CHAPTER II

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.