top of page
Reimagining Historical Voices
Search
Tim Braithwaite
Dr. Robert Carter Moffat’s Ammoniaphone: bottled Italian air for vocal health (1885)
'I would advise using the Ammoniaphone about one hour or one hour and-a-half after having partaken of food. Artificial Italian air reacts...
Tim Braithwaite
John Baptist Cuvillie on Using a ‘Tramblan Stop’ to Make the Organ More Like the Human Voice (1699)
‘3dly I removed the Voxhumane which was on the Chairorgan before, Now to the Great Organ, and for to adorne that Stop and to make itt...
Tim Braithwaite
Henry Chorley on French Singing and ‘Portly, Middle-Aged Gentlemen’ Singing in Falsetto (1844)
‘A gallery of French tenor singers would not be the least edifying chamber in the Pantheon of Art. Few traces would be there found, it is...
Tim Braithwaite
Emma Calvé on the ‘Fourth Voice’ Taught to her by Domenico Mustafa (1922)
‘During my sojourn in the Holy City, I often went to hear the choir of the Sistine Chapel, which was at that time under the direction of...
Tim Braithwaite
Adriano Banchieri on Singing the Words Under the Notes
How to sing the words under the notes Final lesson Before the beginning singer commences [singing] the words, several conditions must...
Tim Braithwaite
A recollection of Giovanni Battista Rubini Singing so Forcefully that he Broke his Clavicle
‘Rubini appeared, raised his eyes to heaven, extended his arms, planted himself firmly on his calves, inflated his breast, opened his...
Tim Braithwaite
Thomas Elyot on Vociferation Exercises for Good Health (1595)
‘The chief exercise of the chest and vocal organs is “vociferation”, which is singing, reading, or crying [loud shouting], which has the...
Tim Braithwaite
Venceslaus Philomathes on those who beat time with ‘unsightly gestures’ (1512)
‘There are those whose habit it is to lead songs with unsightly gestures, thinking that they know distinguished customs and a special...
Tim Braithwaite
Colley Cibber on a Singer’s Timing (1740)
‘The Voice of a Singer is not more strictly ty’d to Time and Tune, than that of an Actor in Theatrical Elocution: The least Syllable too...
Tim Braithwaite
A Reminder that Englishmen, when Moved, do not Tremble! (1917)
‘Our quarrel with excess of tremolo is twofold. When passion is simulated by tremor, it is forgotten that an Englishman, when he is...
Tim Braithwaite
Morell Mackenzie on Those who Pretend to See with their Fingers (1886)
'It cannot be too clearly understood at the outset that the voice is generated solely in the larynx. It is necessary to insist on this...
Tim Braithwaite
L’Abbé de Condillac on the Melody of Declamation and Recitative (1788)
‘Although our declamation cannot be notated, it seems to me that one might be able to preserve it in some way. It would be sufficient if...
Tim Braithwaite
Juan de Lucena on those who Improvise Counterpoint ‘por uso’ (1463)
‘The Music, lovely science, awakens the spirits and comforts people. There is nothing as sweet as hearing different voices intoned...
Tim Braithwaite
Pietro Reggio on the Fundamentals of Singing
‘Many great lovers of Singing are discouraged from Learning for want of a good Voice; which by experience I know they ought not to be,...
Tim Braithwaite
Georg Sulzer on the Performance of Recitative
‘There is a type of passionate delivery of speech that stands midway between actual song and common declamation. It occurs, like song, in...
Tim Braithwaite
To Mr. Henry Lawes, who had then newly set a Song of mine in the Year, 1635.
Verse makes Heroick Vertue live, But you can life to Verses give: As when in open aire we blow The breath (though strain'd) sounds flat...
Tim Braithwaite
William Byrd’s Reasons ‘to Perswade Every one to Learne to Sing’ (1588)
‘Reasons briefly set down by the author, to persuade everyone to learn to sing First, it is a knowledge easily taught, and quickly...
Tim Braithwaite
Jean-Baptiste Faure on the Voix Sombrée and Raising the Head for High Notes (1886)
[pp. 44-45] 'No historical method mentions this type of voice [the voix sombrée] ; it is only since Gilbert Duprez's debut that we have...
Tim Braithwaite
Dame Clara Butt on Silent Practice and Vocal Rest (1912)
'Here is another point which beginners should take to heart, and follow as far as they are able. Try to avoid over-anxiety. Students...
Tim Braithwaite
The Sounds of a Town Church-Choir in 1861
‘Turn into a town Church, for instance, and what does one hear? Fifty charity children squalling their little windpipes to pieces in...
bottom of page