the.com/aria
A solo singer's moment to stop the plot and show off.
means A self-contained melody for a single voice, usually in an opera or oratorio, built for emotion and vocal display rather than moving the story forward.
from From Italian 'aria,' meaning 'air' or 'atmosphere' — the same word Italians use for the air you breathe. It drifted into music to mean a melodic 'tune' or 'manner,' and by the 1600s, as opera was being invented in Italy, it settled into its specific sense: the big solo set-piece carved out from the surrounding recitative (the sung dialogue that actually pushes the plot). So the word for the song once meant simply 'the air it's sung in.'
- etymology
- Italian for air, as in melody, not oxygen
- opera role
- recitative moves the story, aria freezes it for feeling
- structure
- classic da capo arias repeat the opening after a middle section
- beyond opera
- bach wrote arias for solo instruments, no voice needed