‘At five o’clock I went to the Concert Spirituel, the only public amusement allowed on these great festivals. It is a grand concert...

Notker sends greeting to brother Lantbert. At your request, I have taken pains to explain as well as I could...

“Everything was done in the most florid style, viz., grace notes, cadenzas, 'shakes' (single, double, and triple), while time was...

The repugnance which the Italians have for strong and loud voices, such as our own baritones [basse-tailles] and even haute-contres...

‘What the German manner of singing was like in times past may still be perceived today from the singers in choirs...

‘Moreover, simple as much as diminished counterpoint is made in two ways, that is, either in writing or mentally. Counterpoint...

‘If one wants to describe the sensuous impression of a voice, one says, of course, that the organ has a golden or a silvery sound, that...

‘Observation teaches us that the Larynx rises in its entirety with the high pitches, and that it descends with the low pitches...

'In such other florid ornaments which well-practiced singers use when singing solo, one has a lot of license and freedom, so that the...

‘Not content even with these things, we have brought into the churches some kind of laboursome and theatrical music...

A Gloria from an unknown mass setting by Estienne Grossin. Check out the ossia cadenza!

‘Another fault which is more obvious than the others is singing high notes with an unstintingly full and powerful voice...

‘A certain soprano who was very skilled and excellent at singing in falsetto (but was not a castrato) once sang arias rising to an e’’’ ...

There remains the soprano, which is truly the ornament of all other parts, just as the bass is the foundation. The soprano...

‘It pollutes the very practice of devotion that in the sight of God... by the debauchery of their wanton voices, by their self-display,...

'Brahms arrived yesterday. I am glad my hoarseness is gradually disappearing, for the thought of singing, at the concert day after ...

'In teaching solfaing let the master carefully instruct the scholar how to open his mouth that the tones may come forth freely without...