Tim BraithwaiteBottrigari on both Ensemble Ornamentation and ‘Odious’ (‘odiosa’) Improvised Counterpoint (1594)‘[Alemanno Benelli:] But because of the presumptuous audacity of performers who try to invent passaggi, I will not say sometimes, but...
Tim BraithwaiteAndreas Ornithoparcus (1516) on Solmisation:(Summary) The Rules of Solfaing When solfaing, the singer must be aware of the mode of the piece, since this will tell them what sort of...
Tim BraithwaiteConrad von Zabern on those who Deviate from Notated Plainchant Melodies (1474):‘To sing with fidelity... is to sing so that anyone of those singing together should remain in the form of those notes that were...
Tim BraithwaiteThomas Morley on the Perils of Many Singers ‘Singing on a Plainsong.’'As for singing upon a plainsong, it has been in times past in England, as every man knows, and is at this day in other places, the...
Tim BraithwaiteJean-Jacques Rousseau’s Definition of Chant sur le Livre:‘Singing on the book. A Plainchant or counterpoint in four parts, which the musicians compose and sing impromptu on a single [part]:...
Tim BraithwaiteEnglish Psalm Singers ‘Tearing with their Throats one Wretched Stave into an Hundred Notes’: (1708)‘Then out the People yawl an hundred Parts, Some roar, some whine, some creak like the Wheels of Carts; Such Notes the Gam-ut yet did...
Tim BraithwaiteThe Practices of ‘Lascivious’ Church Musicians as Described by Heinrich von Nettesheim (1532)‘Today, music has such great license in churches that even along with the canon of the mass certain obscene little ditties sometimes have...
Tim BraithwaiteJohann Samuel Petri’s Advice for Teaching a Congregation to Harmonise a Chorale Extempore (1767)Question. How can one remedy the fault that a choir, when it sings a well-known church chorale without sheet music, as must often happen,...
Tim BraithwaiteGiovanni Battista Martini on Singing ‘all’improvviso’ on a Cantus Firmus (1774):'Among the compositions made above a cantus firmus by the masters of the art, those [made] above introits are unique, and are used...
Tim BraithwaiteBanchieri on Writing an Introit that Creates the Effect of Improvised Counterpoint in Many Voices‘I have no doubt at all that the counterpoints above a cantus firmus from the introits by Constanzo Porta and Giovanni Matteo Asola,...
Tim BraithwaiteA Comparison Between Cathedral Singing and the Singing of David’s Psalms (1644)Davids Psalms sung in our English Meeter differ much from Cathedrall singing, which is so abominable, in which is sung almost every...
Tim BraithwaiteReminiscences of a Cacophonous (!) way of ‘Singing on the Book’ in Early 19th-Century France‘I know of no musician today who has any idea what it means to sing on the book. It was an improvised and simultaneous melody [chant]...
Tim BraithwaiteSummary of the Rules of Singing on the Book: Those of “strict counterpoint” in two voicesThe summary below is from Jean-Paul Montagnier, “Le Chant Sur Le Livre Au XVIIIe Siècle: Les Traités de Louis-Joseph Marchand et Henry...
Tim BraithwaiteImprovising on a Plainchant (Chanter sur le Livre) as described in Early Nineteenth-Century France‘... France, where musical taste has always been somewhat backwards, has never abandoned the mania for improvising on plainchant. The...
Tim BraithwaiteJohann Friedrich Agricola (1757) and Wolfgang Caspar Printz (1678) on Choral Singing‘The loudness or softness, especially on long and serious notes, must be observed even by those who sing the supporting voices [not the...
Tim BraithwaiteGiovanni Bardi Discussing Good and Bad Singing in a Letter to Giulio Caccini (c.1578)I become nauseated when I recall some singers I have heard, whether solo or accompanied by others, improvising on a choirbook, not caring...
Tim BraithwaiteCardinal Domenico Capranica (1400-1458) on the singers of Pope Nicholas V‘In honour of immortal God, the Supreme Pontiff Nicholas V filled the most sumptuous sanctuary that he had erected among the papal courts...
Tim BraithwaiteJohann Matthias Gesner’s Description of J.S. Bach Directing from the Keyboard (1732)‘To Marcus Pabius Quintilianus You would think but slightly, my dear Fabius, of all these [the accomplishments of the citharists], if,...
Tim BraithwaiteJohn Curwen Describes a Rehearsal of the Boys at St. Pauls, London in 1891‘The Cathedral bell is striking two, and in the passage boys scud to and fro shouting “Practice!" and racing to their places in the...
Tim BraithwaiteDenys van Leeuwen on Late Fifteenth-Century Liturgical Singing, Translated by Robert Redman (1533)‘Whether descant may be commendable in the divine service, and of certain things which ought to be eschewed in song. Like as it is...
