Tonadilla was a type of Spanish musical song that came from theater and was not danced. It was a short, humorous musical play that was popular in 18th-century Spain and later in Cuba and other Spanish colonial countries. It began as a song, then added dialogue for characters, and grew into a short opera lasting 10 to 20 minutes.
Zarzuela is a Spanish musical and dramatic style that mixes spoken dialogue with singing. The singing parts include operatic songs, popular music, and dances. The origin of the name is unclear, but some believe it comes from the Palace of Zarzuela, near Madrid.
The ballad opera is a type of English comic opera that began in the early 18th century and kept changing over the next century and beyond. Like the earlier comédie en vaudeville and the later Singspiel, its main feature is the use of songs in a popular style (either already existing or newly created) along with spoken dialogue. These English plays were called “operas” mainly because they made fun of the rules of imported opera seria.
A Singspiel is a type of German music drama. It is now considered a type of opera. This form uses spoken dialogue that is mixed with group performances, songs, ballads, and arias.
The Opéra-Comique is a Paris opera company that was started in 1714 by popular theaters from Parisian fairs. In 1762, the company joined with its main competitor, the Comédie-Italienne, and used that name for a while. It was also called the Théâtre-Italien until about 1793, when it became most commonly known as the Opéra-Comique again.
Opera buffa, which means “comic opera” in Italian, is a type of opera. It was first used as a casual way to describe Italian comic operas, which were sometimes called commedia in musica, commedia per musica, dramma bernesco, dramma comico, or divertimento giocoso by their creators. Opera buffa became especially popular in Naples during the first half of the 18th century.
Opera seria is an Italian musical term that describes a type of opera known for its important and serious themes. This style was the most popular in Europe from the 1710s until about 1770. At the time, people rarely used the term “opera seria,” and it became widely known only after the style was no longer in fashion.
The English Madrigal School was a time when the musical madrigal became very popular in England, mainly from 1588 to 1627. This period included the composers who created these madrigals. The English madrigals were sung without instruments, usually had a light and cheerful style, and were often based on copies or direct translations of Italian madrigals.
The term Franco-Flemish School, also known as Netherlandish School, Burgundian School, Low Countries School, Flemish School, Dutch School, or Northern School, describes the style of music with multiple voices singing together. This style of music and the composers who created it originated in France and the Burgundian Netherlands during the 15th and 16th centuries. The spread of their techniques, especially after the invention of printing technology, led to the first truly international music style since the time when Gregorian chant was standardized in the 9th century.
The Trecento was a time of active creativity in Italy during the arts, such as painting, architecture, literature, and music. Music during the Trecento shared similarities with achievements in other arts, such as creating new ways of expressing ideas, especially in secular songs written in the Italian language. In some ways, the music of the Trecento might look like it belongs to the Renaissance period.