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MELODRAMA (a coined word from Gr. µEX...

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 96 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MELODRAMA (a coined word from Gr. µEXos, See also:music, and See also:Spaµa, See also:action)  , the name of several See also:species of dramatic See also:composition . As the word implies, " See also:melodrama " is properly a dramatic mixture of See also:music and See also:action, and was first applied to a See also:form of dramatic musical composition in which music accompanied the spoken words and the action, but in which there was no singing . The first example of such a See also:work has generally been taken to be the See also:Pygmalion of J . J . See also:Rousseau, produced in 1995 . This is the source of romantic dramas depending on sensational incident with exaggerated appeals to conventional sentiment rather than on See also:play of See also:character, and in which dramatis personae follow conventional types—the villain, the See also:hero wrongfully charged with See also:crime, the persecuted heroine, the adventuress, &c . At first the music was of some importance, forming practically a See also:running See also:accompaniment suitable to the situations—but this has gradually disappeared, and, if it remains, is used mainly to emphasize particularly strong situations, or to bring on or off the See also:stage the various See also:principal characters . Such plays first became popular in See also:France at the beginning of the lgth See also:century . One of the most prolific writers of melodramas at that See also:period was R . C . G. de Pixericourt (1773-1844) . The titles of some of his plays give a sufficient indication of their character; e.g .

See also:

Victor, ou l'enfant de la foal (1799); Carlina, ou l'enfant du mystere (18ot); Le Monastere abandonne, ou la malediction paternelle (1816) . Another form of melodrama came from the same source, but See also:developed on lines which laid more emphasis on the music, and is of some importance in the See also:history of See also:opera . Probably the first of thistype is to be found in Georg See also:Benda's AriadneaufNaxos (1y74) . The most, See also:familiar of such melodramas is See also:Gay's See also:Beggar's Opera . In these the See also:dialogue is entirely spoken . In true opera the spoken dialogue was replaced by recitative . It may be noticed that the speaking of some parts of the dialogue is not sufficient to class an opera as a " melodrama " in this sense, as is proved by the spoken See also:grave-digging See also:scene, accompanied' by music, in Fidelio, and the See also:incantation scene in Der Freischiitz . To this the See also:English See also:term " declamation " is usually applied;- the Germans use Melodram . But see OPERA .

End of Article: MELODRAMA (a coined word from Gr. µEXos, music, and Spaµa, action)
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