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...
Reimagining Historical Voices
‘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...
‘There is a type of passionate delivery of speech that stands midway between actual song and common declamation. It occurs, like song, in...
‘A great defect into which some of the best modern singers have fallen is that of having introduced florid ornaments into recitative,...
‘He then recited a heroic poem that he himself had previously written in honour of our Piero dei Medici. This [poem] was indeed his, and...
'The fragment of recitative [below] has two effects. By the words, “Io credeva che alcuno,” Desdemona expresses the depression that...
In altering or re-arranging words, or syllables, care should be taken to retain and mark the measure or accent of a melody, and only...
‘It is a sad, but nevertheless undeniable truth, that the art of singing is in a terrible state of decadence; and this fact is all the...
‘...The union of all those talents, which we have mentioned, and their bearing thus upon a single point condensed into a focus, is a...