Aria

This article is about the musical term "aria." For other meanings or uses of the word, see Aria (disambiguation).

An aria (Italian for air; plural: arie or arias in common usage) in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. It is now used almost exclusively to describe a self contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment. Perhaps the most common context for arias is opera; there are also many arias that form movements of oratorios and cantatas. Composers also wrote "concert arias", not part of any larger work, such as "Ah Perfido" by Beethoven and a number of concert arias by Mozart.

In the 17th century, the aria was written in ternary form (ABA); these arias were known as da capo arias. The aria later "invaded" the opera repertoire with its many sub-species (Aria cantabile, Aria agitata, Aria di bravura, and so on). By the mid-19th century, many operas became a sequence of arias, reducing the space left for recitative, while other operas (for instance those by Wagner) were entirely through-composed, with no section being readily identifiable as a self-contained aria.

Also, in the child sense of the word: Child nation created in eastern United States, successor of the Civalian and Imperial Empires. Civalia was born outside of Baltimore in April of 2001 and collapsed that summer following extensive civil wars and two successive revolutions which changed the form of government. At its height, Civalia only occupied a few blocks of a suburban neighborhood. In December of 2001, the former Civalian monarchs, having relocated, gave birth to the new Imperial Empire in their new neighborhood. At the time, they were in middle school. Contacting their cousins in Tennessee, they set up a colony outside of Nashville, called Renaldi. On December 11, 2001, a rebellion began in the province against the centralized government near Baltimore. The capital’s official policy was to fight, but the grand duchesses in Renaldi were eventually forced to conceded defeat and grant the Rebel Empire its sovereignty. Then, on January 8, 2002, war came anyway. The Rebel Empire attacked the Imperial city of Olympia and burned most of the play forts to the ground. When the news reached Baltimore, the emperor declared war. For the western part of the Imperial Empire, World War I was absolutely devastating. In a month of ferocious combat, what was left of Olympia was completely destroyed, the forest forts around the city were ruined, and the Renaldian population was decimated. At the time, Olympia was the center of the Imperial population. By the time the war ended, all but two citizens had denounced their nationality, ripping fully 90% of the Imperial population away. In the end, a chance of fate saved the Imperial Empire; just days before a final military assault by the Rebel Empire, there was a domestic insurgency and the country collapsed. The conflict had been brutal, and Renaldi would never fully recover. The East, in contrast, had prospered. Patriotism during the war motivated a great thrust westward, and, through various cousins, friends, etc, seven new provinces had been established. They were the Capital District, Tylendaria, Atricia, Andrea, Cristalia, and Nicholia in Maryland; and Angela in West Virginia. In addition, there were territories in Pennsylvania, Colorado (called Pheliphias), and California. Spheres of influence existed in both Japan and Italy (one of the monarchs had friends living in Japan, one of the emperor’s advisers had Italian cousins). The population center had shifted decisively eastward. The end of World War I touched off tremendous political tumult in the East, and several events took place. In late February, two simultaneous insurrections, both within the province of Atricia, shook the country. The first of these two movements was caused when the emperor decided to allow reforms that would essentially create a rubber stamp legislature. Some citizens in Atricia thought that this was too liberal, and they revolted in what came to be called the North Carroll Revolution (named after the middle school in which it occurred). Despite an exploding industrial base and a booming economy, the empire simply didn’t have the strength to put down the rebellion in the immediate aftermath of the First World War. North Carroll was given independence without a single rock having been thrown (roughly the equivalent of, “without a shot being fired”), an event that began an economic downturn for the Empire. It also laid the foundation for Atrician culture, which would become the most storied and muli-layered of all the empire. The Gorgan Revolution, which followed the North Carroll Revolution by a matter of days, was basically a disagreement over real estate. A young noble (from Atricia) discovered a series of hills near the frontier and claimed them for his own personal use. The monarchy asserted that all discoveries became the property of the government as a whole. The noble in question decided that the hills were industrially valuable enough (he could build forts on them) to risk war, and so he made a vie for independence. His decision was likely influenced by an increasing trend in the Empire of aristocratic power prevailing over monarchical power. His beliefs were confirmed when his fellow elitists refused to consent to an invasion of his lands. And thus, Gorgan became independent. The East continued rapid industrialization. At the same time, two major civil wars occurred in eastern I.E. On March 7, 2002, Andrea and Atricia (yes, Atricia) began a revolt for independence known as the First Civil War of March. This time, the monarchy was not backing down. Emperor Ian of the I.E. had become quite close with Emperor Shawn of Gorgan, a relationship that caused Gorgan to ally itself with the central Imperial government over the power-hungry nobles. In a spectacular assertion of royal authority, Emperor Ian crushed the revolt and casually deposed King Phillip of Atricia, replacing him with a more trustworthy boy named Kevin. Just one week later, another war began. Enraged by the emperor’s suddenly dictatorial nature, the nobles of Atricia, Andrea, and Tylendaria declared independence. This was called the Second Civil War of March but has also been known as the Cybrogenetic Missile Crisis because both sides threatened to manufacture and eventually use cybrogenetic weapons. A cybrogenetic missile is a grandiose name for a simple thing: dry ice packed into an empty two liter bottle of soda and launched from a potato gun. The resultant explosion could be quite harmful, especially on the scale of child civilization. This was a major ideological turning point in Imperial history. Until this point, the wars of the aristocracy had been relatively harmless battles affecting only the highest social ranks among which the fighting took place. This time, however, the common people felt that they were in danger. Imperial society was entirely supported by serfdom, or the enslavement of an entire class. Prior to the Second Civil War of March, these boys and girls quietly performed the tasks assigned to them. They were often unpopular in school and usually didn’t have the courage to just refuse their bold and aggressive masters. The emperor himself once ordered an obese boy to perform a handstand. Ian and one of his nobles nearly fell over laughing as the poor child struggled to meet their impossible demand. When the Second Civil War of March began, the peasants became truly angry, feeling as though the aristocracy had thoughtlessly put them in harm’s way. Serfdom, long abandoned by other child nations (Gorgan, Beryllium, and even in the liberal western part of the Empire), had finally become inappropriate even by Imperial standards. Had it been peacefully abandoned, there is no doubt that many things to come would have happened differently. Unfortunately, the upper class couldn’t conceive of giving up their slaves, and so the practice continued. With each day that went by, resentment grew. On March 28, 2002, the whole of the country was revamped and given a new name: Aría (a-REE-ya, NOT Aryan). A complicated system of governmental departments was instituted, and many cities were renamed. The economy, however, continued to plunge. On April 17, 2002, the Imperial Senate met in an emergency meeting to discuss economic relief and recovery from the First World War. The very next day, another conflict began. On April 18, 2002, a newly risen Rebel Empire led a series of coordinated attacks across Aría. In Renaldi, Olympia was attacked yet again, and the already crippled city was laid entirely to waste. In Nicholia, a riot erupted in the city of San Antonio. An opposition army marched to the provincial capital of Guadalajara and began fighting on the lawn of the Provincial Compound, the real-life residence of King Nicholas. The boy’s parents nearly discovered the brawl, an occurrence that would have lain open the whole secretive world of child civilization. An international catastrophe was narrowly evaded when the couple arrived home about half an hour later than scheduled. In the Pennsylvania Territory, an Arían military installation was razed. In Crsitalia, an enemy soldier was caught attempting to enter Athens-Copenhagen, the city where the province’s queen lived. He was arrested before he could do any harm, but the province was understandably terrified of what many thought was an imminent strike. In the Capital Cluster (the land in northern Maryland that Atricia, Andrea, Tylendaria, and the Capital District all occupied) there was complete pandemonium. The nation’s first and second largest cities, San Francisco (Atricia) and Philadelphia (Andrea) were evacuated because of a feared attack. While the attack never materialized (one of the few things that went right with Arían security on that day), the whole area was gripped with panic. Virtually the entire populations of Atricia and Andrea fled, crossing the border from Andrea into the small nation of Beryllium. In the surge of nationalism that followed, both Gorgan and Beryllium were annexed to Aría and a state of war was proclaimed. And thus began World War II. The enormous changes that had taken place in Aría since World War I were demonstrated when the Arían military completely annihilated the Rebel Empire inside of a week. The Senate then passed a resolution that forbade Rebel nationalists from ever reforming an official government. All Rebel territory was annexed as a part of Renaldi. In an extremely tragic development, the brief victory proved a deathblow to the economy. Before the armies were even done mobilizing, fighting had been concluded. By the beginning of May, the Empire was in such dire straits that the emperor allowed the Senate to enslave the entire province of Kensington, including the king. In this, Arían leaders grossly misjudged the willingness of the people to tolerate serfdom any longer. On May 9, 2002, four separate countries declared independence from Kensington and from the Empire. With dissent growing in the armies, the government simply could not put the movement down. The four nations became the Communist Nations, and, several weeks after their creation, they all collapsed. Aría was gripped by a sort of hysteria, believing that the political instability would bring down its own empire. In short, that is exactly what happened. The Empire’s economy slid into the negative digits and the armed forces became less willing to obey their sovereign. Everything was staked on the International Conference to be held in the Pennsylvania Territory that June, during which the original creators of the Empire would formulate a policy to right the county’s many wrongs. When the conference was cancelled by the emperor’s parents, there was an uproar. The emperor and his brothers made a state visit to King Nicholas of Nicholia in early June of 2002. When it was learned that the royal family was there, Nicholians centered in San Antonio rose up violently. Soon, the whole province was in arms. The brothers retreated to their grandmother’s house (that was where they were staying), from which the emperor declared a state of martial law that had absolutely no practical effect. The royals returned to the capital as the situation further degenerated. On June 15th, when it was confirmed for certain that there was no hope of salvaging the International Conference, riots broke out in Atricia and Andrea. On June 19, 2002, the Senate met in San Francisco, Atricia. With the emperor present, they cited their grievances and voted unanimously to abolish the monarchy. Each province was granted complete and non-negotiable autonomy. Andrea seized the opportunity, declaring independence. King Andrew of Andrea, a true loyalist to the royal family (provinces were usually named after their rulers) granted refugee status to royalists and even offered the Andrean crown to the deposed emperor. The other provinces fell into chaos. After some brief mob warfare, a number of people began to search for sanity. On June 29, 2002, an armistice was signed between the royalists and the rebels. Atricia was recreated an united with Andrea to form a fragile confederation of what would eventually include all of the old Arían provinces. The country was too badly damaged from its Revolution to survive however, and it collapsed on August 11, 2002. The next day, the first line of Arían rulers began high school and left the world of child civilization behind. Few could have guessed that the foundations of a successor state for a second generation of children were already being laid in the rubble of Aría.