VOCAL CULTIVATION AND THE OLD ITALIAN METHOD
Historical aspect of vocal cultivation--The modern conception
of voice culture; the mechanical and psychological
methods--Ancient systems--Mediæval Europe--The revival
of solo singing; the rise of coloratura--The old Italian
method--The _bel canto_ teachers: Caccini; Tosi and Mancini;
the _Conservatoire_ method; the Italian course of instruction;
theoretical basis of the Italian method.
Musical historians generally agree that the training of voices for the
purposes of artistic singing had its beginnings about the year 1600.
Voice culture as a distinct department of musical education is held to
date no further back than the time when solo singing first began to
attract the attention of educated musicians. This view, however, is
altogether misleading. From its very beginnings the art of music in
Europe was built upon the foundation of singing; no other type of music
was, indeed, recognized as a legitimate branch of the art until music
had progressed through several centuries of development. Music was
brought up to the beginning of its present stage of evolution through
the working out of theories which were exemplified in practice only
by the use of voices. Counterpoint, the basis of musical composition
until well along in the seventeenth century, had its origin in vocal
music; throughout its entire history, up to its highest expression
in the music of Palestrina and his school, contrapuntal writing was
applied only to works composed for voices. Even if no records were
to be found of any means used for training the voice, the conclusion
would be inevitable that, throughout all these centuries (roughly
speaking, from the sixth to the seventeenth), some attention must have
been paid to vocal development and technique. It is true that anyone
endowed with a good voice can sing, with some degree of facility,
any simple music which he has the ability to memorize. No technical
training of the voice is needed to enable one to sing simple songs.
Folk-music was the possession of the great mass of the people to whom
any ideas of vocal management were utterly unknown. This was also
true of the various classes of minstrels, troubadours, etc. Although
theirs was purely a vocal art, the only training their voices ever
received was that incidental to the actual singing of their music.
But for the performance of the music incorporated in the Roman ritual
throughout all its history this untutored style of singing would not
have sufficed. A much better command of the voice was needed than can
be acquired merely through the unguided singing of simple folk-songs
and lays. Precision, power, and facility of voice were demanded in the
music of the church and these could not have been hit upon by accident.
The chances are all against a voice falling into the correct manner of
production if called upon to sing music of any difficulty without some
definite instruction. This will be made clearer by a consideration of
the peculiar problem involved in any extended use of the voice.
I
Modern thought on the subject of vocal cultivation has crystallized
along well-defined lines. For one thing, it has emphasized in a
striking way the problem of the management of the vocal organs. The
fact is now clearly recognized that the voice has one correct mode
of operating, as well as an almost limitless possibility of wrong or
incorrect forms of activity. When the voice is correctly produced it
can be used daily in large halls and churches without strain or undue
fatigue. By judicious exercise, when rightly produced, the voice is
greatly increased in volume and power; it acquires facility in the
singing of difficult and elaborate music; its compass is increased,
giving it command of a wider range of notes than is possessed by the
untrained voice.
Yet vocal cultivation demands the adoption of the correct management
of the vocal organs. When the voice is correctly produced nothing
more than judicious exercise is needed to bring it to the condition
of technical mastery. But if the proper manner of producing tone is
not acquired, then the exercise of the voice is fraught with peril to
the vocal organs. Instead of the voice being benefited by practice the
contrary result is almost inevitable. The use of a wrongly produced
voice on an extended scale, involving, as it must, the daily attempt
to produce tones powerful enough to fill a large space, strains and
injures the vocal organs. This results in a weakening of the voice, in
loss of control, in discomfort and pain to the singer, in a strained,
harsh quality of tone, and finally, if persisted in long enough, in
complete loss of voice.
The difference between the correct use of the voice and any incorrect
manner of producing tone is inherent in the organ itself. No one who
wishes to sing can elude the problem which Nature thus propounds. On
the contrary, the problem of vocal management must be solved some time
in the course of a singer’s vocal studies or the technical command of
the voice can never be attained. Vocal cultivation is that form of
exercise of the voice which leads, through the correct management of
the organ, to a command of all the voice’s resources of beauty, range,
power, and flexibility.
Even on the earliest singers of the church a solution of the vocal
problem was imposed. These singers had to perform daily in large
cathedrals and churches; they had to sing their music in time and
in tune. Some measure of vocal cultivation was of necessity involved
in their training. We are, fortunately, not left in ignorance of the
methods applied in vocal training in the centuries which preceded the
rise of solo singing. Many references to this subject found in the
writings of early musical historians have been gathered together by H.
F. Mannstein in his _Geschichte, Geist, und Ausübung des Gesanges von
Gregor dem Grossen bis auf unsere Zeit_ (Leipzig, 1845). Fétis also
contains many passages which throw valuable light on the subject It is
true that the subject has been considered rather obscure, owing to the
fact that students have looked for something not to be found, that is,
for rules bearing on the mechanical management of the vocal organs. In
order to understand this subject fully the modern conception of voice
culture must first be briefly considered.
Modern methods of voice culture are based upon the doctrine that the
vocal organs must be consciously guided by the singer in the correct
performance of their functions. The idea is that the voice must be
led to adopt the correct manner of action by direct attention to its
mechanical processes. According to the present conception, the singer
must see to it that his vocal cords act in a certain way; that his
breath is controlled at the proper point; that the tones have the
correct origin and receive the influence of resonance in the correct
manner. Even back of this conception lies a belief in the helplessness
of the vocal organs to hit upon the proper mode of acting without the
conscious direction of the singer. The singer must impose a certain
manner of operating on the voice and carefully supervise all the
processes of tone production. This is the scientific view of voice
culture; until quite recently it was almost universally held.
It is almost incredible that this view is thoroughly modern and that
its origin cannot be traced further back than the invention of the
laryngoscope in 1855. Not until 1883 did the scientific view of vocal
cultivation find definite expression in the writings of any authority
on the voice; in that year Browne and Behnke, in their book entitled
‘Voice, Song, and Speech,’ stated the scientific doctrine in plain
terms, and asserted that the voice cannot be controlled in any other
way than by attention to the mechanical processes of the vocal organs.
For many years thereafter this doctrine went unchallenged, and methods
of voice culture treated as the most important materials of instruction
the means they embodied for enabling students of singing to acquire
direct conscious control over their vocal organs.
An entirely different conception of voice culture has recently been
advanced and has indeed made great headway. From the fact that the
new doctrine found its first complete statement in the writer’s
‘Psychology of Singing’ (New York, 1908), it has come to be known as
the psychological theory, in contradistinction to the mechanical theory
embodied in the scientific system.
Briefly stated, the psychological theory of voice production is as
follows: To the vocal problem propounded by nature the solution has
also been furnished by nature herself. Nature has endowed the voice
with a sufficient guide and monitor--the sense of hearing. There is
a direct connection between the cerebral centres of hearing and the
centres governing the muscles of the vocal organs. The volitional
impulse to produce a certain sound involves the hearing of the sound
in imagination; through the nerve fibres connecting the centres of
hearing and of voice, the nerve impulse is sent to the vocal organs
which causes them to assume the positions and perform the muscular
contractions necessary for the production of the desired tone. Thus the
voice is controlled by the ear, and it needs no other form of control
than that furnished by the ear. A correct management of the voice in
singing results in the production of tones of a distinct characteristic
sound, while any incorrect use of the voice produces tones which
differ from the correct type, more or less, according to the degree
of faultiness in the vocal management. The ear is the only reliable
judge of the voice. Only by listening to the tones it produces can it
be determined whether a voice is correctly used or not. The object of
vocal cultivation is first of all to enable the voice to produce the
correct type of tone. This is accomplished by practice, which consists
of repeated efforts to sing tones of the type recognized by the ear as
correct. If the ear has the right conception of pure tone, the vocal
organs gradually fall into the way of producing correct tones, that
is, of operating in the correct manner. In this the voice is guided
by its own instincts, which offer a safer and more efficient guidance
than that provided by the conscious management of the vocal organs. No
attention whatever need be paid to the mechanical operations of tone
production. The vocal organs are informed by the mental ear what is
expected of them, and perform their functions instinctively without any
help from the intellect.
One advantage of the psychological doctrine is that it at once dispels
all the mystery which has seemed to surround the early history of the
subject, and which has extended even to the method of the Italian
teachers of _bel canto_. Little notice has indeed been taken of the
systems of vocal cultivation which flourished before the rise of the
Italian school of vocal teachers. But since the universal adoption of
the scientific doctrine, repeated efforts have been made to penetrate
the secret of the old method. These efforts have always resulted in
failure, for the reason already mentioned. Investigators have sought to
re-discover the form of instruction used for the purpose of imparting
a direct conscious control of the vocal organs; their conviction that
no other means of vocal command is possible has blinded students of
the subject to the instinctive processes actually followed. As our
main purpose in the present chapter is to describe the system now
known as the old Italian method, a fuller treatment of its records,
both literary and traditional, will be reserved for a later section. A
review of the early history of voice culture will lead most readily to
the consideration of the old Italian method.
II
Ancient systems of vocal culture call for only passing mention. In the
early civilizations of Egypt, Chaldea and Assyria the art of singing
was cultivated assiduously. In the services of the temples this ancient
art found its most serious and dignified employment. Each of the
countries named possessed, at the time of its highest civilization,
a highly elaborate ritual of worship, in which singing played a most
important part. Every temple had its corps of trained singers, who were
especially educated for this office. The most important feature of
the education of the temple singers was the memorizing of the musical
settings to which the various poems and chronicles of the ritual were
sung and chanted. The course of instruction consisted of the actual
singing of the music, under the tuition of a master whose memory was
stored with the entire devotional repertoire of the cult. A proper
performance of the music was the object sought, and to this the most
earnest attention was paid. But incident to this was the production of
the quality and type of tones which experience had shown to be best
adapted to the use of the voice in the massive temples and in the
open-air services. The temple music schools were under the constant
supervision of the priests and other officials in charge and the
classes met regularly for instruction and practice.
Very much the same system was followed in the Temple at Jerusalem.
Of the musical system developed there we have a highly complete and
satisfactory record. Here the art of singing was carried to a very high
pitch of development. At the time of Solomon there were 4,000 Levites
attached to the Temple, whose office it was to sing and intone the
various services. The elaborate ritual contained musical settings for
the Psalms and certain of the historical and prophetic books, which
demanded a high degree of vocal ability for their rendition. Both the
priests and the Levites received a lengthy training in the singing
of the music allotted to them. The music of the Temple is especially
interesting to the student of the history of singing, for the reason
that it included a remarkably developed system of vocal ornamentation.
It would have been impossible to sing this music without a thorough
command of the voice, and the education of the priests and Levites
therefore included a comprehensive system of vocal cultivation.
The experience of the early masters of the old Italian school taught
them that the best means for training the voice in facility and
flexibility is the actual singing of ornamental florid music. This was
also the plan followed in the school attached to the Temple. A system
of notation was in use, somewhat similar to that of the neumes used
in Europe from the ninth to the thirteenth century. Every standard
ornament and melodic phrase was represented by a letter, according to a
strictly arbitrary system. A most important part of the Temple method
of musical instruction was the memorizing of the various phrases,
groups, runs, etc., represented by the significant letters. This was
purely a matter of convention, that is, the meaning of the letters was
recorded only in the memories of the instructors and the graduate
students. The instructor taught the phrase for which a letter stood by
singing it for his students and having them sing it after him until
they had committed it to memory and learned to associate it with the
letter. As the musical phrases were all melodious and in most cases
ornamental, the voice thus received an effective training. One of the
puzzling aspects of the first solo singing in European music is the
difficulty found in tracing the origin of the vocal embellishments
of which it so largely consisted. A possible explanation of this
mystery may be found in the music of the Temple. How the traditions so
carefully treasured there could have found their way into Italy after
the lapse of nearly 2,000 years will be considered in a later section
of this chapter.
In classic Athens the voice was trained for the purposes of both
oratory and singing. A specially recognized profession was that of
the vocal trainer or _phonascus_, whose duties embraced the vocal
cultivation of both singers and public speakers. A well-developed
system of voice culture was followed by these teachers, who
superintended classes in the daily practice of systematic exercises.
For the training of the speaking voice a pupil began his daily practice
by repeating detached sentences at short intervals. From this he passed
to the declamation of long phrases, beginning on the lowest notes of
the voice, raising the pitch gradually until the highest notes were
reached, and then again descending to the lowest range. The exercises
in singing were very similar, although greater attention was paid to
the sustaining of high notes. Owing to the immense size of the Greek
open-air theatres, and to the masks that were always worn by the
actors, volume and power of voice were of the utmost importance. The
actors might justly be described as singers, as all their speeches
were delivered in a style of vocal declamation not unlike our modern
recitative.
Very much the same methods of vocal cultivation were followed in
ancient Rome, although much more attention was paid to oratory than to
singing. There is no reason to believe that voice culture in Europe was
influenced in any way by the classic systems of either Greece or Rome.
III
Vocal cultivation in Europe had an independent beginning. It may be
that some of the musical traditions of the Hebrew Temple had been
carried over into the earlier churches which were founded in Italy,
as there is no doubt that the same traditions were adopted as the
basis of the Eastern church ritual at Constantinople. Certain it is
that prior to the reform of St. Ambrose much of the music of the early
Roman church was highly ornamental in character. At any rate, with the
founding of the choir school attached to the Pontifical chapel at Rome
in the year 590 voice culture made a new start; it underwent a steady
development, and continued to progress without interruption until it
reached its fullest fruition in the Italian school of singing in the
seventeenth century. The choir school at Rome was intended to serve
as a model for the entire Western church; it supplied singers for the
papal choir, which was established to illustrate the proper rendition
of Gregorian music. At the beginning the course of instruction
followed in the Roman choir school was extremely rudimentary, and so
it continued for several centuries. The _maestro di cappella_ had
as part of his duties the training of the singers’ voices. This was
accomplished according to the purely instinctive system followed in
the similar schools of the ancient temples. The students committed to
memory the music as it was sung by the choir master; in the course of
their constant repetition of the various musical numbers their voices
received the necessary training and development. Schools similar to
that at Rome were established at all the great cathedrals and the Roman
system of musical instruction was thus spread over the entire church.
Throughout the Middle Ages musical learning and culture--what little
there was of them--were the exclusive property of the church, and the
only centres of musical instruction were the choir schools. Every
advance which music made during these centuries involved an extension
of the art of singing, and this necessitated of course a corresponding
progress of the art of vocal training. Progress was painfully slow;
indeed little can be pointed out as marking any distinct advance until
the invention of the _sol-fa_ system of instruction by Guido d’Arezzo
about the year 1100.[4] On the basis of this system an entirely new
form of musical education was erected, which continued to flourish
until well along in the 17th century. The new system of musical
instruction consisted of what we should now call a training in sight
singing.
The first method of vocal culture worthy the name was a natural
outgrowth of the _sol-fa_ system. Students were trained in a knowledge
of the intervals by singing the _ut_, _re_, _mi_ syllables in different
combinations. Choir masters were not slow to observe that this form of
study offered excellent means for acquiring a command of the voice.
With the exception of the first one, _ut_, all the _sol-fa_ syllables
are sonorous and easily sung. The difficulty attached to the singing of
_ut_ was obviated by substituting for it the syllable _do_. Constant
singing of the syllables was found to have an admirable effect on the
voice, and they were soon adopted as the basis of vocal instruction.
_Sol-fa_ practice was made to serve a double purpose; both the ear and
the voice received the due measure of attention. Vocal training was
not at this time, nor indeed for several centuries later, thought to
require any very close attention. It was simply an incident in the
general musical education. The demands made on the voice were slight in
comparison with the requirements of the music of a few centuries later.
Music had long been strictly unisonic in character, but about the time
of Guido the need of some addition to a single melody began to be noted.
A peculiarity of the single voice is the fact that while capable of
singing melodies of an almost infinite variety it seems to the cultured
ear to need support of some kind. While untutored people are content
to listen to the singing of a voice without any accompaniment, a
certain degree of culture brings with it a sense of bareness conveyed
by a performance of this kind. Toward the close of the dark ages this
feature of the voice attracted the attention of the church musicians.
They hit upon the device of having a second voice accompany the
first, singing another melody which should have a pleasing effect
in conjunction with the original one. This marked the beginning of
counterpoint, and it gave a direction to the art of music from which it
did not depart for many centuries.
With the gradual extension of polyphonic writing the education of
singers became constantly a more complex and exacting matter. Greater
demands were made on both the voice and the musicianship of the choral
singer. No great modification was, however, made in the system of
instruction; this developed along the lines already marked out for
it. Sight singing continued to be the basis of musical education. As
time went on it became necessary for the singers to master the system
of musical notation, and this was accomplished by a farther extension
of the course in sight singing. An understanding of the rules of
counterpoint was not obligatory on the part of the choristers, but
many of them received sufficient instruction to fit them for both
composition and teaching. Composers and teachers were without exception
graduates of the choir schools; a musical education could not be
obtained elsewhere. Music study had indeed no other purpose than to
train students in the music of the church. Instruction in counterpoint
and composition was not undertaken until the students had mastered
the rudiments of music and had also received their vocal training in
the sight singing classes. Every musician was a singer as a matter of
course.
Musical culture gradually spread from the church and began to embrace
a wider field. During the 15th and the 16th centuries there was a
steady approximation of the two orders of music, scholarly and popular.
Every little royal and princely court had its retinue of musicians.
Polyphonic music had reached a degree of development where its beauty
brought it within the reach of the enjoyment of the great mass of the
people.
Composers had, indeed, begun to write secular ‘art’ music as early
as the thirteenth century. As civilization and culture advanced, and
secular music received a constantly greater measure of attention,
the demands made on lay musicians became more exacting. The old
fashion of singing and playing entirely by ear no longer sufficed for
the requirements of cultured people. Musicians were obliged to fit
themselves for their profession by obtaining a fair degree of technical
knowledge. Many who had enjoyed the training of the choir schools
forsook their employment in the church and devoted themselves to the
practice of secular music.
The field of musical education also broadened. People who looked
forward to embracing the musical profession began to seek instruction
from graduates of the choir schools. But the idea of private
instruction did not become popular for a long time. Music had always
been taught in special schools, and the need of such schools of a
secular character soon became manifest. The first institution of this
type to attain any degree of prominence was that founded in Bologna
in 1482 by a Spanish musician, Ramis di Pareja. It adopted the system
of instruction followed in the choir schools. The century following
the establishment of the Bologna school was one of great activity in
secular musical instruction. Conservatories were founded in most of the
great European cities, although Italy was the chief centre of education
in music.
Polyphonic music had been steadily progressing and, at the period we
have now reached (the sixteenth century), its proper performance called
for singers of no mean ability. The traditional system of musical
education had steadily expanded and had without difficulty kept abreast
of the demands made on it. The strictly musical education of the singer
required a longer and more exacting course of study, and so also did
the technical training of the voice. Composers of this period showed a
marked fondness for florid counterpoint and voices had to be cultivated
to a high point of flexibility to sing their works satisfactorily.
Yet no sweeping alteration was made in the system of vocal cultivation.
Flexibility of voice was acquired through practice in the singing
of individual parts of contrapuntal works, those being chosen which
presented technical difficulties in a convenient form. This advanced
stage of vocal training was undertaken only after the rudimentary
principles of singing had been mastered in the sight-singing classes.
In spite of the greater technical demands made on the voice, the proper
management of the vocal organs was not seen to involve a problem of
any difficulty. Sight singing classes numbered sometimes as many as
forty pupils. The instructor in this primary grade was expected to see
that the students sang clearly and in tune, and that they avoided the
faults of nasality and throatiness. To the matter of tone production
the teacher could of course pay very little attention, as the
rudiments of music were the main subject of study. Yet the few hints
and corrections occasionally given by the sight-singing teacher were
all the instruction that the students received in the management of the
voice. On the completion of the course in sight singing the students
were expected to produce their voices properly, as well as to sing
difficult music at sight. No pupil could be admitted to the classes for
advanced instruction in singing whose voice was not properly controlled.
IV
Up to the latter part of the sixteenth century there was nothing to
give promise of a sudden development of solo singing. Popular music had
as a matter of fact consisted from time immemorial largely of singing
by a single voice. The musical instincts of the great mass of the
people had found expression in the folk-song, while the semi-cultured
classes had long cultivated the arts of the various orders of
Troubadours and Minnesingers. But these popular forms of music were
looked upon by the trained musicians with a certain contempt. Music
had to be sung in parts by several voices in order to be worthy of
recognition as serious art. Polyphonic music utterly ignores the
capabilities of beauty and expressiveness inherent in the single voice.
When several melodies are sung at once, each one of equal importance
with all the others, it is impossible for one voice to receive more
attention than another. Yet a time came when music was forced to
break the bonds of polyphony and free itself from the restraints
imposed upon it by multiple part-writing. Greater command of beauty
and expressiveness was precisely the end sought by those composers,
notably Palestrina, whose work marks the culmination of the polyphonic
school. The spirit of the time was seeking for greater freedom in the
expression of the musical instinct and singers and musicians alike
were moved by this spirit. Solo singing was the inevitable result of a
pressing demand.
Two entirely distinct sets of influences were instrumental in leading
musicians to experiment with the solo voice. The first of these can
be traced back to the practising of individual parts in choral works
as a medium of vocal cultivation. A singer practising a part of this
kind by himself could not fail to notice that he used his voice with
greater freedom and satisfaction than when obliged to consider only the
effect of his voice in conjunction with other singers. So also would
the master who was instructing him in his part. Highly significant is
the fact that this discovery was made in the singing of florid music.
Rather elaborate passages of the florid type were selected for vocal
practice and these would naturally be adapted for bringing out the
purely sensuous beauty of the voice. Florid counterpoint thus contained
within itself the germs of coloratura singing. As singers began to
recognize the beauties of their own individual voices, the desire
naturally arose to display these beauties to others. Opportunity for
vocal display was, however, lacking, as no music had ever been written
for the solo voice. This difficulty was finally overcome by a singer
performing only one part of a contrapuntal work and having the other
parts played as an accompaniment by instrumental performers. The first
solos sung in the history of European musical art were of this type.
As early as 1539 a four-part madrigal was produced in this manner,
the highest soprano part being sung as a solo. The fashion spread
rapidly and solo singing soon began to attract the serious attention of
musicians.[5]
Singers were of course anxious to exhibit their voices. Polyphonic
music offered them little scope in this regard, for florid writing
was distributed among the various parts and it was impossible for
the artists to find works which contained more than an occasional
ornamental passage for any one voice. They hit naturally upon the
device of adding ornaments according to their own taste and fancy
to the part selected for solo performance. Kiesewetter reproduces
a madrigal sung in this manner by a noted soprano singer, Vittoria
Archilei, in 1589. Both the original soprano part and the same part as
embellished by Archilei are reproduced here.
[Illustration: _a._ Simple melody of treble part]
Dalle più alte sfere
dalle più alte sfere
di celesti Sirene
di celesti Sirene
[Illustration: _b._ Melody as sung by Vittoria Archilei]
Dalle più alte sfere
dalle più alte sfere
di celesti Sirene
di celesti Sirene
Vocal ornamentation had by this time become a recognized fashion among
the singers. Considerable mystery surrounds the origin of the various
ornaments and fiorituri which were adopted by the singers at this early
period in the history of solo singing. A possible source from which
they may have been drawn was mentioned in our remarks on the music of
the Temple at Jerusalem. Much of this music was preserved by tradition
and was incorporated, with modifications of course, in the ritual of
the Greek Catholic church at Constantinople. Highly ornamental in
character, it was performed regularly in the Greek church for many
centuries. At the dispersal of the cultured Greeks following the
capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1452, many musicians trained
in the music of the Greek church found their way into Italy. This
gradual exodus continued indeed for many years, and it is probable
that the traditions of ornamental music thus came to the knowledge of
the Italian singers. Certain it is that the early singers adopted the
same type of ornamentation which had been perfected at Jerusalem nearly
2,000 years previously. Exactly the same variety of turns, trills,
runs, _gruppetti_, etc., are contained in the following examples of
Hebrew and Greek music as were employed by the solo singers at the
close of the sixteenth century.
[Illustration: Hebrew (_transcribed by Fétis_)]
Horuch attoh adonoï elohemi melech hoolom
jozer or uvore choscheh sch scholom uvore es haccol or olom
h’jotzer chajim oros meofel omar vajehi.
[Illustration: Byzantine (_transcribed by Fétis_)]
Erra nan myra métadakry on Epitomné
masou ai gynaikes kai Eplétheé
charas tostoma autou.
Entolegein. Anéstéo kyrios.
It is not necessary, however, to speculate on the causes which led the
first solo singers to adorn their songs with _fiorituri_. Ornamental
singing has always been a natural and instinctive form of expression.
The fondness of primitive peoples for vocal embellishments has been
noted by many observers, prominent among whom is Frederick R. Burton
(‘American Primitive Music,’ New York, 1909). In the Orient singing
of the florid type has always had its home. Returning Crusaders
brought back with them many songs and melodies from Palestine, all
characterized by runs, turns, and other ornaments. The fashion was
taken up by the Troubadours and Trouvères, who familiarized their
hearers with the idea of melodic elaboration by means of florid
passages. Even in the church the officiating priests for many centuries
had a fondness for introducing ornaments in their singing of the
masses. Ornamental singing seems to be prompted by some deep-seated
instinct and its universal popular appeal must be attributed to the
same instinct.
Coloratura singing was thus the foundation of the new art of vocal solo
performance. Musical historians generally attach more importance in
this connection to the invention of dramatic recitative. This is due in
great measure to the fact that the records deal much more fully with
the latter subject, and also to the adoption of declamatory recitative
as the basis of the art form of opera.[6] Solo singing owed its sudden
and unprecedented bound into popularity to the delight which people
took in vocal ornamentation. Even the opera itself was indebted for its
rapid advance to the public demand for coloratura singing. Indeed it
seems hardly too much to say that coloratura singing was the first type
of art music to find its way to the affections of the general public.
Up to about 1600, artistic music, despite its rapid development in the
hundred years preceding, had been the possession only of the cultured
and wealthy classes. But with the opening of the opera houses the
new art form was brought within the reach of the great body of the
people. That the public responded so enthusiastically to the new form
of entertainment thus offered them was due in great measure to the
delight people took in coloratura singing. Composers soon found that
in order to please the public they must provide ornamental solos for
the singers. This was of course opposed to the views of the little
group of Florentine gentlemen who projected the first performances of
opera; they considered musical declamation to be sufficient for all the
purposes of a truly dramatic art. But the public thought otherwise and
demanded to hear the singers in solos which displayed the full beauties
of their voices. Monteverdi’s _Orfeo_, produced in 1607, contains a
number of elaborate coloratura songs.
A striking fact regarding the system of vocal instruction in vogue
during the later decades of the sixteenth century is that it sufficed
for the training of the first solo singers. Artists whose education
had not been designed to fit them for the performance of solo music
were yet able to take up this music and to sing it satisfactorily after
they had left their teachers. Even though it was intended only for the
performance of choral works, the system of vocal training then in vogue
enabled singers to master the new art of solo singing for themselves.
The advance of solo singing did not lead to the abandonment of the
traditional course of instruction. On the contrary, the same system
continued to be applied, extended only to meet the new requirements
imposed on it by the great elaboration of vocal technique. By 1650
coloratura singing was firmly established as the favorite branch of
music, and for more than 200 years following it was one of the chief
glories of the art.
An abundance of singers of a high degree of excellence were provided by
the conservatories and by the many private teachers who practised their
profession in the chief cities of Italy. The most famous musicians did
not disdain to embrace the new profession of voice culture. A sincere
devotion to the art of _bel canto_ was displayed by the teachers of the
early part of the seventeenth century; each one strove to advance the
standards of singing, to discover new possibilities of beauty, range,
and flexibility in the voice, to invent new and delightful ornaments.
The composers vied with the vocal teachers in seeking always for
greater beauty and expressiveness. How successful they were is proved
by the rapid expansion of the opera.
A marked influence in the elevation of the standards of singing was
exerted through the introduction of the male soprano voice. Whether
the voices of the _castrati_ possessed all the wonderful charm and
beauty of quality attributed to them by musical writers of the time we
cannot now determine. But there is no question that voices of this type
are specially favored in their ability to master the most astounding
technical difficulties. The _castrati_ enjoyed an almost incredible
popularity. More has been written about Farinelli and Caffarelli than
about any other artists of the old _bel canto_ period. Historically
considered, the singers of this type are highly important because of
the contribution they made to the elevation of the vocal art. Their
achievements became the standard toward which all other artists
were called upon to strive. While we need have no regret over the
disappearance of the male soprano, his value in the development of _bel
canto_ cannot be ignored.
[Illustration: Apotheosis of Farinelli]
_From an engraving by Wagner after the contemporaneous painting
by Amicorni._
A lineal succession of vocal teachers was well established by 1630.
Several masters of the art had acquired excellent reputations even so
early as 1600. Each famous teacher had many pupils who in their turn
took up the profession of teaching and who almost invariably based
their claims to recognition on the reputation of the master, as well
as on their own excellence as singers. This maestral succession, or
rather many of them, continued down to comparatively recent times. The
changed conditions which came about in the twenty years following the
invention of the laryngoscope (1855) finally broke down the influence
of the teachers who had inherited the old masters’ system, and the
authority of the old method was for a time almost destroyed. In recent
years, however, there has been a great revival of interest in the
methods of instruction followed by the old masters. There is a growing
feeling that scientific methods have not fulfilled their promise, and
vocalists look back upon the earlier centuries of voice culture as a
golden age which has passed away.
V
The old Italian method is now considered to have possessed some merits
which are not shared by modern scientific systems. Yet a certain degree
of mystery still surrounds the old method. Welcome as its revival would
be to many teachers and students, great difficulty is met with in
determining of just what it consisted. Many analyses and explanations
of the old method have indeed been suggested. But as these consist
almost entirely of attempts to find in it some means for the direct
conscious management of the vocal organs, they have necessarily brought
forth little that is of value. All the mystery surrounding the old
method is dispelled by the understanding that it did not treat the
vocal problem as capable of solution by mechanical means.
The old Italian method was simply an amplification of the system of
vocal education which had been in course of development for nearly a
thousand years. It embodied no new conception of vocal management, but
continued to treat the control of the voice as a purely instinctive
matter. Its chief contribution to the technical training of the voice
was the adoption of _vocalises_ and exercises specially designed for
this purpose. Even that was a matter of rather slow development.
During the early decades of the seventeenth century vocal teachers
continued to select passages from standard musical works which lent
themselves readily to the technical exercise of the voice, just as
the teachers of the preceding century had done. Gradually it came to
be seen that greater satisfaction could be obtained from the use of
compositions arranged to bring in the various technical points and
vocal embellishments one or two at a time. Thus the voice could be led
by an easy gradation to the mastery of every technical difficulty and
its training was rendered easier and more expeditious.
But the general scheme of instruction continued to be patterned after
the traditional model. A complete musical education, not only the
special cultivation of the voice, was the goal. The plan of combining
the preliminary training in vocal management with instruction in the
rudiments of music continued to be followed as late as 1750. Many
famous masters employed assistant teachers to perform the drudgery of
the initial stages of instruction, considering that their own high
degree of culture entitled them to deal only with advanced students.
This custom continued for at least one hundred years, and Tosi (1723)
speaks of it as a system so well established as to need no comment.
It is sometimes said that a course of instruction in singing according
to the old Italian method required from five to seven years of study.
This is in one sense true. Yet it is by no means the case that so long
a time was devoted to the technical training of the voice. A thorough
musical education was included in this course, of which the first
two or three years were spent entirely on the rudiments of music.
The course of instruction included also a complete training for the
operatic stage, as well as a repertoire of parts sufficient to enable
the graduating student to secure an engagement at one of the opera
houses. In the latter part of the eighteenth century specialization in
vocal education began to be the rule. Students whose parents foresaw
for them the possibilities of a vocal career were prepared by a
thorough musical education before being sent to a vocal teacher. Under
these circumstances the technical training of the voice was frequently
accomplished in less than two years.
VI
It is to be regretted that so little mention is made by musical
historians of the methods of instruction followed by the old masters.
Vocal teachers of the old school seem to have been so absorbed in their
work that the idea of writing books seldom occurred to them. A vast
quantity of _vocalises_ composed by teachers for their students has
been preserved and many of these are incorporated in books of exercises
now available. A few masters were, however, thoughtful enough to
provide posterity with some knowledge of their system of instruction.
The first of these was Caccini, whose importance as a vocal teacher
should not be overlooked on account of his especial eminence as the
first composer to write music for the solo voice.
In 1601 Caccini published a large number of his compositions for the
solo voice under the title of _Le Nuove Musiche_, a book which is now
of almost inestimable value. It contains vocal pieces in both the
styles then in vogue. It is surprising to see from some of these florid
songs the high degree of vocal virtuosity possessed by the singers of
that early time. In his preface Caccini gives an outline of his system
of vocal training. This consists entirely of rules and directions for
the execution of the various ornaments of singing. Here he shows
himself to have possessed a pure and refined taste, as well as a most
profound love for the beauties of the voice. Yet he does not touch on
the subject of vocal management, proving that he had not had occasion
to depart from the instinctive methods in which he himself had been
trained.
[Illustration: Music score]
Muove si dolce e si soave
guerra lu singando i pensier bel tà mortale,
ch’a volo un cor non spiegheria mai l’ale
per sollevarsi peregrin da terra,
se non scendesse a risvegliarlo Amore,
per sollevarsi pellegrin da terra se non scendesse a
risvegliarlo Amore.
Two other interesting works by teachers of the old school are
‘Observations on the Florid Song’ (1723), by Pietro Francesco Tosi, and
_Riflessioni Pratiche sul Canto Figurato_ (1776), by Giovanni Battista
Mancini. Both these writers devote themselves mainly to a discussion of
vocal embellishments and _fiorituri_, just as did Caccini so many years
earlier. What little they say about the management of the voice shows
that the old idea of reliance on instinctive vocal guidance had not
weakened in their day.
Another highly valuable work, the latest which can be considered of
original value in throwing light on the old Italian method, is the
_Méthode de Chant du Conservatoire de Musique_ (Paris, 1803). This
method was drawn up by the most eminent musicians in Paris at that
time, including even Cherubini and Méhul. They and several others of
almost equal rank were commissioned by the revolutionary government
to devise an official system of vocal education. Yet there is nothing
revolutionary about the method, for it does not depart in any important
particular from the system of instruction described by Tosi and Mancini.
Particular interest attaches to the _Méthode_ because it was the
first complete practical work on its subject ever published. Tosi and
Mancini did not include a single exercise or musical illustration in
their books, but contented themselves with verbal descriptions of the
portamento, messa di voce, appoggiatura, etc. The _Méthode_ on the
other hand consists almost entirely of a collection of exercises,
scales, vocalises, and arias, carefully graded according to difficulty.
These were collected from many sources by the most celebrated vocal
teacher in Paris at that time, Bernardo Mengozzi, the head of the
vocal department at the Conservatoire. Everything necessary for the
thorough cultivation of the voice according to Mengozzi’s conception
of the subject was included in the _Méthode_. A student was expected
to start with the first exercise and study each one consecutively, the
voice steadily progressing until technical perfection was assured with
the mastery of the last aria. No distinction was made between voices,
high and low, male and female, for all were put through the same course
of study. Cherubini thought so highly of the _Méthode_ that he took a
copy with him on his visit to Vienna in 1805 for the purpose of himself
presenting it to Beethoven.
All that has come down to us of the oral traditions of the old school
is summed up in a set of cogent phrases which are commonly known as
the traditional precepts. These are, ‘open the throat,’ ‘sing on the
breath,’ ‘sing the tone forward,’ and ‘support the tone.’ No literary
authority can be given for the precepts, as they are not mentioned in
any works published earlier than about 1830. It is possible that they
do not date back much further than this. Perhaps they represent the
first attempts made by vocal teachers to interpret their instruction
according to the scientific ideas of vocal operation which were just
beginning to become current about that time.
How this could have been the case is readily seen. A perfect vocal tone
sounds as though it floats on the breath. The correct singer’s throat
seems to the hearer to be loose and open and the tone seems to be
lodged in the front of the mouth. When the attention of vocal teachers
began to be turned to the mechanical operations of tone production they
might naturally have been led to observe first those salient features
of tone which seem to point to a definite vocal action.
Yet it is more likely that the old masters actually used the precepts
in instruction merely to point out to their pupils these striking
peculiarities in the sound of the perfect vocal tone. We know that
they always held up before their students a high ideal of artistic
singing. A use of the precepts in this way would be of great service
in helping the students to hear how perfect singing should sound.
To imitate successfully it is necessary in the first place to hear
distinctly. Pointing out the marked characteristics of the perfect tone
enables the ear to know what to listen for.
It must be borne in mind that the old Italian method was never
standardized. No such thing as a school of recognized authority, to
whose principles all teachers were obliged to adhere, was ever evolved.
Each master taught according to his own ideas, and no central authority
or governing body ever undertook to lay out a standard method. Yet the
old masters all followed the same general plan of instruction. In some
of its aspects this plan is thoroughly understood. Students were taught
to sing correctly and artistically solely through the exercise of
their voices in actual singing. The materials used for vocal training
were scales, exercises, and vocalises without and with words. These
were without exception melodious, and the musical and artistic aspects
of singing received attention from the beginning of instruction to
the end. Singing was considered always on its _musical_ side and its
_mechanical_ features were never touched upon. The voice was led on by
a gradual progression from the easy to the difficult.
During the seventeenth century it was the custom for the teachers to
compose exercises and vocalises specially for each pupil, suiting the
technical and musical requirements to the pupil’s stage of advancement.
As this custom died out, teachers provided themselves with extensive
and carefully graded lists of compositions in all the various styles
suitable for instruction.
Coming finally to the question, what means the old masters utilized for
imparting the correct management of the voice, we find that in the
sense in which this problem is understood in modern vocal science they
had no method whatever. It is difficult for one imbued with the idea
of direct vocal management to believe that the voice can possibly be
trained without the student knowing in the first place how to produce
his tones correctly. Yet it would have been equally hard for a master
of the old school to understand what we moderns mean by the conscious
control of the vocal organs. It never entered into the minds of the old
masters that there could be any difficulty about the management of the
voice. ‘Listen and imitate’ summed up for them all that need be known,
indeed all that could be known on the subject. They aimed directly at
tonal perfection as a matter of sound and did not think of attempting
to reach it by the roundabout course of vocal mechanics.
The early teachers of the old school were the direct inheritors of
the traditions stored up as the result of the experiences of vocal
instructors through a period of many centuries. During all this time
the voice had been allowed to operate according to its own instincts.
Although in the last century of this period the rapid advance of the
musical arts had imposed demands of constantly increasing difficulty on
the voice, it continued to fulfill these demands in its own instinctive
way. The ability of the voice to produce the tones exacted of it by the
ear was never doubted. There was no need for a vocal teacher of the old
school to formulate or justify his belief in the voice’s ability to
follow the guidance of the ear. No one at that time had ever thought of
questioning this ability. Yet if one of these masters had been called
upon to state in doctrinal form his theory of the vocal action, it
would probably have been something like this:
The correct use of the voice, that manner of vocal emission which leads
through practice to technical perfection, is naturally acquired by
exercise in the actual singing of correct tones. Provided the student
have a clear mental conception of the type of vocal tone which results
from a correct manner of tone production, the voice will gradually
adapt itself to the correct form of action, through repeated efforts
at imitating the correct tone as a matter of sound. In order to
practise singing effectively it is necessary only that the ear shall be
acquainted with the sound of a properly produced tone and that it shall
demand tones of this character from the voice. Faults of production,
whether throaty, nasal, or breathy tones be the result, will gradually
disappear as the student learns to hear his own voice with greater
keenness and accuracy. The correct use of the voice is gradually
acquired and there is no time in the course of this progress at which
any change takes place in the manner of directing and guiding the voice.
A high standard of musical beauty and vocal excellence was always
kept prominently before the minds of the pupils. The students were
required to know how a correctly sung passage should sound, and all
their practice was aimed at the imitation of this sound. The ear was
expressly recognized as the sole judge of vocal correctness. When a
pupil sang incorrectly the master would imitate the faulty tones, for
the pupil to hear what was wrong in the sound. Then the master would
sing the passage correctly, that the pupil might hear the perfect tones
and adopt them as a model for imitation.
So far as our present knowledge of the old method goes, it embodied
no definitely stated principles for the management of the voice.
Although the problem of tone production is, in present estimation,
the most important topic of voice culture, the older system seems to
have ignored this problem completely. It simply took for granted that
the voice will operate correctly if it is guided by a keen ear and
directed by a fine musical and artistic sensibility. No doubt it had
its failures, but we have a record only of its successes. These were so
many and so brilliant that we must accord to the old Italian method the
recognition due to a complete and satisfactory system of voice culture.
FOOTNOTES:
[4] _Cf._ Vol. I, pp. 167-172.
[5] For a fuller treatment of this phase of musical history, the rise
of ‘monody,’ see Vol. I, chapters IX and XI.
[6] _Cf._ Vol. I, chap. XI.