In the baroque period, vocal and instrumental music were more closely related to each other than in later times, one often imitating the other. Many vocal lines in the music of Bach, for instance, can scarcely be distinguished in style from the accompanying instrumental lines. Some of the aspects of performance practice which are shared by singers and instrumentalists include:- Alison Mackay, Tafelmusik Teacher's GuideDecisions about articulation and stress are guided by the text; consonances and the stress of syllables are of particular importance. Most important of all, however, is a clear and dramatic presentation of the meaning of the text and an expressive communication of the emotions which were the chief preoccupation of baroque composers.
- Clarity, purity and transparency of sound
- A relaxed tone production
- Use of vibrato as an ornament rather than an integrated part of sound production
- Pure, harmonic intonation based on unequally tempered systems
- Detailed articulation and carefully nuanced stress within phrases.
In the introduction to his famous collection of songs called Nuove Musiche (1602), Giulio Caccini (1550-1618) claims to have been the first composer of monodies, which he had composed in the 1580s during his association with Count Bardi and the Florentine Camerata. That group had ended by 1592, but Caccini remained an exponent of this "new style" and had attracted several other composers by this time as well. The first volume of Nuove Musiche consists of a most informative and enlightening preface, combining Caccini's philosophy on solo song and solo singing. He discusses composition and singing style, compares it with the old style of passaggi or diminutions, and then gives several examples of embellishments and methods of "affective singing and accompanying". In fact, although Caccini claims to have invented these ornaments he describes in Nuove Musiche, he merely borrowed from renaissance treatises on diminution and changed their manner of execution. In these songs Cacciniās primary aim, indeed, of the Baroque era itself, is to "move the affects of the soul", not just to "tickle the ear", as in the old practice. Therefore, in Nuove Musiche, and no doubt in his own teaching and singing, Caccini wished to bring some moderation to the singersā love of virtuoso and flamboyant singing. Some of the ornaments described in the Nuove Musiche...are:- Long, Nancy: Programme notes from Le Madonne Lagrimanti, (London Independent Records)
- Gruppo or groppo: the equivalent of our modern trill. Trillo: a rapid repetition of the same note, usually beginning slowly, becoming more rapid. Ribatutta di gola (the "re-striking of the throat"), later known as the Lombard rhythm: in monody it imitates a sob. Esclamazione: basically a sforzando attack with an instant decrescendo, followed by a crescendo, usually descending to next note. Passagi and cascata: scale passages widely used in the Renaissance, but performed in monody with much more rubato to correspond to the emotional intent of the text. Clamazione: beginning the written melody note from a third below. Dynamics (messa di voce, scemar di voce, esclamazione, crescendo, etc.): actually used as ornamentation and probably performed much more dramatically than we do today.
The art and science of singing have their origins in Italy. When Claudio Monteverdi and the members of the Camerata Fiorentina developed the concept of opera, they started a revolution in western music. The Camerata's belief that a vocal line should reflect the emotion and nobility of classical theatre laid the foundations of what has become known as bel canto (beautiful singing).SOURCE: Turp, Richard: "The Evolution of the Voice" (La Scena Musicale, Vol. 6 No. 3, 1 November 2000)
The speed and sophistication with which vocal expertise evolved was staggering. Successive generations of composers transformed Monteverdi's recitar cantando (sung recitation) into a more elaborate and vocally demanding melodic style. The new style pioneered by Scarlatti and Steffani at the end of the seventeenth century required considerable technical skill. As a component of the baroque, opera mirrored painting and sculpture and became a virtuoso art-form in its own right. Music conservatories, schools, and vocal pedagogues soon began to emerge.
THE CASTRATI
Most vocal teachers were castrati, the semi-mythical creatures who dominated the world of opera until 1800. Castration enabled them to retain the beauty, range, and flexibility of voice of a youth, but with an adult's physical strength and lung capacity. Operatic castrati such as Porpora, Caffarelli and Farinelli became the greatest known technical singers. Many became equally legendary as teachers, and vocal manuals by Tosi, Mancini, and Porpora set out the rules for bel canto and good vocal training. With time, voice classifications became more meaningful. Sopranos of the calibre of Cuzzoni, Bordoni, Durastani, and Strada, the bass Boschi, and tenors Pio Fabbri and Borosini were prototypes of their modern counterparts.
The excesses of vocal virtuosity faded with the arrival of Gluck's Reform operas, which returned to classical values and a simplified vocal line. Though more sophisticated, Gluck's work may be seen as a vocal prolongation of the French tragédie lyrique style of Lully and Rameau. The strongly declaimed French manner had nothing in common with the legato, portamento, and cantabile Italian style, whose first building block was the mezza voce. The Italians referred to the French style as canto di urlo (shouting singing) and deplored such French developments as the high tenor voice called haute-contre.
Throughout the eighteenth century, Italian opera seria (serious opera) ruled Europe, except for France. In Italy another form of vocal specialization occurred, dividing serious from comic singers. With Rossiniās arrival, the barriers between the comic mezzo carattere and seria singer became less rigid, and more importantly Rossini's Naples opera seria gave rise to a new vocalità. With the aid of perhaps the greatest team of singers ever assembled, Rossini perfected a dramatic coloratura style that not only led to the development of various voice types - soprano drammatica d'agilità, baritenore and contraltino tenore - but also the creation of a style of composition that anticipated the Romantic era of Bellini, Donizetti, Berlioz, and Meyerbeer. This was particularly evident in Rossini's French operas, where the simplified vocal line was more extroverted and expressive. Le Comte Ory and Guillaume Tell also heralded the arrival of the baritone.
...Producing a Baroque opera is more complicated than using the right instruments. One must also decide how many of them there are to be, and which; in those days, orchestration was rarely indicated. The accepted practice is to accompany the singer with a small ensemble called the continuo, which usually consists of a harpsichord and low strings. Other parts are added occasionally to provide color or a ceremonial touch.- Michael Walsh, "Hearing the Sounds of the Past" (Time, 8 June 1981)
In Baroque opera the voices have primacy. Some musicologists feel that the instruments have been overemphasized in contemporary performances of Baroque opera. Says Christoph Wolff, chairman of the music department at Harvard: "Things are out of balance, because singers are not up to the level of the instrumentalists. There is much still to be learned about Baroque vocal technique. We are used to instrumental dominance in opera, and that is our problem."
...We do not really know what the singers of the Baroque sounded like. Just as the entire period performance movement, the "baroque singing" is a conjecture, albeit based on meticulous musicological research.- Robert Tomas, "Discoveries: Vocal and Operatic" in WholeNote, April 2005
Period instruments certainly exist, but "period voices" pose a completely different problem. The problem of rediscovering a period performance practice for the voice is fraught with difficulty tor reasons that are known to us all, although numerous theoretical works and accounts of vocal performing styles have luckily come down to us from that time. Several ideas have dominated our conception of baroque vocal technique over the last thirty years, the most important being the use of voices without vibrato, the use of the male falsetto voice (thanks to the resurrection of this technique by Alfred Deller) and the use of children's voices. These three precepts are undoubtedly correct but there is nevertheless no need to make them into articles of faith. The art of singing was and still remains the prerogative of professional opera singers, the scores that were written tor them requiring powerful and flexible voices. We should not forget that Italian singing at the beginning of the 18th century was already the result of a good century of tradition and that it was this tradition that was to be the base of the bel canto school at the start of the 19th century. We will arrive at a more exact idea of what the Baroque art of song really was if we also remember that the castrati were still the most renowned singers in Europe at the start of the Romantic period.- Jérôme Léjeune/Transl. Peter Lockwood
The use of "white" voices and voices that possess no natural vibrato is certainly an over exaggeration that probably stems from ideas of what was proper for Renaissance polyphony; all singers agree that a voice without any vibrato loses the essential qualities of expression that allow it to convey emotion. A precise definition of vibrato is therefore necessary; we know that the organ stops that imitate the human voice are stops that use vibrato, this being true tor the Italian Voce Humana (cf The Organ, below) and for the French or German Vox Humana, although tradition demands that these latter two be played using a tremolo mechanism.
Counter tenor voices are one of the most typical characteristics of early music today, although they were not originally used to the exclusion of all other types of high male voice. Two very different vocal techniques were in fact used, the first being the falsetto voice that is created when a low male voice sings entirely in the head register; Alfred Deller was the prime example of this type of singing. The second is the haute contre, ideally a very high tenor voice and one that is used typically in classical French music. The great lyric roles in the tragdies of Lully and Rameau were written for this type of voice, the very low contemporary pitch then in use making these roles entirely possible for today's tenors who possess an easy high register. A French haute contre is not, therefore, a counter tenor.
Counter tenors nevertheless have the ability to sing over a very wide range that includes all the notes in both their falsetto and chest voices. This was also the case for the castrati, and today the roles sung by alto castrati can be performed by counter tenors. The roles written for the soprano castrati have, however, not yet found any modern masculine equivalent.
Although counter tenors can sing music written for the alto castrato as well as works such as the Bach cantatas that were written specifically for their voice, certain alto parts remain that were not attributed to them. Amongst such pieces we find many works by Handel and many of the finest solos in Vivaldi's religious music, a large part of which was specifically written for the girls of the Ospedale della Pietà.
Boys' voices were widely used, most commonly in churches where women's voices were not permitted. Children's voices may often sound enchanting, but we should recognise nevertheless that they are not always perfectly trained. The art of singing requires an extensive amount of time tor true mastery; it seems certain that puberty arrived later than it does now, thereby allowing the boy singers to reach a greater mastery of their technique and a better and more convincing delivery of their solo arias.
William Byrd, Psalmes, Sonets, & songs of sadnes and pietie (1588)