Structural integration and dramatic displacement in early verdi recitatives and scenas

Recitatives and scenas of early Verdi operas have received little scholarly attention. These "introductory" sections preceding lyric movements of operatic numbers have been largely excluded from serious consideration due to the variegated nature of their musical settings, the mixed-verse organization of their poetic texts, and the presumption by many of their peripheral relationship to their surroundings. While scholarly discussions have largely focused on stylistic transformations that contributed to enhanced structural cohesion within and between lyric movements of arias and ensembles, largely absent from such scholarship is an evaluation of the role that introductory scenas and recitatives played in such transformations. This dissertation seeks to broaden Verdi research and analysis by applying the same level of analytical integrity to scenas and recitatives as that which has been applied to lyric sections, thus demonstrating that the tendencies towards structural integration and dramatic cohesion found in Verdi's lyric movements are present in his recitatives and scenas as well. Central to this study is an examination of techniques Verdi employed in recitatives and scenas in his earliest works to achieve an increased level of musical continuity with the lyric episodes that they precede. Foremost among these compositional practices are: * techniques of structural integration that foster more seamless transitions between recitatives and lyric sections, * the creation of motivic, thematic and harmonic relationships that integrate scenas and recitatives with lyric sections, * the deployment of a common-tone, third-based harmonic language that serves to organize both small scale recitative settings, and large-scale operatic numbers, * the interpolation of arioso passages and the setting of mixed verse in lyric style within scenas and recitatives. The results of the research demonstrate that the tonal organization, formal structure and harmonic function of scenas and recitatives reveal important dramatic and musical relationships that unite them not only to the movements they precede, but to other movements within the large-scale operatic work as well.