Dedicated to discerning
melomaniacs so that they may stop being subjected to show business
basking in the light of not always admissible interests.
So that the informed general public may follow
and enjoy the great Art of Song.
Without forgetting the WORD of
the Great Masters.
Then: either go back
to the great Italian school of singing
if one wants to be a virtuoso
performer,
or else abandon for ever a repertory
which, as Caccini said,
"does not suffer mediocrity".
Annibale Gianuario
THE PERFECT VOCAL MECHANISM
Union of the two registers (chest
and head), giving forth the creation of a single register from which
derives
a) homogeneity, b)
wide vocal range, and c) "soave et
spiccata" (that is virtuosity detached) virtuosity.
These characteristics exclude
the ludicrous subdivision of the vocal range, linked to the decline of
vocalism. Henceforth rendered meaningless are the distinctions
soprano leggero, soprano lirico, soprano
drammatico, soprano lirico spinto, etc.; or mezzo soprano
d'agilità, mezzo soprano drammatico, etc.;
and this holds equally true for the masculine range. These distinction
have nothing in common with the woman who, singing from the chest,
imitates the male voice or the man who, using uniquely the upper range,
imitates the female voice. These qualities are necessary for any
repertory; they assure vocal health and longevity and are obligatory for
any performance of Italian music composed before the second half of the
19th century.
Those who lack this gift, even
the most famous show-business performers, cannot be considered as great
singers, nor as members of the Republic of the Art of Song. Numerous
texts and other evidence from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
reveal beyond any shadow of doubt the
qualities considered essential in great vocalisation. They are
identical to those found in the great tradition
of the following centuries.
A general consideration
deserves to be deeply meditated upon here: in our time we have
completely lost the sense of "creating sound", above all in the vocal
arts. It appears as if the fact of being able to "speak" (with greater
or lesser "volume") provides us by right with the faculty of being able
to "sing".
Just as with other
sound-as-event (a typical paradox of the time we live in is that only
piano schools ask themselves how they are going to "create sound") - but
in particular where song is concerned - what is essential is the "creation
of sound" or transformation of voice
into sound in which the voice is like
wood or any other material required to make a musical instrument.
The
creation of sound means using as much as
possible those parts of the body that permit amplification (resonance)
of sound-which is to say those resonators above the larynx seated
in the nasal cavities and in the paranasal cavities (othmoids,
maxillary and sphenoid).
The great, centuries-old
Italian School was based upon research and development of "
resonance " and as it happens all texts mention
the "sonorous voice ". Total resonance is possible only through
the mechanism of support, a mechanism which, as the ancients say,
cannot be described with words or in writing. One can only say that
phonetic exercises exist which are based
on appropriate vowels and consonants passed down from generation to
generation orally so as to create sound at the highest point and as
foward as possible.
At that point one has a voice
which carries (The voice is moderately
pleasing, but does not carries" Monteverdi noted) and an instrument
that makes the vocal script extraordinarily prominent by means of
its objective rendering. This is why
characterisation of the voice in the ancient Italian School was
absolutely lacking.
"Her voice then
(Tarquinia Molza) is a soprano which is
not dark, not suppressed, not forced but very clear, open, very sweet,
low, equal and very suave; that which in the end we could say, if it
were possible to do so without transgression, is more than angelic, and
that which musicians usually call round, which counts as much when it is
below, as in the middle, as above".
GIULIO CESARE BRANCACCI,
Letter to Alfonso d'Este,
December 1589, describes to the Duke the
"(...) round and sonorous
voice, as much so when it is low as when it is high and in the middle
range " by a Singer.
ALFONSO D'ESTE,
Letter of June 1589.
The Duke asks, concerning a Bass.
"If he has a good voice, if his
voices are sweet, if he sings with discretion, if he has disposition,
how he bears the high voices, and to what point he deepens his voice".
"(...) always using the very
sonorous and very suave voices they have in song".
GIULIO CACCINI,Letter to Andrea Cioli of the 10th March 1617.
"(...) Mister Francesco
Bonsi, the most beautiful and most sonorous voice there ever was, at
least in my time, among gentlemen in this city, with an inexpressible
grace in manipulating it".
The golden age of the Italian
School of Singing is characteised by the ideal of the "natural voice",
as Caccini says, of the voice, that is, in which the two natural
registers (chest and head) operate in perfect union. Already in the
second half of the 16th century the falsettos [today back in
fashion with the name of counter-tenor, haute-contre, alto and contralto
(sic)], were substituted in the
Chapels (where women were forbidden to be present) by the Evirated
Singers. They, as the most recent scientific studies have also
demonstrated, conserved the acute female Octave (eviration determines
the lack of testosterone, a hormone which governs the development of the
male's sexual characteristics) and were able to fully produce, as do
female and male voices, the union of the two registers (cf. the
expression "Castratos as Natural Sopranos" by Pietro Della Valle).
The evirated singers were also present in the Theatre, where they often
alternated with female Singers in the same roles (cf. for example
Giovanna Alberti and Senesino in the works of Alessandro Scarlatti, Diana
Vico, Niccolini, Mrs. Barbier and Bemacchi in Handel's Rinaldo).
The presence today of singers of falsetto in the Italian or Italianised
repertoire is completely anti-historic, anti-aesthetic and
anti-technical.
VOICE IN THE NATURAL OCTAVE
GIULIO CACCINI, Preface to
Nuove Musiche,
Florence, 1601.
"Nobility in fine singing
cannot come from false voices: it will come out of a natural voice that
accomodates all the chords which can be used according to talent without
needing breathing in order to demonstrate mastery of all the best
effects that are required in this noble manner of singing".
PIETRO DELLA VALLE,
Della musica dell’ età nostra che non è punto
inferiore, anzi è migliore di quella dell'età passata,
Rome, 1640.
"(...)to briefly mention the sopranos, the
greatest ornament music has, will Your Lordship compare the falsettos of
that time with the natural soprano of the castratos which today we have
in abundance?"
"(...) and besides the singers,
where were there in the past those many women singers who today we have
with singular excellence?" "(...) But where have I left the nuns who for
honour's sake I should have first named?"
At the origin of the exclusion
of singers of falsetto, as with the
pueri cantores ("at times when listening to them they wrenched chords in
a way that was unbearable to me"
says Della Valle), there is the aesthetic expressive, humanistic and
Renaissance revolution that has its outlet in the Monody of the Second
Practice. Della Valle in fact declares:
"But all those who from trills
and passages on and from good voicing, had almost no more art in their
singing than piano and forte, increasing the voice little by little,
lowering it with grace, the expression of affections and indulging the
words and their sense with good judgement and gladdening the voice or
rendering it melancholic, from making it piteous or bold as required,
and other similar pretty things which nowadays singers do excellently,
at that time was not talked about (...)".
A brief excursus into technical
aspects will make clear "ancient" words a vocal civilisation which today
has disappeared almost completely and is unknown.
EMISSION
GIOVANNI CAMILLO MAFFEI,
Delle lettere... discorso della voce e del
modo di apparare di cantar di Garganta senza Maestro,
Naples, 1562.
"The voice must expire breath
little by little, making sure that it is not lost in the nose or the
throat."
PIER FRANCESCO TOSI,
Opinioni de' Cantori antichi e moderni.
Bologna, 1723.
"The Student's voice (...) should come out
clearly and purely without passing through the nose or drowning in the
throat. These are the singer's most fatal defects; once they have
contaminated one's technique, there exists no remedy."
Tosi revealed a false emission
from the other side of the Alps which started to find followers already
at that time and which found its imitators in Italy.
The "emetic style" or "retching"
which in no way corresponded either to the phonation of the Italian
language or to tradition, gave way to what Traetta called "the French
shout" and what Liszt would term "the great cry". It is obvious that we
have a "retching" sound when there is in no way awareness of the "vocal
resonance".
"You will feel sick when you
hear the invented emetic style of those who sing like waves of the sea,
provoking innocent notes with ill-bred thrusts of the voice. This is a
disgusting and uncivilised defect, but since it comes from the other
side of the mountains it is passed off as a modern rarity".
GIAMBATTISTA MANCINI,
Riflessioni pratiche sul canto figurato,
Milan, 1777.
"The voice should come out
clearly, sonorously, and beautifully (...) They
(the singers) passed years perfecting
intonation and practicing the techniques destined to considerate and
firmly retain the voice's qualities; to render her clear; to work her
emission, gradation, etc."
As we have said, the creation
of the vocal sound, of the "sonorous
voice", is possible only by means of the appoggio, another
technical term which is inexplicable when written (as already considered
in ancient writings on vocal style) which is to say, the mechanism that
permits the total and exclusive utilisation of resonance.
PIER FRANCESCO TOSI,
Opinioni de' Cantori antichi e moderni,
Bologna, 1723.
"If they
(teacher) then make him sing the "words
before he has a frank understanding of solfeggio, and then sustained
vocalisation, he is ruined".
It is this "sustaining" that
allows the "total" union of registers, which is to say the creation of a
unique register with its consequent
homogeneity, purity and perfect intonation.
There is a great secret for
getting there and it comes from the consideration that there is unique
point in the sustaining for all sounds in the musical scale.
To this extent it has to be
noted that no old Italian text refers minimally (and the careful reader
will have understood why: the fusion
of the two registers in order to obtain a single register eliminates the
registers themselves with relative problems of passage from one to the
other) to the so-called "register passages" upon which Garcia in
the 19th century, after having subdivided the human voice into three
registers (sic) imposed his own
vocal metod. It seems useless to me to emphasise how the period of
confusion, both theoretical and practical, in the art of Singing,
started with Garcia.
THE FUSION OF REGISTERS, THE UNIQUE REGISTER,
HOMOGENEITY
PIER FRANCESCO TOSI,
Opinioni de' Cantori antichi e moderni.
Bologna, 1723.
"A diligent Teacher, knowing
that a Soprano without falsetto (or the head voice) is obliged to sing
within a range limited to a few notes, will apply himself so that he may
acquire this register. The head voice must be unified with the chest
voice such that one cannot distinguish the two; if the union is
imperfect, the voice emits in multiple registers and hence loses its
beauty".
GIAMBATTISTA MANCINI,
Riflessioni pratiche sul canto figurato,
Milan, 1777.
"The singers' great art
consists in rendering all effort imperceptible, in masking from the
audience all the major and minor difficulties one encounters while
singing simultaneously with the head voice and chest voice. This can be
obtained only if the two registers are profoundly unified, but this is
difficult to achieve naturally and purely. Study, fatigue, and ingenuity
are required to correct the disaccords derived from the organs)
diverse constitutions and a management and economy of voice is required
such as to make it equally sonorous and pleasant, which few students
manage to do, and of which few teachers know the practical rules, and do
not know how to carry them out".
"(...) Constant attention is in
order, such that the voice never becomes strident (especially in the
high notes) and that the entire register finds its perfect equilibrium.
Complete success cannot be obtained unless the student's exercises
consist in solfeggio of lengthy notes, circulating first in the lowest
pitch, passing next to the medium and finally mixing correctly with the
high notes. The massing of these voices must form combinations such as
to not waste the union of the entire register. In vain does one hope to
be able to obtain all this by other means and with other rules (...)".
The issue obtained with the
breath ("Maintain the sound with the
chest, not with the jaws" Tosi says) does not only create a live
and vibrant sound (not by chance does the old Italian Organ have a
register, the human voice, based on the phenomenon of the beat, a
register which therefore vibrates) but it also allows the "voice to
carry", another pillar of the "good
school".
Our time, used to the
"retching" emission, is by now completely
refractory in conceiving portamento (not to be confused
with the forced and dragged voice) which exists only
if one creates the sound by fully using resonance.
PORTAMENTO
FRANCESCO ROGNONI,Selva de varii Passaggi,
Milan, 1620.
"The bearing of the voice has
to be performed-with grace, which is done by reinforcing the voice on
the first note little by little and then making the tremolo above
the negra".
GIAMBATTISTA MANCINI,
Riflessioni pratiche sul canto figurato,
Milan, 1777.
"Having arrived at this point,
the pupil can be happy for having successfully joined the two voices and
with effort and patience will more easily proceed to study which will
supply him with voice portamento, so necessary/or any kind of singing.
"By portamento we only mean a
passage which carries the voice from one note to the other with perfect
proportion and union, as much in rising as in falling. Moreover, the
song will be beautiful and perfected while the person producing it will
need to draw breath since there must be a correct and smooth gradation
which serves to hold and bind the passage from one note to another".
Portamento is used particularly
in the monody of early 17th century also as to create special chromatic
effects. It is in fact indispensable for the production of "Canto
affettuoso", which is typical in the aesthetics of the Second Practice
and the Affections.
OTTAVIO DURANTE,
Arie Divote, Rome,
1608.
"When a rising note is found,
if at this point the voice rises little by little with the same tone, a
very fine effect will be obtained. In order to increase the voice from a
tone to a semitone the Diesis in the connected note is marked in order
to communicate the fact that increase must be started here little by
little, keeping in mind that there are four commas, up to the point of
perfect increase which, when it is performed well, is quite moving".
FRANCESCO ROGNONI,
Selva de varii Passaggi,
Milan, 1620.
"You will notice that when the
semibreve is found in increasing the voice, or when the voice starts
soft and low to increase little by little in the sorrowful words which,
in order to acheive real effect, requires diminishing the voice and then
raising it as required, as at the minims with a dot".
Even more refined is the use
proposed by Domenico Mazzocchi in the composition of the "Lamento". Here
we in fact have the Greek enharmonic
way (quarter tone).
DOMENICO MAZZOCCHI,
Dialoghi e Sonetti posti in musica,
Rome, 1638.
"Where this other sign in the
form of a letter V is found, you must raise the voice or (as is commonly
said) place the voice, which is to say the gradual increase of the voice
and breath together, as well as tone, and especially at the above said
X, as is practised in the Enharmonics. But when the voice increases only
by breath and spirit, and not tone, it is marked with the letter c, as
been done in certain Madrigals, and at the point will be observed that
since the holding of the voice must be preceded by gradual increase,
just as it is then decreased to little or no sound; raised from a
cistern is how this denotes certain voices".
These are effects which are
added to the Accents, to Exclamations, to Increase and Decrease of the
voice, and which can be performed only by the "good" emission based on
"good" breathing.
Upon this also depends the
great extension of the vocal instrument: these are the three Octaves
mentioned in the texts and which we find again in the music (cf. the
Madrigals of Caccini for "Tenor in search of the chords of a Bass")
by composers from 1500 to 1700 inclusive, from Caccini for example to
Farinello ("Favourite" arias with Cadences and Variations).
THE VOCAL RANGE
VINCENZO GIUSTINIANI,
Discorso sopra la musica de' suoi tempi, 1628.
"In the year of our Lord 1575
and thereafter a way of singing began which was very different from that
of before, and thus it was for following years, especially in the way of
singing for one voice accompanied by an instrument, as in the example of
one Gio. Andrea, a Neapolitan, and Sig. Giulio Cesare Brancacci and one
Alessandro Merlo, a Roman, who sang bass over the range of 22 voices
(three octaves), with a variety of new
passages which were a pleasure to the ears of all (...). At the same
time Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici who was then the Great Duke of
Tuscany, stimulated by his own taste and by the example of the other
Princes mentioned, pressed for excellent musicians, and especially the
famous Vittoria who gave rise more or less to the real way of singing
among women, since she was the wife of Antonio di Santa Fiore, so named
because he had been from childhood the musician 'per eccellenza' of the
Cardinal di Santa Fiore. And by this example many others practised this
way of singing in Rome, in such a way that it prevailed over all the
musicians linked to those places and Princes mentioned above; and in
this way came to light Giulio Romano, Giuseppino, Gio. Domenico and Rasi
who appeared in Florence with Giulio Romano; and all sang from bass to
tenor with a wide range of voice and with exquisite ways and passages
and with extraordinary affection and talent such as to make the words be
clearly heard".
GIAMBATTISTA MANCINI,
Riflessioni pratiche sul canto figurato, Milan, 1777.
" (...) a voice purged of all
defects, of extended register, only through these qualities may be
termed beautiful ".
The creation of the perfect
vocal instrument by means of the appoggio thsit fuses the two
registers in an "extended" register, allows real virtuosity to be
performed without any limits.
The description of this
virtuosity (passages, groups, trills, ascending and descending
passages, falling and increasing trills, which is to say a series of
trilled notes that rise and fall, sudden hammering agility, etc.)
constitutes the most precise description left to us in old texts,
considering also the shakiness of the specific language used.
The "pronunciation"
(this is another term used instead of "spiccato") of each note,
even at high speed, is evident: the opposite, that is, of the virtuosity
"glide", which is to say, slippery, oily and confused - as stigmatised
by Monteverdi.
"Spiccato "
is the term most used in the 16th and 17th centuries, and even a great
virtuoso instrumentalist such as Frescobaldi advises that "If
possible in double passages one proceeds slowly, so that they may be
'spiccati' (...)", which is to say that every note of the virtuoso
passage must be easily identifiable at speed.
It is furthermore necessary to
possess this virtuosity in order to perform the Florentine and
Monteverdian "representative style" (Sprezzatura and Parlar
Cantando), the representative style so admired by Pere Mersenne who
invited the French to go to Italy or to read Caccini:
"(...) even if our Singers
imagine that the exclamations and accents used by Italians in singing
have too much Tragedy or Comedy (...), the Italians observe many things
in their performance, which we do not, since they represent as much as
they can the passions and affections of the soul and of the spirit; for
example, anger, fury, scorn, madness, the failings of the heart and many
other passions with a violence which is so strange that one would think
they themselves were touched by the very same passions they represent in
song; while we French are content to caress the ear and employ a
perpetual sweetness in their songs, which impedes energy.
This text by Pere Mersenne, who
knew well both G.B. Doni and the Italians' "representative style "
(cf. Harmonic Universelle, Paris 1636) clearly shows a type of
interpretation which is in tune with the aesthetics of the Second
Practice but which finds no counterpart in that which the fashion for
"early music" continuously presents us with. The reasons are clearly of
a cognitive character, but also, essentially, technical.
We know that what makes the
"spoken" differ from the "sung" is the presence of the legato, or
"voice carrier" in the latter, while the spoken part operates upon the
basis of syllabic caesuras in diction.
We also know that we can
connect, or sing, sounds even if production is not perfectly artistic,
just as the virtuoso "passages" can be performed with the same type of
production so that they incorrectly "glide" (gorgia onta,
Monteverdi would say).
Now, just as distinct
performance of vocal virtuosity requires production which technically
speaking we define as being clean, in the same way performance of
"sung speech" requires an equally perfect production due to the
characteristics of speech - noted above -which "sung speech" to
"distinct" notes in virtuoso passages. We thus clearly understand how
practical production of "sung speech or recitation" is in reality more
difficult that one might think.
The technical meaning of "sung
speech" is "speaking" while exploiting the pure resonance given by
perfect production. From this we obtain an unimaginable range of
expression - much greater than one
might think - and produced by countless possibilities inherent in
declamation, characterised as it is by principal and secondary accents
and by the possibility of variety in the range of sounds derived from
exploiting the "play" of resonance (I want to mention here those effects
of extreme purity and fragility in syllabic sound in passages of
a pathetic nature with words such as mow, languo etc.); from both
these elements we get polyhedricity of "expression" or "affection". "Sung
speech" features all components of diction, from syllabic caesurae -
mentioned above - to a phonetic variety determined by the structure of
the vowels (such as the nuances of open and closed vowels which
theoreticians of the time talked of) to the agogics of diction itself.
We do have to in fact consider,
when thinking of this latter element, that there is a first movement
which is indispensable for the very existence of diction and beneath
which the element of individualisation of the phoneme itself is missing.
By playing with this "first movement", which can be varied infinitely,
we obtain the range mentioned above, which is at the heart of the art of
declamation and which, as it happens, Vincenzo Galilei, one of the
theoreticians in the house of Bardi, has dealt with.
The Florentine theoretician in fact wrote that:
"When for amusement you go to
Tragedies and Comedies performed by the Zanni, set aside now and then
immoderate laughter; and instead pleasantly observe in what way speech
is made, how acute or grave it may be, and with what degree of sound,
what sort of accent and what gestures are made according to the speed or
delay in flow between one gentleman and the other. Note somewhat the
difference required among all these things, when one of them speaks to a
servant, or when one speaks to the other, considering when this takes
place to the Prince discoursing with a subject or vassal; when a
supplicant implores; when this is done in anger or in conciliation; when
the person is a married lady, or a maiden; or a simple boy; or an astute
harlot; or a lover when speaking (...) What accidents may carefully by
these means be avoided and diligently examined: you may take as normal
those that are convenient for the expression of any concept that may
occur".
In the art of declamation the
knowledgeable use of the pause is present. Galilei does not
mention this, but it is understood, since it is a determining element of
that studied carelessness [sprezzatura] which is synonymous with
the natural poetic-musical expression which those who frequented the
Bardi house tended to use varying shades of interpretation according to
each individual author.
In this expressive naturalness
there is the use of an appropriate volume. Since the intensity of
diction depends upon the quantity of breath employed, it is evident that
the volume, while varying between piano and an emphatic forte,
will never be as strong or as soft as takes place in pure song. Caccini,
Monteverdi and Emilio de' Cavalieri refer to this when they recommend as
part of a "representative style" the use of rooms which are not
excessively large so that the singer does not have to use excessive
"force".
THE FUSION OF REGISTERS AND VIRTUOSO
POSSIBILITIES
CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI,
Letter of July, 24th, 1627 to Ales-sandro Striggio:
"(...) it is quite true that he
sings with security, but he sings equally melancholic and the gorge is
not separated so "well because most times there is lacking the addition
of the vocal from the breast and that of the gullet, because if that of
the gullet to that of the breast are absent the gorge becomes crude and
hard and offensive, while if that of the breast to that of the throat is
absent the gorge becomes oily and almost continuous in the vocal, but "when
both are operating the gorge becomes smooth and separated and is the
most natural".
GIAMBATTISTA MANCINI,
Riflessioni pratiche sul canto figurato, Milan, 1777.
"The study
[of agility] should no be begin if the
master has not successfully unified the voice's two registers, as
discussed in chapter VIII. If this essential point is neglected, the
voice will suffer greatly; the passagio "will lack equilibrium and
become, consequently, defective.".
OTHER PRINCIPAL TEXTS ON THE TRUE VIRTUOSITY
(THAT IS, THE VIRTUOSITY DETACHED)
LODOVICO ZACCONI, Prattica di Musica,
Venice, 1592.
"And others (...) do not
present the figures so markedly, they do not pronounce them so well so
that they are made evident through trilling (...) One augments by a
quantity of notes which should be detached despite the rapid speed. This
offers such pleasure and joy that one may believe one is hearing
well-trained birds, successfully ravishing and exalting an audience
which, eventually, can only cede to perfect contentment. "
Zacconi harshly deplores those
who "detach the notes without precision,
who do not articulate sufficiently and thereby can never be accepted as
virtuosos " .
GIOVAN BATTISTA BOVICELLI,
Regole e passaggi di musica, madrigali e mottetti passeggiati,
Venice, 1594.
"The demisemiquavers must,
besides the voice being suitable to them, be pronounced well, nor must
they be used much if not, as we have said, with quavers by degree ".
ANTONIO BRUNELLI, Varii esercitij per una e
due voci, Florence, 1614.
"(...) so that the quavers may
be sung with dots, and repeated with the throat; and not the mouth, as
do those who make no difference between repeating with the mouth and
repeating with the throat and which takes place as a result of the
little knowledge they have. The semiquavers are not sung with dots, and
this is because of their speed, but must be well repeated with the
throat, distinguishing well from the other so that the passage is real.
Since all the energy of the arrangement consists in repeating with the
throat".
FRANCESCO SEVERI, Salmi
passeggiati per tutte le voci sopra i Falsi Bordoni di tutti i Toni
Ecclesiastici, Rome, 1615.
"The double half-notes must be
sung with vivacity and as rapidly as possible, on the condition that the
detachment takes place in the chest. If it takes place in the throat, as
often happens, confusion and disgust are generated for the listener
rather than pleasure".
VINCENZO GIUSTINIANI,
Discorso sopra la musica de' suoi tempi, 1628.
"(...) and moreover with the
moderating and increasing of the voice loudly or softly, decreasing it
or increasing it, "which depending on whether it came in lines, is at
times drawn out, at times halved, accompanied by a sweet interrupted
sigh, at times drawing long passages, well accompanied, pronounced, at
times in sets, or leaps, or long trills, at times short, at times with
sweet passages sung low from which at times one hears the response of an
echo, and mainly using the face, with glances and gestures that
accompany both music and concepts appropriately ".
SAVERIO BONINI, Prima parte
de' discorsi e Regole sovra la musica, Ms XVII c. (Biblioteca
Riccardiana, Florence).
"(...) those admiring her very
sweet voice (Margherita Caccini, daughter of Francesca), almost like a
silver resounding reed, overflowing with trills and pronounced sets
accompanied by marvellous and affectionate accents, competed with each
other to be able to go and hear her".
PIER FRANCESCO TOSI,
Opinioni de' Cantori antichi e modemi, Bologna, 1723.
"He who trains the student's
voice to laziness barely teaches the smallest part of his Profession,
and renders impossible the learning of the greatest. He who lacks an
agile voice (in andante compositions as well as at tempo vivace) will
produce a mortal boredom in the listener by the weighty indifference of
his interpretation. He will always be behind the tempo, and thereby
everything that he sings can only be false
".
"The Master should teach the
student that very delicate vocal movement where in the notes are
articulated proportionally and with moderate detachment, such that the
passage is neither too legato nor too staccato".
"All the beauty of the passage
consists in being perfectly equal, articulated, detached, balanced, and
moderately rapid ".
"The Master must teach the
student to animate the passages with the same rapidity in ascending as
in descending since, while learning is possible for all beginners, not
all Singers can arrive at the proper execution".
GIAMBATTISTA MANCINI,
Riflessioni pratiche sul canto figurato, Milan, 1777.
"In conclusion it must be said
that the movement, and any agile song, must be sustained by the
robustness of the breast accompanied by necessity with the scaling of
the breath, and lightness of jaw, so that each note is heard distinctly,
even though performed with maximum speed. Any pupil must realise that
this study requires a given amount of time to be perfected and a
tireless energy if it is not to be left imperfect. This time and energy
will not have been spent in vain, but will have served to create a
varied, virtuous song which as a consequence will be both distinct and
sublime".
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE TRILL AND
ITS AUTHENTIC EXECUTION
PIER FRANCESCO TOSI,
Opinioni de' Canton antichi e modemi, Bologna, 1723.
"He who possesses a very good
trill, even unadorned, has the constant advantage of good judgement
concerning the cadences, wherein the trill plays a primordial role.He who lacks this talent (or formulates it defectively) will never
be a great Singer, despite his learning".
"The student ought to acquire
it in its most beautiful form: balanced, pronounced, detached, light,
and moderately rapid."
"I know, and I have had the
misfortune to witness, that some sing without trills, but one must never
imitate those who simply have not studied enough. "
GIAMBATTISTA MANCINI,
Riflessioni pratiche sul canto figurato, Milan, 1777.
"All the beauty and perfection
of song is, in a single word, the trill."
"The only ornament they
[Ancient Teachers] proposed immediately to their students was the
trill. Though lacking the natural talent, the students were obliged to
practice the trill for quite a while. The aim "was not to achieve
immediate perfection, but to facilitate the eventual realisation and to
gradually introduce the initiating movement. Eventually, the students
attained perfection, though not without significant time and difficult
work."
"He who possesses a perfect
trill can produce it at will and place it with prudence, only where
necessary. However, not only the individual singer, but the general
reputation of song is contaminated when the trill is lacking"
MOZARTIAN SONG
Charles Burney describes Anna
de Amicis, the first to interpret the role of Giunia (of Mozart's "Lucio
Silla" in Milan, 1772): "She was the
first singer who sang rapid ascending scales staccato".
ROSSINI'S SONG
FREDERIC CHOPIN, in his letter
of October 5th, 1830, regarding the interpretation of Rossini's "La
gazza ladra" by Konstancja Gladkowska (the student of the Italian
Soliva, founder of the school of song at the Conservatory of Warsaw):
"She sang this passage admirably,
not as short as Madame Mayer but long, such
that eight distinct notes emerged from a quick grouplet. "
TIMBRE
THE SENSE CURRENTLY DENOTED BY
THIS WORD AND CONCEPT (WHICH DATE FROM THE TEXT OF GARCIA) WAS UNKNOWN
DURING THIS PERIOD. GIVEN THAT EACH INDIVIDUAL POSSESSES A WHOLLY UNIQUE
TONE-COLOUR, THE CLASSIFICATIONS OF TIMBRES (OF A SOPRANO, A
MEZZO-SOPRANO, COUNTER-TENOR, ETC.) IS COMPLETELY UNFOUNDED AND
SENSELESS.
The text of Manuel Garcia
(1847) marks the start of the decline of the art of song as knowledge of
the basic mechanism. Not only. While maintaining some general ideas of
the Italian School, Garcia often
doesn't know, and therefore distorts, the real essence of agility in the
17th-18th century tradition; the example of the "hammered agility"
(agilità martellata) is sufficient, well describes as it is by
Mancini. There is still the fact that in 1858 Rossini deplored the lack
of interpreters for the music of Bellini and Cimarosa.
GIAMBATTISTA MANCINI had
already denounced the art's decline:
"The origin of the evil, in my
sense of the word, goes back to the vile interest which it seems in
large part dominated the masters (...) Another very grave inconvenience
is that now many are setting themselves up as singing teachers without
ever in practice having learnt the rules, and without in the end knowing
how to lead the pupil forward gradually and teach him perfect intonation
and exact timing. They think it is sufficient to know how to play the
violin or drum a little on the harpsichord, in order to be singing
teachers; and by offering their work at a cost beneath that of a good
and patient teacher who is willing to exert due diligence, they find
people who allow themselves to be won over by the apparent advantage of
sure savings and who then entrust themselves to their direction. These
inexpert teachers think they have done everything if their pupils
perform a few inexpert passages and a few bawling notes that offend the
ear. This is the type of instruction we get from teachers nowadays, and
such is their knowledge. The Art suffers a true profanation when any
mediocre keyboard or string musician appropriates the role of a master,
in total ignorance of the most basic elements of song. Lacking an
understanding of the methods of a voice's production and carriage, they
have their students shout with all their breath and ruin the most
beautiful voices. One hears the registers' disaccords, the lack of
intonation, voices trapped in the throat or the nose or entirely muted.
All is due to the teacher's demands that the students manipulate their
voices as they would an instrument, be it Harpsichord, Violin, or
Cello."
Where then were the extraordinary Italian
Schools of the 17th century? Mancini remembers regretfully:
"The most celebrated and famous
schools that existed in Italy at the end of the last century and which
stayed alive over a period of time were those of
Fedi in Rome and Francesco Antonio Pistocchi in Bologna, that
of Giuseppe Ferdinando Brivio in Milan and that of Francesco
Peli in Modena, that of Francesco Redi in Florence, that of
Giuseppe Amadori in Rome, and that of Nicolo Porpora, Leonardo
Leo, Francesco Feo and Domenico Egizio
in Naples".
Many and varied are the causes
of the slow but inexhaustible decline of the great ages-old Italian
vocal civilisation and this is not the place to discuss its causes. We
prefer to offer in "meditation" a page from Bontempi concerning the
teaching style applied in Rome during the first decades of the 17th
century during the pontificate of Pope Urban VIII (Barberini).
This is the musical Rome of
which many foreign musicians and travellers left extraordinary
descriptions.
THE STUDY OF SONG IN THE XVII CENTURY
GIOVANNI ANDREA ANGELINI
BONTEMPI, Historia Musica, Perugia, 1695.
"The Roman schools obliged
their disciples to utilise one hour a day for singing difficult and
awkward things in order to acquire experience; another hour to exercise
trills; another for passages;
another in the study of letters
and another for mastering and exercising song within hearing of the
teacher and before a mirror in order to get accustomed to not making any
unwanted gesture either from the waist, or the forehead, or the brows or
the mouth. And this was how the morning was used. After midday half an
hour was used to master theory; another half hour for counterpoint over
plainsong, and another for receiving and putting to work documents of
counterpoint over the portfolio; another study of the letters and the
rest of the day in exercising the sound of the harpsichord; in the
composition of a psalm or motet or canzonet or some other sort of
lullaby according to one's own genius. These were the ordinary exercises
of those days during which disciples did not leave the house. The
exercises then outside the house were to go often to sing and hear the
reply of an Echo outside the Angelica gate towards Mount Mario so that
one could judge oneself and one's own accents; then to go and sing
almost all types of music in the churches of Rome and observe the manner
of singing by many distinguished singers that appeared during the
pontificate of Urban VIII; then to exercise according to this and
receive the observations of the master when again at home; the latter,
in order to better impress them in the minds of the disciples, explained
them as required and provided the necessary tuition".
The already quoted text by
Mancini comes to mind "(...) this study
requires a given time in order for it to be perfected, and a tireless
energy if it is not to be left imperfect".
It is not really energy which
presents itself as an ideal as this century draws to a close, and is
aimed rather at "vile interest", and where Opera has become a bad copy
of cinema.
We will not here deal with the
problem of different styles but, before ending with a "Vulgar Saying
" by Giustiniani, we feel bound to say that one is the
instrument and many are the styles that have followed one
upon the other over history. However, the possession of a perfect
instrument, besides historical knowledge and aesthetics, is what, as
Tosi says, "makes the Singer universal,
and therefore able to sing in any style".
POPULAR DICTION
VINCENZO GIUSTINIANI, Discorso sopra la
musica de' suoi tempi, 1628.
