- published: 11 Nov 2013
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Dramma per musica (Italian, literally: play for music, plural: drammi per musica) is a term which was used by dramatists in Italy and elsewhere between the late-17th and mid-19th centuries. It was sometimes abbreviated to dramma.
A dramma per musica was thus originally (in Italy in the 17th century) a play specifically written for the purpose of being set to music, in other words a libretto for an opera, usually a serious opera. By extension, the term came to be used also for the opera or operas which were composed to the libretto, and a variation, dramma in musica, which emphasised the musical element, was sometimes preferred by composers.
In the 18th century, these terms, along with dramma musicale, came to be the most commonly used descriptions for serious Italian operas. Today, these are known as opera seria, a term that was little-used when they were created.
The terms continued to be used in the early 19th century after Gluck's reforms had effectively ended the dominance of opera seria: for example, some of Rossini's later serious operas were designated "dramma in musica".
Musica is a bronze statue unveiled in 2003 that sits in a grassy knoll at the center of a traffic rotary where Division Street meets 16th Avenue North/Music Square East known as the Music Row Roundabout or Buddy Killen Circle across from the Owen Bradley Park in the Music Row area of Nashville, Tennessee. It was built as part of an urban renewal project for the Music Row neighborhood.
Musica is Alan LeQuire's largest sculpture commission to date, and currently the largest sculpture group in the United States. It features nine nude figures, male and female, dancing in a circular composition approximately 38 feet (11.5 m) tall. There are five figures which spring forth from the base. Four more rise up in the center floating above the others. The pinnacle of the statue is a female holding a tambourine. The scale of each figure is fourteen to fifteen feet, or more than twice life-size. The dancers and part of the base are cast in bronze. The other part of the base is composed of massive natural limestone boulders, which are prevalent in the Nashville area.