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Ballad Opera in England: Its Songs, Contributors, and Influence

Bumpus, Julie L.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1276055885

Abstract Details

2010, Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, Music History.
The ballad opera was a popular genre of stage entertainment in England that flourished roughly from 1728 (beginning with John Gay's The Beggar's Opera) to 1760. Gay's original intention for the genre was to satirize not only the upper crust of British society, but also to mock the “excesses” of Italian opera, which had slowly been infiltrating the concert life of Britain. The Beggar's Opera and its successors were to be the answer to foreign opera on British soil: a truly nationalistic genre that essentially was a play (building on a long-standing tradition of English drama) with popular music interspersed throughout. My thesis explores the ways in which ballad operas were constructed, what meanings the songs may have held for playwrights and audiences, and what influence the genre had in England and abroad. The thesis begins with a general survey of the origins of ballad opera, covering theater music during the Commonwealth, Restoration theatre, the influence of Italian Opera in England, and The Beggar's Opera. Next is a section on the playwrights and composers of ballad opera. The playwrights discussed are John Gay, Henry Fielding, and Colley Cibber. Purcell and Handel are used as examples of composers of source material and Mr. Seedo and Pepusch as composers and arrangers of ballad opera music. A general overview of ballad opera music is discussed, followed by a case study of Gay‟s Achilles. I have singled out Achilles because little has been written on it, and because Gay seems to have been particularly sensitive to the use of music in his plays. The thesis concludes with material on the decline of ballad opera and its influence.
Vincent Corrigan (Committee Chair)
Mary Natvig (Committee Member)
217 p.
Music
ballad opera; John Gay, english theatre

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Bumpus, J. L. (2010). Ballad Opera in England: Its Songs, Contributors, and Influence [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1276055885

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Bumpus, Julie. Ballad Opera in England: Its Songs, Contributors, and Influence. 2010. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1276055885.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Bumpus, Julie. "Ballad Opera in England: Its Songs, Contributors, and Influence." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1276055885

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1276055885
6,096
© 2010, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Ballad Opera in England: Its Songs, Contributors, and Influence by Julie L. Bumpus is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.