Style in Singing Part 8

Ma su voi ricada il sangue]

A great artist may feel at times the inadequacy of the phrase as it stands to convey justly the composer's idea. Take, for instance, the well-known change which every soprano who sings the role of Leonora introduces in the _Miserere_ scene of _Il Trovatore_. The pa.s.sage occurs four times in succession, and as printed becomes commonplace and monotonous.

[Music: Di te, di te scordarmi! di te, di te scordarmi!]

The accepted traditional change certainly conveys the impression of Leonora's gradually increasing anguish and terror; not the idea that it is introduced merely to exploit a high tone:

[Music: Di te, di te scordarmi! di te, di te scordarmi!]

That this departure from the text must have been sanctioned by Verdi, is, I think, proved by the fact that it has always been sung thus, and the composer himself must often have heard the subst.i.tution. He would certainly have forbidden its use, had he not approved of it, for he was particularly averse to having changes made in his music. The following anecdote ill.u.s.trates this trait in his character. It was related by the late Mme. Marie Saxe, better known under her Italianized name of Marie Sa.s.se. This distinguished soprano singer, a member of the Paris Opera for a number of years, was engaged to give a certain number of performances at the Opera of Cairo. _Aida_ was one of the operas stipulated for in her contract. She had never sung the role, and in studying it found the _tessitura_ of the music, at one or two points, a little too high for her natural means. As she was compelled by her contract to sing the opera, she asked Verdi to make some slight changes to bring the music within her reach. But he refused absolutely to make the least alteration.

Madame Saxe was specially selected by Meyerbeer to create the role of Selika in _l'Africaine_. She studied the part for three months with the composer, and sang it when the work was first given at the Paris Opera. She was also chosen by Richard Wagner for the part of Elisabeth when _Tannhauser_ was given its stormy performances, with Niemann in the t.i.tle-role, at the same theatre in 1861.

Madame Saxe possessed a score of _Tannhauser_ with the inscription in the composer's handwriting:

"_A ma courageuse amie Mademoiselle Marie Saxe._

_L'Auteur_ RICHARD WAGNER."

The slight modifications, or _pointages_, asked from Verdi, were not, I was a.s.sured by Madame Saxe, of a character to alter either the role or the opera, and she remarked (I quote her own words): "Why should Verdi have shown himself more unreasonable or less yielding than Meyerbeer or Wagner?" (_plus intransigeant, plus intraitable que_ Meyerbeer _ou_ Wagner?).

In tradition, however, there is the true or accepted tradition--so called because believed to have been sanctioned by the composer himself, or approved of by competent authorities and its use warranted by time--and the false. This latter is simply an acc.u.mulation of excrescences superimposed on the original by individual whim or personal fancy. These have been invented by singers desirous of bringing into relief certain special and peculiar gifts, or who have mistaken, perhaps forgotten, the original and authentic tradition.

Thus their artistic heritage has become so altered and disfigured by successive additions, or "machicotage," as to bear no resemblance to the original, this being buried under a heap of useless complications.

But it may be asked, are there no authoritatively correct printed editions of such cla.s.sics with the accepted traditions and the proper mode of their performance expressed in modern musical notation? Yes: but they are incomplete, being for the most part confined to airs and other excerpts, instead of the complete works themselves. In this connection, I may cite the admirable edition of the "_Gloires d'Italie_" by the late erudite musician and authority, Gevaert, for so many years Director of the Conservatoire at Brussels. These editions are characterized by a scrupulous fidelity to the composers' text as it was understood when written, as well as by great taste and musical sense of what is appropriate and fitting, in such ornaments as the editor has introduced, when these have been left to the discretion of the singer. The solo parts for the princ.i.p.al singers in Mozart's operas of _Don Giovanni_ and _Le Nozze di Figaro_, edited and revised for performance by the well-known singing-master and excellent musician, Signor Randegger, are also admirable. But other editions exist which do not bear the same imprint of authority, or conscientious care in their revision, as do the versions just mentioned.

In the edition of the well-known air "_J'ai perdu mon Eurydice_" (_che far senza Euridice?_) from _Orphee_ (Gluck), revised by Madame Pauline Viardot-Garcia, no mention is made of two traditions which have been used and handed down by a number of the most famous singers of the role of Orphee. I give them here:

[Music: (as printed)

dechire mon coeur. J'ai perdu mon Eurydice

(Traditional changes)

Ah! dechire mon coeur. J'ai perdu mon Eurydice]

The change on the third repet.i.tion of the princ.i.p.al theme is quite in accordance with the license then accorded in such airs.

In a special version of the opera _Armide_ (Gluck), revised and edited by the late Sir Charles Halle, the first bars of the great air of Armide in the first scene of the fourth act, "_Ah! si la liberte_"

(Ah! if my liberty must from me then be taken), are printed thus:

[Music: Ah! si la liberte]

The situation is where Armide perceives the knight Renaud in the gardens of her enchanted palace, whither he has come to destroy the sorceress on account of her magic arts. Although the enchantress knows that the mission of the knight is to deprive her of liberty, she herself succ.u.mbs to the fatal pa.s.sion of love. I have briefly described the scene in order that my meaning may be clear. In the second half of the first bar, the _acciaccatura_ was never intended by the composer to be actually sung as printed. It was his only way of indicating the sob or sigh whereby Armide finishes her exclamation, "Ah!" The effect is called "the Dramatic sob," and is known to every opera-singer. Here is the composer's meaning, as far as it is possible to convey it in writing:

[Music: Ah! si la liberte]

(A _portamento_ must be made from the first note to the next, when the breath must be taken quickly to give the idea of a sob or sigh.)

Again, in a recent edition of the same air by the distinguished composer Vincent d'Indy (_Nouvelle edition Francaise de Musique Cla.s.sique_), occurs the following:

[Music: tu regnes dans mon coeur!]

The effect of the _F_ sharp in the last bar, if sung against the harmony given, in which the preceding chord is resolved, would be intolerable. Surely, the composer intended a p.r.o.nounced _rallentando_ on the latter half of the bar, and a carrying of the voice by a _portamento_ to the last note. Thus:

[Music: tu regnes dans mon coeur!]

In the edition of the immortal air in the opera of _Xerxes_, universally known as the "Largo of Handel," also revised and edited by d'Indy, may be noticed the following:

[Music: Non v'oltraggino mai la cara pace, ne giunga a profanarvi austro rapace!]

Of course, every operatic conductor knows that the chord in the orchestra must be played "after the voice," as the technical phrase has it. But not every pianist or organist is familiar with this usage, and the effect would be very disagreeable if given as written. It should be performed thus:

[Music: Non v'oltraggino mai la cara pace, ne giunga a profanarvi austro rapace!]

Besides, why claim that a certain edition is "revised and edited,"

when all the care and musical knowledge seem to have been expended on the harmonies only? Surely, the voice-part in these cla.s.sics is not without its need of elucidation.

An edition of _The Messiah_, revised for performance, can scarcely be called accurate when such defects as the following occur:

"And [fermata symbol over "they"] they ---- [breath symbol] were sore afraid."

The following is the authentic mode of performing the phrase:

"And [fermata symbol over dash] ---- [breath symbol] [slur symbol and "sombre" over the following words] they were sore afraid."

In the same edition for the solo singers occurs: ("Behold and see"):

[Music: If there be any sorrow like un_to_ His sorrow.]

But by a slight syllabic rearrangement, the disagreeable accent on the last syllable of "un-_to_" is avoided, and the accent placed on the word "His," to which it belongs, while the composer's music remains untouched.

[Music: like unto _His_ sorrow.]

Again, in the same air occurs:

[Music: (as printed)

like un_to_ His sorrow.

(should be sung)

like unto _His_ sorrow.]

While recognizing the benefits conferred by some of these specially prepared editions, there remains still more to be accomplished in this direction before the work is complete. A flood of light has been thrown on the dark and nebulous places of the instrumental cla.s.sics by various distinguished and highly competent musicians. It is sincerely to be hoped, in the interests of this branch of the aesthetics of vocal art, that those competent to speak with authority will do so, in order that in this direction also "the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain."

I admit that this question of revising the composer's written text is an exceedingly delicate and difficult one. It should be attempted only by those possessed of the requisite authority, those who combine tact and taste with judgment and experience. To these qualities should be added a sincere and reverential desire to place in the highest relief the meaning of both poet and composer.