Recitative
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Recitative (/ˌrɛsɪtəˈtiːv/, also known by its Italian name recitativo ([retʃitaˈtiːvo]) is a style of delivery (much used in operas, oratorios, and cantatas) in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms and delivery of ordinary speech. Recitative does not repeat lines as formally composed songs do. It resembles sung ordinary speech more than a formal musical composition.
Recitative can be distinguished on a continuum from more speech-like to more musically sung, with more sustained melodic lines. The mostly syllabic recitativo secco[A] ("dry", accompanied only by continuo, typically cello and harpsichord) is at one end of the spectrum, through recitativo accompagnato (using orchestra), the more melismatic arioso, and finally the full-blown aria or ensemble, where the pulse is entirely governed by the music. Secco recitatives can be more improvisatory and free for the singer, since the accompaniment is so sparse; in contrast, when recitative is accompanied by orchestra, the singer must perform in a more structured way.
The term recitative (or occasionally liturgical recitative) is also applied to the simpler formulas of Gregorian chant, such as the tones used for the epistle, gospel, preface and collects; see accentus.
Origins
The first use of recitative in opera was preceded by the monodies of the Florentine Camerata in which Vincenzo Galilei, father of the astronomer Galileo Galilei, played an important role. The elder Galilei, influenced by his correspondence with Girolamo Mei on the writings of the ancient Greeks and with Erycius Puteanus on the writings of Hucbald[1] and wishing to recreate the old manner of storytelling and drama, pioneered the use of a single melodic line to tell the story, accompanied by simple chords from a harpsichord or lute.
In the
Secco
Secco recitatives, popularized in Florence though the proto-opera music dramas of
In the early operas and cantatas of the Florentine school, secco recitatives were accompanied by a variety of instruments, mostly plucked fretted strings including the
Instead the violoncello was left to carry on alone, or with reinforcement from a
Accompagnato (or obbligato)
Accompanied recitative, known as accompagnato or stromentato, employs the orchestra as an accompanying body. The composer writes an arrangement for the orchestra musicians. As a result, it is less improvisational and declamatory than recitativo secco, and more song-like. This form is often employed where the orchestra can underscore a particularly dramatic text, as in "Thus saith the Lord" from Händel's Messiah; Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were also fond of it. A more inward intensification calls for an arioso; the opening of "Comfort ye" from the same work is a famous example, while the ending of it ("The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness") is secco.
Sometimes a distinction is made between the more dramatic, expressive, or interjecting 'orchestral recitative' (recitativo obbligato or stromentato) and a more passive and sustained 'accompanied recitative' (recitativo accompagnato).[4]
Post-Wagner uses
Later operas, under the influence of
Recitative is also occasionally used in
George Gershwin used it in his opera Porgy and Bess, though sometimes the recitative in that work is changed to spoken dialogue. Porgy and Bess has also been staged as a musical rather than as an opera.
Instrumental recitative
Recitative has also sometimes been used to refer to parts of purely instrumental works which resemble vocal recitatives, in terms of their musical style. In an instrumental recitative, one instrument (or group of instruments) are given the melody line (akin to the role of the singer) and another instrument (or group of instruments) are given the accompaniment role. One of the earliest examples is found in the slow movement of
Ludwig van Beethoven used the instrumental recitative in at least three works, including Piano Sonata No. 17 (The Tempest), Piano Sonata No. 31, and in the opening section of the Finale of his Ninth Symphony. Here, Beethoven inscribed on the score (in French) "In the manner of a recitative, but in tempo." Leon Plantinga argues that the second movement of Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto is also an instrumental recitative,[5] although Owen Jander interprets it as a dialogue.[6]
Other Romantic music era composers to employ instrumental recitative include Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (who composed a lyrical, virtuosic recitative for solo violin with harp accompaniment to represent the title character in his orchestral Scheherazade) and Hector Berlioz (whose choral symphony Roméo et Juliette contains a trombone recitative as part of its Introduction).[citation needed]
The tropes of recitative
There are certain conventions, or tropes, which standardize recitative; so that, in practice, recitative is a rigid musical form. The following are standard tropes of recitative:
- Recitative is a dialogue between a (usually) solo voice and an instrument or instruments. Usually the voice and instrument(s) alternate, or share a chord while one continues. In this way the speech-like rhythm of the singer does not need to be coordinated and synchronized with the instrument(s).
- Recitative cadences: The dialog ends with the instruments. Invariably the instrument(s) complete the final dominant-tonic cadence. Also, typically the voice stops on or before the dominant chord and then the instrument(s) execute a return to the tonic. Occasionally the subdominant-tonic (plagal) cadence is used instead.
- Recitative chord progressions: The chord progressions in recitative avoid resolutions and rely heavily on dominant sevenths and diminished chords to postpone the resolution. In the extreme, the instrument(s) start the dialog with a diminished chord, moving from non-resolution to non-resolution, building up to a temporary or final cadence, as described above.
- Trope violations: the transition between recitative and aria, and subtle violations on the above 'tropes' are what make some recitatives more creative than others. For example, Bach's use of a plagal cadence; sometimes more than one voice is used [Haydn's Creation, 31]; and sometimes a deceptive cadence replaces the dominant-tonic cadence, as a way of appending a new section.
See also
- Melodrama or accompanied speech
- Sprechgesang 'speech-song', with rhythms and approximate pitches musically notated
- "Recitatif", Toni Morrison's short story formatted after a recitative
- Spoken word
References
- Notes
- ^ plural: recitativi secchi
- Citations
- Bibliography
- Gossett, Philip (2006), Divas and Scholars: Performing Italian Opera, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226304885
- Hope, Robert C. (1894), Mediaeval Music: An Historical Sketch, Elliott Stock, 1894; Pranava Books, 2013. ISBN 978-1-40868-650-8
- Jander, Owen (1985), "Beethoven's 'Orpheus in Hades': The Andante con moto of the Fourth Piano Concerto", in 19th-Century Music Vol. 8, No. 3 (Spring 1985)
- Plantinga, Leon (1999), Beethoven's Concertos: History, Style, Performance, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. ISBN 0-393-04691-5
External links
- Hirt, Aindrias (Andy),"The Connection Between Fenian Lays, Liturgical Chant, Recitative, and Dán Díreach: a Pre-Medieval Narrative Song Tradition" on otago.academia.edu