parable aria

In music, atype of mainly operatic aria in which certain abstract conceptions are illustrated by concrete ideas resembling them – fidelity by a rock in a stormy sea, love by cooing turtle-doves, and so on. The form was cultivated in the early 18th century, especially by Apostolo Zeno and Metastasio in their libretti. Examples of parable arias are ‘As when the dove’ in Handel's Acis and Galatea, and ‘Come scoglio/Like a rock’ in Mozart's Così fan tutte which is both verbally and musically a parody of the type. The music of a parable aria was usually illustrative of the image chosen by the librettist.