Pierre-Louis Pollio on the ‘Charivary’ of Improvising (‘Chant sur le Livre’) in Many Parts (1771)
‘As for singing on the book in many parts made impromptu, my sentiment is that it is almost impossible to do well… I maintain that it is...
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Gioseffo Zarlino on Those who Improvise Counterpoint with ‘No Regard for the Other Voices’ (1558)
‘What Must be Observed when Improvising a Third Part on Two Given Parts: Skilled contrapuntists occasionally want to improvise a third...
An Anonymous Set of Instructions for Ornamenting Plainchant (c.1475-1525)
[fol. 22r.] Chapter two: of the definition and the division of melodía Melodía is to adorn and to grace the sounds of plainchant. Melodía...
Dr. Zechariah Buck’s (1798-1879) Methods of Teaching Choristers at Norwich Cathedral
The time table of daily duty was, 9 to 9.45, scale practice; 10 to 11, morning service; 11 to 12.30 or 1, music practice; 2 to 3.45,...
The ‘Tedious’ Tempo of English Psalm Singing in the Early 18th Century
‘But the greatest Difficulty is to sound every Note according to its due Measure of Time; and here it is that the Singers in most Country...
Bottrigari 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...
Conrad 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...
Thomas 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...
Jean-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]:...
English 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...
The 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...
Adrianus Petit Coclico on the Art of Singing as (Supposedly) Taught by Josquin Dez Prez (1552):
‘To teach the art of singing well and elegantly to a boy, I advise first that he choose a teacher who sings pleasantly and sweetly with a...
Johann 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,...
Giovanni 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...
Banchieri 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,...
A 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...
Reminiscences 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]...
Summary of the Rules of Singing on the Book: Those of “strict counterpoint” in two voices
The summary below is from Jean-Paul Montagnier, “Le Chant Sur Le Livre Au XVIIIe Siècle: Les Traités de Louis-Joseph Marchand et Henry...
Improvising 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...
Friedrich Weber on Choral and Solo Singing and Training the Choral Voice (1800)
‘Singing exercises that last too long and involve too much effort make the voice screeching, cause the voice to go out of tune, and are...