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An essay by Joseph Addison |
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No. 029 [from The Spectator] |
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Title: No. 029 [from The Spectator] Author: Joseph Addison [More Titles by Addison] No. 29 ... Sermo lingua concinnus utraque Hor.
But however this _Italian_ method of acting in _Recitativo_ might appear at first hearing, I cannot but think it much more just than that which prevailed in our _English_ Opera before this Innovation: The Transition from an Air to Recitative Musick being more natural than the passing from a Song to plain and ordinary Speaking, which was the common Method in _Purcell's_ Operas. The only Fault I find in our present Practice, is the making use of _Italian Recitative_ with _English_ Words. To go to the Bottom of this Matter, I must observe, that the Tone, or (as the _French_ call it) the Accent of every Nation in their ordinary Speech is altogether different from that of every other People, as we may see even in the _Welsh_ and _Scotch_, [who [1]] border so near upon us. By the Tone or Accent, I do not mean the Pronunciation of each particular Word, but the Sound of the whole Sentence. Thus it is very common for an _English_ Gentleman, when he hears a _French_ Tragedy, to complain that the Actors all of them speak in a Tone; and therefore he very wisely prefers his own Country-men, not considering that a Foreigner complains of the same Tone in an _English_ Actor. For this Reason, the Recitative Musick in every Language, should be as different as the Tone or Accent of each Language; for otherwise, what may properly express a Passion in one Language, will not do it in another. Every one who has been long in _Italy_ knows very well, that the Cadences in the _Recitativo_ bear a remote Affinity to the Tone of their Voices in ordinary Conversation, or to speak more properly, are only the Accents of their Language made more Musical and Tuneful. Thus the Notes of Interrogation, or Admiration, in the _Italian_ Musick (if one may so call them) which resemble their Accents in Discourse on such Occasions, are not unlike the ordinary Tones of an _English_ Voice when we are angry; insomuch that I have often seen our Audiences extreamly mistaken as to what has been doing upon the Stage, and expecting to see the Hero knock down his Messenger, when he has been [asking [2]] him a Question, or fancying that he quarrels with his Friend, when he only bids him Good-morrow. For this Reason the _Italian_ Artists cannot agree with our _English_ Musicians in admiring _Purcell's_ Compositions, [3] and thinking his Tunes so wonderfully adapted to his Words, because both Nations do not always express the same Passions by the same Sounds. I am therefore humbly of Opinion, that an _English_ Composer should not follow the _Italian_ Recitative too servilely, but make use of many gentle Deviations from it, in Compliance with his own Native Language. He may Copy out of it all the lulling Softness and _Dying Falls_ (as _Shakespear_ calls them), but should still remember that he ought to accommodate himself to an _English_ Audience, and by humouring the Tone of our Voices in ordinary Conversation, have the same Regard to the Accent of his own Language, as those Persons had to theirs whom he professes to imitate. It is observed, that several of the singing Birds of our own Country learn to sweeten their Voices, and mellow the Harshness of their natural Notes, by practising under those that come from warmer Climates. In the same manner, I would allow the _Italian_ Opera to lend our _English_ Musick as much as may grace and soften it, but never entirely to annihilate and destroy it. Let the Infusion be as strong as you please, but still let the Subject Matter of it be _English_. A Composer should fit his Musick to the Genius of the People, and consider that the Delicacy of Hearing, and Taste of Harmony, has been formed upon those Sounds which every Country abounds with: In short, that Musick is of a Relative Nature, and what is Harmony to one Ear, may be Dissonance to another. The same Observations which I have made upon the Recitative part of Musick may be applied to all our Songs and Airs in general. Signior _Baptist Lully_ [4] acted like a Man of Sense in this Particular. He found the _French_ Musick extreamly defective, and very often barbarous: However, knowing the Genius of the People, the Humour of their Language, and the prejudiced Ears [he [5]] had to deal with he did not pretend to extirpate the _French_ Musick, and plant the _Italian_ in its stead; but only to Cultivate and Civilize it with innumerable Graces and Modulations which he borrow'd from the _Italian_. By this means the _French_ Musick is now perfect in its kind; and when you say it is not so good as the _Italian_, you only mean that it does not please you so well; for there is [scarce [6]] a _Frenchman_ who would not wonder to hear you give the _Italian_ such a Preference. The Musick of the _French_ is indeed very properly adapted to their Pronunciation and Accent, as their whole Opera wonderfully favours the Genius of such a gay airy People. The Chorus in which that Opera abounds, gives the Parterre frequent Opportunities of joining in Consort with the Stage. This Inclination of the Audience to Sing along with the Actors, so prevails with them, that I have sometimes known the Performer on the Stage do no more in a Celebrated Song, than the Clerk of a Parish Church, who serves only to raise the Psalm, and is afterwards drown'd in the Musick of the Congregation. Every Actor that comes on the Stage is a Beau. The Queens and Heroines are so Painted, that they appear as Ruddy and Cherry-cheek'd as Milk-maids. The Shepherds are all Embroider'd, and acquit themselves in a Ball better than our _English_ Dancing Masters. I have seen a couple of Rivers appear in red Stockings; and _Alpheus_, instead of having his Head covered with Sedge and Bull-Rushes, making Love in a fair full-bottomed Perriwig, and a Plume of Feathers; but with a Voice so full of Shakes and Quavers that I should have thought the Murmurs of a Country Brook the much more agreeable Musick. I remember the last Opera I saw in that merry Nation was the Rape of _Proserpine_, where _Pluto_, to make the more tempting Figure, puts himself in a _French_ Equipage, and brings _Ascalaphus_ along with him as his _Valet de Chambre_. This is what we call Folly and Impertinence; but what the _French_ look upon as Gay and Polite. I shall add no more to what I have here offer'd, than that Musick, Architecture, and Painting, as well as Poetry, and Oratory, are to deduce their Laws and Rules from the general Sense and Taste of Mankind, and not from the Principles of those Arts themselves; or, in other Words, the Taste is not to conform to the Art, but the Art to the Taste. Music is not design'd to please only Chromatick Ears, but all that are capable ef distinguishing harsh from disagreeable Notes. A Man of an ordinary Ear is a Judge whether a Passion is express'd in proper Sounds, and whether the Melody of those Sounds be more or less pleasing. [7] C.
[Footnote 2: only asking] [Footnote 3: Henry Purcell died of consumption in 1695, aged 37. 'He was,' says Mr. Hullah, in his Lectures on the History of Modern Music, 'the first Englishman to demonstrate the possibility of a national opera. No Englishman of the last century succeeded in following Purcell's lead into this domain of art; none, indeed, would seem to have understood in what his excellence consisted, or how his success was attained. His dramatic music exhibits the same qualities which had already made the success of Lulli. ... For some years after Purcell's death his compositions, of whatever kind, were the chief, if not the only, music heard in England. His reign might have lasted longer, but for the advent of a musician who, though not perhaps more highly gifted, had enjoyed immeasurably greater opportunities of cultivating his gifts,' Handel, who had also the advantage of being born thirty years later.]
'Lulli being the first modern composer who caught the French ear, was the means, to a great extent, of forming the modern French taste.' His operas kept the stage for more than a century.] [Footnote 5: that he] [Footnote 6: not] [The end] GO TO TOP OF SCREEN |