FSU ETD Template
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2017 Brazilian Portuguese Lyric Diction for American Singers and Antônio Carlos Gomes: His Life and Musical Style within the Transitional Period from Bel Canto to Verismo Guilherme Coelho Godoi Follow this and additional works at the DigiNole: FSU's Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF MUSIC BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE LYRIC DICTION FOR AMERICAN SINGERS AND ANTÔNIO CARLOS GOMES: HIS LIFE AND MUSICAL STYLE WITHIN THE TRANSITIONAL PERIOD FROM BEL CANTO TO VERISMO By GUILHERME COELHO GODOI A Treatise submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Music 2017 © 2017 Guilherme Coelho Godoi Guilherme Coelho Godoi defended this treatise on November 7, 2017. The members of the supervisory committee were: Valerie M. Trujillo Professor Directing Treatise Evan A. Jones University Representative Douglas L. Fisher Committee Member Joseph C. Kraus Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the treatise has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii To my family iii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables ...................................................................................................................................v List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ vi Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... vii 1. BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE LYRIC DICTION FOR AMERICAN SINGERS .....................1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................1 Pure vowels in Brazilian Portuguese...........................................................................................3 Nasal Sounds ...............................................................................................................................6 Consonants ..................................................................................................................................8 2. ANTÔNIO CARLOS GOMES: HIS LIFE AND MUSICAL STYLE WITHIN THE TRANSITIONAL PERIOD FROM BEL CANTO TO VERISMO ..............................................13 Life ............................................................................................................................................13 Musical Style .............................................................................................................................20 CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................................................33 References ......................................................................................................................................34 Biographical Sketch .......................................................................................................................38 iv LIST OF TABLES 1 Pure Vowels ...............................................................................................................................5 2 Nasal Sounds ..............................................................................................................................8 3 The articulation of the letter r ..................................................................................................10 4 Consonants ...............................................................................................................................12 5 Maria Tudor, Act 1: Tonal Scheme .........................................................................................29 v LIST OF FIGURES 1 Timeline of operas written in the second half of the 19th century. ..........................................16 2 Performances by Italian composers in Italian theaters during the 1880s.................................18 3 Il Guarany, Act 2: Cecilia’s aria “O come è bello il ciel” .......................................................21 4 Peri’s costume for the premiere of Il Guarany, designed by Luigi Zamperoni .......................22 5 Fosca, Act 1: Corsairs’ theme, sung by the bass, p. 15. ..........................................................24 6 Fosca, Act 3: Corsairs’ theme in the cello and viola parts, p. 245 .........................................24 7 Fosca, Act 3: Corsairs’ theme in the orchestra, p. 265 ...........................................................24 8 Maria Tudor, Act 1: End of Giovanna and Fabiano’ duet ......................................................25 9 Analysis of “Quando nascesti tu” ............................................................................................27 10 Salvator Rosa, Act 1: soprano aria “Mia piccirella”................................................................31 11 Lo schiavo, Act 4: Orchestral prelude......................................................................................32 vi ABSTRACT The purpose of this document is to make the reader aware of two areas of vocal Brazilian music that have long been neglected, and are now receiving the attention of researchers and performers: Brazilian Portuguese lyric diction and the operas of Brazilian composer Antônio Carlos Gomes. Many people are familiar with popular genres of Brazilian music. The samba, bossa nova, choro and the driving rhythms associated with carnival dances are widely popular among the general public. However, few are familiar with the classical vocal repertoire. The first section is dedicated to pedagogical tools for teaching Brazilian Portuguese diction. American singers will find the process of preparing Brazilian repertoire more accessible with this concise but objective guide. The second half is a discussion of the operatic works of Antônio Carlos Gomes, with focus on Gomes as a transitional figure from the bel canto to verismo in Italy in the second half the 19th century, as well as his contributions to the operatic repertoire. vii CHAPTER 1 BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE LYRIC DICTION FOR AMERICAN SINGERS Introduction In recent years, many publications about Brazilian Portuguese (referred to hereafter as “BP”) vocal repertoire and lyric diction have been written. Authors have sought not only to improve the International Phonetic Alphabet (referred hereafter as “IPA”) for BP, by adding more accurate descriptions of sound production and more specific notation, but also to encourage non-native speakers to explore the art song repertoire by providing phonetic transcriptions of songs, performance guidance, biographies of song composers and the digitization and publication of music scores. Such research is invaluable, since it promotes the art song repertoire and provides singers and vocal coaches more accurate information on a subject that has been largely misunderstood by performers. Books by musicologists such as Mário de Andrade, Vasco Mariz and Bruno Kiefer, discuss the development of the language and its relationship to art song. Voice teachers, vocal coaches, linguists and researchers from Brazil and other countries have spent several years trying to find a common ground for a standard pronunciation of Brazilian Portuguese. “The systematization and consolidation of norms for the pronunciation of Brazilian Portuguese (…) is the fruit of collaboration by a group of Brazilian researchers and singers, and began in 2003 as a study group during the annual meeting of the National Association of Research and Graduate Studies in Music.”1 These discussions culminated with the publication in 1 Martha Herr, Adriana Kayama and Wladimir Mattos, “Brazilian Portuguese: Norms for Lyric Diction,” Journal of Singing 65, no. 2 (November/December 2008): 195. 1 2007 of the Norms for Lyric Diction in Opus magazine2 as well as in the Journal of Singing in 2008. More recent articles and dissertations analyze select songs of various composers. These, combined with biographies and phonetic transcriptions of song texts, contribute to the growing body of available materials to the performer. While recent publications on this topic are admirable, they still contain some misleading information on diction and phonetic transcription. Therefore, the performer must make sure that the source is reliable, accurate and consistent.3 Authors differ in their IPA notation when it comes to more complicated aspects of the language. For example, the nasal diphthongs or the use of shadow vowels in unaccented syllables are largely a matter of dialect or choice. This document is not another attempt at redefining the phonetic transcription of the language or decoding the process of sound formation in technical terms. While that type of research is invaluable in bringing awareness to the complexities of the language and the dissemination of lesser-known repertoire among singers, it is equally important that native speakers look for ways to bridge the gap between Brazilian Portuguese and American English by finding similar patterns in both languages that serve as tools in building a new palette of sounds available to the American singer. As this author worked with American singers on Brazilian art songs he discovered that all the sounds in Portuguese exist in English. One difficulty is in finding the appropriate