Page 125 - HandbookMarch1

624 The Musical Quarterly

staged. The orchestral material also serves the important
structural goals of expansion and prolongation of musical scenes
through repetition and elaboration. Thus musical continuity
and dramatic excitement are alike sustained.

By combining active instrumental motives within flexible kinds
of recitatives and arias, by linking impressive ensembles and huge
double choruses, by employing musical recall and expressive or-
chestral passages that parallel the dramatic action, Le Sueur forms
long, tonally organized scenes of more continuous texture than had
been achieved by many earlier composers. Extending the bound-
aries of past tradition, he envisions a unity of "scenic music" in
which the visual, kinetic, and dramatic aspects are well coordinated
with the music. The written sources herald an interdependence of
vocal and instrumental lines in a musico-dramatic framework, while
in his music Le Sueur transcends the range of his stated aesthetic
position to contribute significantly to the new instrumental operatic
style of his epoch. His works achieve an integration of factors that
places them in the forefront of French opera during the Revolu-
tionary era and the First Empire.'8

18 This article is based on research completed, in part, with the aid of a Ful-
bright grant and, in part, with the aid of a New Faculty Research Award for 1972-73
administered by the Research Foundation of The City University of New York.

This content downloaded from 139.94.248.191 on Mon, 24 Feb 2020 22:04:57 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms