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Reimagining Historical Voices
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Tim Braithwaite
The Performance of Passaggi in Irregular Rhythms According to Lodovico Zacconi (1596)
‘All these things require aptitude, agility, and time, without which nothing can be achieved, and the singer, in using or adopting them...


Tim Braithwaite
Luigi Zenobi on the Role of the Inner Voices in Polyphonic Singing (c.1600)
Since we’ve already seen Zenobi’s comments on the requirements for a soprano (https://www.cacophonyhistoricalsinging.com/post/luigi-zenob...


Tim Braithwaite
Adriano Banchieri on Cacophonous (!) Counterpoint
‘In Rome...while singing [extempore] counterpoint, in the mind (alla mente) above the bass, nobody does that which his partner sings, but...


Tim Braithwaite
John Earle on ‘The Common Singing-Men in Cathedral Churches’ (1628)
‘The common singing-men in cathedral churches are a bad society, and yet a company of good fellows, that roar deep in the quire, deeper...


Tim Braithwaite
The London Gregorian Choral Association Remembering Church Music in the Early Nineteenth Century
‘Many of us can remember (indeed in some few places it still exists) the old village choir, assisted by the double bass, bassoon, wheezy...


Tim Braithwaite
Thomas Coryat on Choral Performance Practice and a ‘supernaturall voice’ in Venice (1611)
‘Sometimes there sung sixeteene or twenty men together, having their master or moderator to keepe them in order ; and when they sung...


Tim Braithwaite
Nicola Vicentino on Ensemble Ornamentation (1555)
‘Moreover, such diminutions should be used in [works for] more than four voices, because diminution always causes the loss of numerous...


Tim Braithwaite
Nicola Vicentino on Vowel Alteration (1555)
‘In setting these vowels, composers are advised that some, such as a, o, and u, are amenable to runs in the low registers and support the...


Tim Braithwaite
Hector Berlioz on the Haute-Contre (1843)
‘The old masters of the French school, who never employed the head voice, wrote a part in their operas which they called haute-contre...


Tim Braithwaite
A nineteenth-century description of English choral performance, as recalled by lay clerk J.V. Cox
“Everything was done in the most florid style, viz., grace notes, cadenzas, 'shakes' (single, double, and triple), while time was...


Tim Braithwaite
Wolfgang Mylius on Florid Ensemble Singing (1686)
'In such other florid ornaments which well-practiced singers use when singing solo, one has a lot of license and freedom, so that the...


Tim Braithwaite
Desiderius Erasmus on Church Singing (1516)
‘Not content even with these things, we have brought into the churches some kind of laboursome and theatrical music...


Tim Braithwaite
Fermatas in Fifteenth-Century Polyphony: A Notated Cadenza
A Gloria from an unknown mass setting by Estienne Grossin. Check out the ossia cadenza!


Tim Braithwaite
Conrad Von Zabern's Thoughts on Singing High Notes
‘Another fault which is more obvious than the others is singing high notes with an unstintingly full and powerful voice...


Tim Braithwaite
Luigi Zenobi’s Instructions for the Perfect Soprano (c.1600)
There remains the soprano, which is truly the ornament of all other parts, just as the bass is the foundation. The soprano...
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