readily identifiable as a self-contained aria.

An arietta is a short aria.

Notable arias[link]

Voice type	Aria	Opera	Composer
soprano	O mio babbino caro	Gianni Schicchi	Giacomo Puccini	"O mio babbino caro" Frances Alda (1919) "Vissi d'arte" Emmy Destinn (1914) "Der Hölle Rache" Live recording, Bangkok Opera (2006) "Ah, fors'è lui" … "Sempre libera" Lucrezia Bori (1910) Problems listening to these files? See media help.
	Sì, mi chiamano Mimì	La bohème	Giacomo Puccini
	Vissi d'arte	Tosca	Giacomo Puccini
	Der Hölle Rache	The Magic Flute	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
	Song to the Moon	Rusalka	Antonín Dvořák
	Summertime	Porgy and Bess	George Gershwin
	Glitter and Be Gay	Candide	Leonard Bernstein
	Sempre libera	La traviata	Giuseppe Verdi
mezzo-soprano	Habanera	Carmen	Georges Bizet
	Mon cœur s'ouvre à ta voix	Samson and Delilah	Camille Saint-Saëns
	Voi, che sapete	The Marriage of Figaro	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
	Ombra mai fu	Serse	George Frideric Handel
contralto	Ah, Tanya, Tanya	Eugene Onegin	Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
	Weiche, Wotan, weiche	Das Rheingold	Richard Wagner
	Lullaby	The Consul	Gian Carlo Menotti
tenor	Celeste Aida	Aida	Giuseppe Verdi	"La donna è mobile" Enrico Caruso (1908) "Una furtiva lagrima" Enrico Caruso (1911) "Vesti la giubba" Enrico Caruso (1907) Problems listening to these files? See media help.
	Che gelida manina	La bohème	Giacomo Puccini
	Ch'ella mì creda libero	La fanciulla del West	Giacomo Puccini
	E lucevan le stelle	Tosca	Giacomo Puccini
	La donna è mobile	Rigoletto	Giuseppe Verdi
	Nessun dorma	Turandot	Giacomo Puccini
	Una furtiva lagrima	L'elisir d'amore	Gaetano Donizetti
	Vesti la giubba	Pagliacci	Ruggero Leoncavallo
baritone	Largo al factotum	The Barber of Seville	Gioachino Rossini	"Toreador Song" Pasquale Amato (1911) Problems listening to this file? See media help.
	Votre toast (Toreador song)	Carmen	Georges Bizet
	Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja	The Magic Flute	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
	Die Frist ist um	The Flying Dutchman	Richard Wagner
	Tutto e deserto... Il balen del suo sorriso	Il trovatore	Giuseppe Verdi
bass	Non più andrai	The Marriage of Figaro	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
	O Isis und Osiris	The Magic Flute	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
	Madamina, il catalogo è questo	Don Giovanni	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
	Hier sitz ich zur Wacht	Götterdämmerung	Richard Wagner

See also[link]

• Air (music)
• Recitative

External links[link]

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Aria.

• The Aria Database

India.Arie
Background information
Birth name	India Arie Simpson
Born	(1975-10-03) October 3, 1975 (age 36) Denver, Colorado United States
Origin	Atlanta, Georgia
Genres	Soul, R&B, neo soul, blues, folk, pop
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, record producer
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, flute, keyboard
Years active	2000–present
Labels	Motown (1999–2007) SoulBird / Universal Republic (2007–present)
Website	www.indiaarie.com www.soulbird.com

India.Arie (born India Arie Simpson; October 3, 1975) is a Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter and record producer .^[1] She has sold over 3.3 million records in the U.S. and 10 million worldwide. She has won four Grammy Awards from her 15 nominations, including Best R&B Album.

Background[link]

Simpson was born in Denver, Colorado. Her musical skills were encouraged by both parents early in life. Her mother Joyce is a former singer (she was signed to Motown as a teenager and opened for Stevie Wonder and Al Green)^[2] and is now her stylist. She has an older brother named J'On. After her parents divorced, Simpson's mother moved the family to Atlanta, Georgia when she was thirteen.^[3] Simpson had taken up a succession of musical instruments throughout her schooling in Denver, but her interest in the guitar while attending the Savannah College of Art and Design, in Savannah, led to a personal revelation about songwriting and performing. "When I started tapping into my own sensitivity, I started to understand people better. It was a direct result of writing songs", she said at the press release of her debut album, Acoustic Soul.

Co-founding the Atlanta-based independent music collective Groovement EarthShare (Groovement was the collective artists' name and EarthShare was their independent label name), her one-song turn on a locally-released compilation led to a second-stage gig at the 1998 Lilith Fair. In 1999, a Universal/Motown music scout spotted her and made an introduction to former Motown CEO Kedar Massenberg. Arie resides in Atlanta, Georgia.

Musical career[link]

Acoustic Soul was released on March 27, 2001 and debuted at number ten on the U.S. Billboard 200 and number three on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. Within months, without the concentrated radio airplay that typically powers pop and rap albums, Acoustic Soul was certified double platinum, selling 2,180,000 copies in the U.S. and 3,000,000 copies worldwide. Arie performed a duet with rock singer-guitarist John Mellencamp on the song "Peaceful World" for his 2001 album Cuttin' Heads. While Arie and the album were nominated for seven Grammy awards in 2002, they won no awards, losing in five of seven categories to Alicia Keys. She closed the ceremony with a performance of her song "Video". Arie performed a duet with jazz singer Cassandra Wilson on the song "Just Another Parade" for her 2002 album Belly of the Sun.

Arie followed the success of her debut on September 24, 2002 with the release of Voyage to India. It debuted at number six on the Billboard 200 and number one on the R&B chart. In 2003 it won her two Grammy Awards in 2003—"Best R&B Album" and Best Urban/Alternative Performance" for the song "Little Things". Soon after its release, Voyage to India was certified platinum selling 1,400,000 copies^{[citation needed]}in the U.S. and 2,300,000 worldwide^{[citation needed]}.

On September 12, 2005, Arie performed "Just 4 2day", a song written for her appearance on the debut of The Tyra Banks Show.^[4]She also performed "What About the Child", a song that did not air but was made available as a one-dollar Internet download to support child victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.^[5] Arie is also featured on Stevie Wonder's album A Time to Love, released on October 18, 2005. Arie and Wonder duet on the title track "A Time to Love", written by Arie, which was nominated for "Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals" at the 2006 Grammy Awards. Three years earlier, their rendition of Mel Tormé's 1944 classic "The Christmas Song", recorded for the holiday TV commercial for retailer Target, had been nominated for the same category, making it the first song created and financed exclusively for a commercial to be nominated for a Grammy Award.^[6]

India.Arie performing in Lokeren Belgium, August 3, 2004

Arie's third studio album, Testimony: Vol. 1, Life & Relationship, was released on June 27, 2006. It gave Arie her first number-one spot on the Billboard 200 and was her second chart-topper on the R&B charts. This album was also the first number-one album for Motown in twelve years^{[citation needed]}. Its first-week sales of 161,000 copies are Arie's best sales week to date and was certified gold in August 2006, selling 730,000 in US and 1,300,000 worldwide. "I Am Not My Hair" was the most successful release from Testimony: Vol. 1., reaching the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 at #97 and the UK Singles Chart at #65. Arie collaborated with Akon for her song "I Am Not My Hair". On the April 16, 2007 episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show entitled "After Imus: Now What?", Arie guest-starred as a panelist. Arie performed a duet with singer Anthony David for his song "Words" for his 2008 album Acey Duecy.

Her next album, Testimony: Vol. 2, Love & Politics was released on Tuesday, February 10, 2009. It debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, and No. 2 on the R&B chart. Within this CD, Arie collaborated with such artists as Sezen Aksu, Keb Mo, Gramps Morgan and Musiq Soulchild to fulfill her self-proclaimed desire to "do projects with people who are making music that is meaningful, with a lot of integrity and a lot of sonic diversity". Arie also identified this CD as her first to to write and sing songs without worrying about public opinion after a much-needed vacation to Hawaii. The album was her first produced and released after her departure from Motown to Universal Records.^[7] Arie performed "Video" with British singer Adele at the 2009 VH1 Divas. Arie is one of over 70 artists singing on "We Are the World: 25 for Haiti", a charity single in aid of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Arie contributed vocals to "Imagine" for the 2010 Herbie Hancock album, The Imagine Project along with Seal, P!nk, Jeff Beck, Konono N°1, Oumou Sangare and others.^[8]

Arie at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in 2010.

India.Arie's new album, a work produced in collaboration with Israeli singer Idan Raichel is due to be released in summer, 2012.^[9]

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

• 2001: Acoustic Soul
• 2002: Voyage to India
• 2006: Testimony: Vol. 1, Life & Relationship
• 2009: Testimony: Vol. 2, Love & Politics
• 2012: Open Door

Awards[link]

India.Arie on the red carpet VH1 Divas 2009.

Grammy Awards[link]

The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Arie has won four awards from twenty-one nominations, including Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist, she lost all. In 2002, She got record Most Nominations in One Night without winning with received seven nominations.

BET Awards

2002 - Best Female R&B Artist (Won)

2003 - Best Female R&B Artist (Won)

MTV Video Music Award

2001 - MTV2 Award for "Video" (Nominated)

Soul Train Music Award

2003 - Female R&B/Soul Single for "Little Things" (Nominated)

Tours[link]

Headlining

• Voyage to World Tour (2002/03)
• Testimony Tour (2006/10)

Opening act

• Lovers Rock Tour (2001)

Filmography[link]

• 2002: Soul Food - Herself "Lovers and Other Strangers"
• 2003: American Dreams - ....Nina Simone "Act of Contrition"
• 2003: The Bernie Mac Show - Herself "Raging Election"
• 2004: Tinseltown TV - Herself
• 2006: One on One - Herself "I Love L.A"
• 2011: Pastor Brown - Lateefah

Theater[link]

In 2009, India.Arie portrayed Nina Simone in a staged reading at the Roundabout Theatre Company of the upcoming Broadway musical "Soul Doctor", about the life of Shlomo Carlebach written by Daniel Wise.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: India.Arie

• Official website

File:Respighi Trittico Botticelliano.png

Use of the Phrygian mode on A in Respighi's Trittico Botticelliano (Botticelli Triptych, 1927).^[1]  Play (help·info)

Ottorino Respighi (Italian pronunciation: [ottoˈriːno resˈpiːɡi]; 9 July 1879 – 18 April 1936) was an Italian composer, musicologist and conductor. He is best known for his orchestral "Roman trilogy": Fountains of Rome (Le fontane di Roma); Pines of Rome (I pini di Roma); and Roman Festivals (Feste romane). His musicological interest in 16th-, 17th- and 18th-century music led him to also compose pieces based on the music of this period. He also wrote a number of operas, the best known being La fiamma.

Biography[link]

Ottorino Respighi was born in Bologna, Italy. He was taught piano and violin by his father, who was a local piano teacher. He went on to study violin and viola with Federico Sarti at the Liceo Musicale in Bologna, composition with Giuseppe Martucci, and historical studies with Luigi Torchi, a scholar of early music. A year after receiving his diploma in violin in 1899, Respighi went to Russia to be principal violist in the orchestra of the Russian Imperial Theatre in St Petersburg during its season of Italian opera. While there he studied composition for five months with Rimsky-Korsakov. He then returned to Bologna, where he earned a second diploma in composition. Until 1908 his principal activity was as first violin in the Mugellini Quintet. In 1908-09 he spent some time performing in Germany before returning to Italy and turning his attention entirely to composition. Many sources indicate that while he was in Germany he studied briefly with Max Bruch, but in her biography of the composer, Respighi's wife asserts that this is not the case.^[2]

During the second decade of the twentieth century Respighi was active as a performer and composer. His compositions began to draw attention, and in 1913 he was appointed as teacher of composition at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome, where he lived for the rest of his life. In 1917 his international fame began to spread through multiple performances of the first of his Roman orchestral tone poems, Fountains of Rome. In 1919 he married a former pupil, the singer Elsa Olivieri-Sangiacomo. From 1923 to 1926 he was director of the Conservatorio. In 1925 he collaborated with Sebastiano Arturo Luciani on an elementary textbook entitled Orpheus. He was elected to the Royal Academy of Italy in 1932.

A visit to Brazil resulted in the composition Impressioni brasiliane (Brazilian Impressions). He had intended to write a sequence of five pieces, but by 1928 he had completed only three, and decided to present what he had. Its first performance was in 1928 in Rio de Janeiro. The first piece is a nocturne, "Tropical Night", with fragments of dance rhythms suggested by the sensuous textures. The second piece is a sinister picture of a snake research institute, Instituto Butantan, that Respighi visited in São Paulo, with hints of birdsong (as in Pines of Rome). The final movement is a vigorous and colorful Brazilian dance.

On the ship back home from Brazil, Respighi met up by chance with Italian physicist Enrico Fermi. During their long conversation Fermi tried to get Respighi to explain music in terms of physics, which Respighi was unable to do. They remained close friends until Respighi's death in 1936.^[3]

Apolitical in nature, Respighi attempted to steer a neutral course after Benito Mussolini came to power in 1922. His established international fame allowed him some level of freedom but at the same time encouraged the regime to exploit his music for political purposes. Respighi vouched for more outspoken critics such as Arturo Toscanini, allowing them to continue to work under the regime.^[4]

Feste Romane, the third part of his Roman trilogy, was premiered by Toscanini and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 1929; Toscanini recorded the music twice for RCA Victor, first with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1942 and then with the NBC Symphony Orchestra in 1949. Respighi's music had considerable success in the USA: the Toccata for piano and orchestra was premiered (with Respighi as soloist) under Willem Mengelberg with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in November 1928, and the large-scale theme and variations entitled Metamorphoseon was a commission for the fiftieth anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Respighi was an enthusiastic scholar of Italian music of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. He published editions of the music of Claudio Monteverdi and Antonio Vivaldi, and of Benedetto Marcello's Didone. Respighi generally kept clear of the musical idiom of the classical period. He preferred combining pre-classical melodic styles and musical forms (like dance suites) with typical late 19th century romantic harmonies and textures.

He continued to compose and tour until January 1936, after which he became increasingly ill. A cardiac infection led to his death by heart failure on 18 April that year at the age of 56. A year after his burial, his remains were moved to his birthplace Bologna and reinterred at the city's expense.

Works[link]

Opera[link]

• Re Enzo (1905)
• Semirâma (1909)
• Marie Victoire (completed in 1913, but not produced until 2004)
• La bella dormente nel bosco (1922)
• Belfagor (1923)
• La campana sommersa (1927)
• Maria egiziaca (1932)
• La fiamma (1934)
• Lucrezia (1937) (completed posthumously by his wife, Elsa, and his pupil Ennio Porrino)

Ballet[link]

• La Boutique fantasque (1918), which borrows tunes from the 19th century composer Rossini. Premiered in London on 5 June 1919.
• Sèvres de la vieille France (1920)
• La Pentola magica (1920)
• Le astuzie de Columbina (1920)
• Belkis, Regina di Saba (1930), his last work for ballet

Orchestral[link]

• Symphonic Variations (1900)
• Preludio, corale e fuga (1901)
• Aria for strings (1901)
• Suite for strings (1902)
• Suite in E major (Sinfonia) (1901 rev. 1903)
• Burlesca (1906)
• Ouverture carnevalesca (1913)
• Sinfonia Drammatica (1913–14)
• The Roman trilogy (three symphonic poems evoking Roman places and times of day)
  • Fountains of Rome (1915–1916)
  • Pines of Rome (1923–1924)
  • Roman Festivals (1928)
• Ancient Airs and Dances
  • Suite No. 1 (1917), based on Renaissance lute pieces by Simone Molinaro, Vincenzo Galilei (father of Galileo Galilei), and additional anonymous composers.
  • Suite No. 2 (1923), based on pieces for lute, archlute, and viol by Fabrizio Caroso, Jean-Baptiste Besard, Bernardo Gianoncelli, and an anonymous composer. It also interpolates an aria attributed to Marin Mersenne.
  • Suite No. 3 (1932), arranged for strings only and somewhat melancholy in overall mood. It is based on lute songs by Besard, a piece for baroque guitar by Ludovico Roncalli, lute pieces by Santino Garsi da Parma and additional anonymous composers.
• Ballata delle Gnomidi (Dance of the Gnomes) (1920), based on a poem by Claudio Clausetti
• Rossiniana (1925) - free transcriptions from Rossini's Quelques riens (from Péchés de vieillesse)
• Vetrate di chiesa (Church Windows) (1925), four movements of which three are based on Tre Preludi sopra melodie gregoriane for piano (1919)
• The Birds (1927), based on Baroque pieces imitating birds. It comprises Introduzione (Bernardo Pasquini), La Colomba (Jacques de Callot), La Gallina (Rameau), L'Usignolo (anonymous English composer of the seventeenth century) and Il Cucu (Pasquini)
• Trittico Botticelliano (1927)
• Impressioni brasiliane (Brazilian Impressions) (1928)
• Metamorphoseon Modi XII: Tema e Variazioni (1930)

Concerto[link]

Piano

• Piano Concerto in A minor (1902)
• Fantasia Slava (1903)
• Concerto in modo misolidio (Concerto in the Mixolydian mode) (1925)
• Toccata for Piano and Orchestra (1928)

Violin

• Leggenda for Violin and Orchestra P 36 (1902) ^[5]
• Humoreske for Violin and Orchestra P 45 (1903) ^[6]
• Concerto in la maggiore for Violin and Orchestra (1903), completed by Salvatore Di Vittorio (2009)
• Concerto all'antica for Violin and Orchestra (1908)
• Poema autunnale (Autumn Poem) for Violin and Orchestra(1920-5)
• Concerto gregoriano for Violin and Orchestra (1921)

Miscellaneous

• Suite in G major for Organ and Strings (1905)
• Adagio con variazioni (1920), for Cello and Orchestra
• Concerto a cinque (Concerto for Five) (1933), for Oboe, Trumpet, Piano, Viola d'amore, Double-bass, and Strings

Vocal/Choral[link]

• Christus (text by Respighi) (1898–99), Biblical cantata for soloists, chorus and orchestra
• Nebbie (1906), voice and piano
• Stornellatrice (1906?), voice and piano
• Cinque canti all'antica (1906), voice and piano
• Aretusa (text by Shelley) (1910–11), cantata for mezzo-soprano and orchestra
• La Sensitiva (The Sensitive Plant, text by Shelley) (1914), for mezzo-soprano and orchestra
• Il Tramonto (The sunset, text by Shelley) (1914), for mezzo-soprano and string quartet (or string orchestra)
• Deità silvane (Woodland Deities, texts by Antonio Rubino) (1917), song-cycle for soprano and small orchestra
• Cinque liriche (1917), voice and piano
• Quattro liriche (Gabriele d'Annunzio) (1920), voice and piano
• La Primavera (The Spring, texts by Constant Zarian) (1922) lyric poem for soli, chorus and orchestra
• Lauda per la Natività del Signore (Laud to the Nativity, text attributed to Jacopone da Todi) (1930), a cantata for three soloists (soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor), mixed chorus (including substantial sections for 8-part mixed and TTBB male chorus), and chamber ensemble (woodwinds and piano 4-hands)

Chamber/Instrumental[link]

• String Quartet in D major in one movement (undated)
• String Quartet No. 1 in D major (1892–98)
• String Quartet No. 2 in B flat major (1898)
• String Quartet in D major (1907)
• String Quartet in D minor (1909) subtitled by composer "Ernst is das Leben, heiter ist die Kunst"
• Quartetto Dorico or Doric String Quartet (1924)
• Tre Preludi sopra melodie gregoriane, for piano (1921)
• Violin Sonata in B minor
• Piano Sonata in F minor
• Variazioni, for guitar
• Double Quartet in D minor (1901)
• Piano Quintet in F minor (1902)
• Six Pieces for Violin and Piano (1901–06)
• Quartet in D major for 4 Viols (1906)
• Huntingtower: Ballad for Band (1932)
• Several instrumental sonatas
• String Quintet for 2 Violins, 1 Viola & 2 Violoncellos in G minor (1901, incomplete)
• Organ works

Note: The bulk of these chamber compositions have not been published and are in manuscript at the conservatories in Bologna and Rome. Three string quartets (1907, 1909 and 1924), the Huntingtower Ballad, and the Piano Quintet have been published.

Biographical sources[link]

• Respighi, Elsa (1955) Fifty Years of a Life in Music
• Respighi, Elsa (1962) Ottorino Respighi, London: Ricordi
• Nupen, Christopher (director) (1983) Ottorino Respighi: A Dream of Italy, Allegro Films
• Barrow, Lee G (2004) Ottorino Respighi (1879–1936): An Annotated Bibliography, Scarecrow Press
• Viagrande, Riccardo, La generazione dell'Ottanta, Casa Musicale Eco, Monza, 2007
• Daniele Gambaro, Ottorino Respighi. Un'idea di modernità nel Novecento, pp. XII+246, illustrato con esempi musicali, novembre 2011, Zecchini Editore, ISBN 978-88-6540-017-3

References[link]

External links[link]

• OttorinoRespighi.it (Italian)
• Amici di Respighi (Italian)
• Fondo Ottorino Respighi (Italian)
• Chamber Orchestra of New York "Ottorino Respighi"
• Free scores by Ottorino Respighi in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• Ottorino Respighi String Quartet in D Major (1907) Sound-bites and discussion
• Free scores by Respighi at the International Music Score Library Project
• Ottorino Respighi at Find a Grave