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loft is shown by the absence of the con• gregation: Bach and Maria Barbara were Voices In Choral Music: only practicing and church was not even in session! WOMEN, MEN, BOYS, OR CASTRATI? There were certain places where wo• men were allowed to perform reltgious TIMOTHY MOUNT in a "" and "" by Guillaume music: these were the convents, cloisters, Legrant in 1426. Giant books, large and religious schools for girls. Nuns were 2147 South Mallul, #5 enough for an entire chorus to see, were permitted to sing choral music (obvious• Anaheim, California 92802 first made in Italy in the middle and the ly, for high voices only) among them• second half of the 15th century. In selves and even for invited audiences. England, choral music began about 1430 This practice was established in the with the English polyphonic carol. Middle Ages when the music was limited Born in Princeton, New Jersey, Timo• to plainsong. Later, however, polyphonic thy Mount recently received his MA in Polyphonic choral music took its works were also performed. __ On his musi• choral conducting at California State cue from and developed out of the cal tour of Italy in 1770 Burney describes University, Fullerton, where he was a stu• Gregorian unison chorus; this ex• several conservatorios or music schools dent of Howard Swan. Undergraduate plains why the first choral music in Venice for girls. These schools must work was at the University of Michigan. occurs in the church and why secular not be confused with the vocational con• compositions are slow in taking up He has sung professionally with the servatories of today. They were supported the new fashion. The medieval church by the Church and cared mostly for chorus of the Festival of Two Worlds in knew principally only the unison Spoleto, Italy, the Kenneth Jewell Cho• foundling and orphan girls. Several com• choir and the solo ensemble. The posers, including Hasse, Porpora, Gaspa• rale in Detroit, the Festival Singers of polyphonic choir was an idea foreign Canada, and the Aspen Chamber Choir. rini and Vivaldi, composed music for to the medieval tradition. The be• the' girls at such institutions. Last year he was conductor of the Po• ginnings of choral polyphony coincide mona College Choir, during William Rus• Only men and boys were allowed to with the beginnings of the musical sell's sabbatical. sing in liturgical throughout Eu• Renaissance (Bukofzer, 3:189). rope before the middle of the 18th cen• By 1400 the Catholic Church allowed tury. A good example of the ideal choir women to participate in congregational can be obtained from evidence concern• Whether a composer envisioned male or of hymns. The early Protestant ing the activity in the court chapel where female (or both) treble voices in the churches also provided for female con• Lassus worked at Munich in the middle performance of his choral works is an gregational participation in the singing of the 16th century - "ideal" because interpretive problem too often ignored by of. hymns and psalms. Composers, inclu• Lassus was respected, successful, and choral conductors. Ignorance of this ding Walther, Senf!, Praetorius, Hassler, had the best available musical resources. problem may produce poor performance and Schein, The ensemble Lassus worked with is not practice and increase the danger of wrote polyphonic settings of chorale only well documented but a painting also making every piece sound the same, re• tunes for use by choirs, as well as survives (McKinney, 15:217). In addition gardless of the musical period of its tunes for the congregation. It was to instrumentalists there were thirteen composition. Because there has been so often the practice for congregation male , fifteen , twelve basses, little research in this area the conscien• and choir to alternate stanzas of the sixteen choirboys to sing the tious musician is left with only the vague chorale, the congregation unaccom• part, and five or six castrati. generalization that men and boys were panied and in unison, and the choir With the increasing complexity of des• used in the Medieval, Renaissance, and in parts, accompanied by organ or cant and counterpoint in Renaissance Baroque periods while mixed choirs, con• other instruments (Rice, 17:21-22). and Baroque music, it became more and sisting of both sexes, were not used until Thus, female participation was limited to more difficult for boys to perform these the time of the Romantic period. But congregational unison singing of psalms difficult treble parts by themselves. Usu• what types of voices were used in the and hymns. ally by the time they had achieved some years . 1740-1810? What role did female Most authorities agree that no mixed musical proficiency, their voices were vocalists play, if any, prior to the Clas• groups sang as the official, liturgical ready to change. There were three alter• sical period? Were castrati ever used in choirs of the Catholic Church prior to natives to using boys' voices to sing treble choruses? Why were women excluded the 18th century. This custom was not parts: castrati, a mysterious Spanish from choral music for so long? And how confined to Catholicism but was also technique of singing, and male does all this affect choral interpretation? found in Protestant churches. While he altos. These are some questions this paper was organist at Arnstadt in 1706, Bach Castrati first sang in the Papal Choi!' will attempt to answer. was officially reprimanded and ques• in 1562. The use of castrati, while not An historical survey of the different tioned ". . . by what right he recently officially condoned by the Church, was types of treble voices which participated caused the strange maiden to be invited at least tolerated until the 19th century. in singing choral music should begin in into the choir loft and let her make Monteverdi used castrati at St. Mark's the early part of the 15th century. In music there" (David, 7:53). This "strange in Venice. After his visit to the cathedral "The Beginnings of Choral Polyphony," maiden" probably was Maria Barbara in Milan, Burney describes a small choir Bukofzer concludes that the earliest Bach, Johann Sebastian's cousin and fu• consisting of "one boy, and three castrati known example of choral polyphony (i.e., ture first wife. The strict nature of this for the soprano and contr', with two more than one singer to a part) appeared rule forbidding women to enter the choir tenors and two basses" (4:65,I). Castrati were also employed in the court chapels and cathedrals of Northern Europe - FOR YOUR BICENTENNIAL PROGRAM. 1976 for example, in Lassus' choir. Michael Haydn employed castrati in Salzburg and FOR THIS DEAR LAND Mozart mentio_ned them frequently in by his letters and used them in his and sacred works. Thus, while preferably Aneurin Bodycombe employed as soloists, castrati probably SA TB - 30it each sang choral music but almost always in Band and orchestra accompaniment available conjunction with boys singing the same part. In France and England, however, Arranged by Maurice Ford their sphere of activity was confined to the , boy being Ttie [_,<; 4rmed Forces Bicentennial Band and Chorus unde i preferred for choirs. the di r e ct iori of Lt. Col. Hal Gibson has selected the Protestant churches were more reluc• above fur their entire tour visiting every state, plus tant in allowing castrati in their ser• Canada. Mt'Xico, Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. vices. Yet some of the more difficult treble in Bach's cantatas must have Complimentary copy on reoue s t . been sung by adult falsettists. Spitta (19:310,II) believed that it was not un• VOLKWEIN BROS INC. common for these men to command a 117 Sandusky Sheet Established 1888 Pittsburgh, Pa. 15212 range up to "E and F in Alt.," i.e., the third E and F above middle C! The only

26 THE CHORAL JOURNAL way Spitta is able to account for this the middle of the 18th century only as quiem, or been present at some Ro• is a belief in the existence of a mysteri• follows: 1) congregational unison sing• man Catholic Cathedral where an ous, secret, vocal technique which by ing, 2) predominantly solo or ensemble eighteenth-century mass was per• Spitta's time had disappeared. Very little (one singer to a part) secular music, and formed, a woman hired from the is known of this special. technique of 3) females performing only with other Opera-House whooping the Benedictus soprano falsettists. females. from the Western Gallery (Bridges, In the sixteenth century the Sistine Why were there no mixed choirs before 2:25). Choir included some famous Spanish the middle of the 18th century? Most of Church dogma, primarily that of the falsetti who may have supplanted the the significant choral music up to that Catholic Church, also kept women from boys provided by the Orphanotropia time was composed for and performed at membership in church choirs for a long or Scholae Cantorum. Rockstro states court or church. (Theater or opera music time. As early as the 4th century women that the soprano falsetto was exten• was largely a function of the courtly were not allowed to sing in church by sively cultivated (in Spain) by means aristocracy and oriented primarily to• order of the Didascalis of 318, the Coun• of some peculiar system of training, wards the vocal solo.) Thus, the answer cil of Laodicea (367), and the Synod of the secret of which has never publicly to this must be found by analyzing sepa• Antioch (379). And as recently as 1903 transptred, At the close of the six• rately the needs of each institution. Pope Pius X issued a moto proprio on teenth century, Spanish soprani were The amateur singing societies, which sacred music expressly forbidding the in very great request (Hough, 10:3). were the first important mixed choirs, use of women in liturgical choirs. ·How• Adult male altos have long played an were an outgrowth of an educated middle ever, the moto proprio was not strictly important role in English choirs. class interest in music beginning in the obeyed, especially in the United States The tradition of sing• 18th century. Previous to this time poli• where 'women have long sung in Catholic ing in English cathedral choirs has tical, social, and economic forces pre• choirs with the tacit permission of the never been broken since earliest times vented the growth of a large educated bishops. But it was not until 1958 that . . . and its distinctive tone-colour middle class. Also, the choirs of the Pope Pius XII, in his Musicae sacrae is an essential part of English choral aristocratic courts were composed pri• d!sciplina, allowed churches to use mixed music (Dart, 6:49-50). marily of professional and student sing• choirs of men and women or girls so In a footnote to Burney's Musical Tours ers; and, historically, women have usually long as they remained outside the sanc• (4:114,I) Scholes states that in Burney's been prevented or discouraged from pur• tuary and ", . . everything unbecoming day male altos were used to the total suing professional careers and career• is avoided" (Mume, 11:178). exclusion of women: oriented education and training. Thus, Often it was simply outright sexism We see bow late took place the these choirs were male-dominated. which under the guise of religious pro• swing over from the use of male There were several reasons why women priety played a part in excluding women singers of the part to that of female were prevented from singing choral mu• from church choirs. For example, in 1826 by the singers of the choirs of the sic in churches. One was the Church's a writer (John La Trube) brought charges Crystal Palace Handel Festival: in attitude toward secular music and, in against an English church choir and its this, male altos in 1895 were 418; in particular, music for the stage. Because organist including the "want of reve• 1900, they were 73; and in 1903 they women sang opera, their participation in rence" ensuing from the admission of wo• were 3. church music might have been construed men to the choir. The use of was not con• as an improper intrusion of the profane ''What can be more unpleasing," fined to England, however, but popular into the sacred: he asks, "than to see a female with throughout Europe and even in North What would St. Augustine have said unabashed front, standing up in the America (especially English-speaking could he have heard Mozart's Re- presence of the full congregation, and Canada) for centuries. John Hough pro• vides evidence of falsetto singing begin• ning in the 12th century. He quotes a translation of St. Bernard of France: ". . . sometimes the masculine vigour LET THE being laid aside it is sharpened into ·~he PEOPLE AT !AH shrillnesse of a woman's voyce" (10:2). i~ There is other evidence of male altos fAH singing at French courts in the 16th and HepI You 1t, 17th centuries and the court at Weimar where Bach was employed. Most female vocalists prior to c. 1750 Commemorate '· were restricted to secular music, and particularly to the opera. Monteverdi regularly employed women soloists in EASTER his .' operatic presentations. A woman solo• FREE ... Your new 1976 Easter & ist also appeared in F. Manelli's Andro• Springtime Musicatalog ... FREE meda in 1637. A painting of the opera La Oontesa del Numi composed by Leo• FEATURING ... NEW!! nardo Vinci, painted by Panlni, and CAN IT BE? performed in Rome in 1729, depicts a Musical ior the choir by Larry Mayfield, approx. 55 min. chorus of men on one side of the stage EVEN UNTO DEATH Easter drama by Jeffrey L. Sheler, approx. 35 min. and women on the other (Pincherle, 16:123) Numerous illustrations and paint• EASTER PROGRAM BUILDER No. 14 Readings - Recitations - Songs for all ages. ings may be found of women participating Also ... THE WEEK BEFORE A choral cycle on the final week of Christ's earthly ministry in the singing (and playing) of Renais• by Ed Seabaugh and Bob Burroughs. sance madrigals, frottoli, and part-songs, ... and many other fine Easter Cantatas, Program materials, Dramas, etc. especially in Italy and France. But this type of secular singing was generally confined to only one person singing each SEND ME: D Your New 1976 Can It Be? The Week Before part. Easter and Springtime D Book MB-387-$2.95 D Book ME-18-$1.50 Musicatalog FREE In England, women vocalists sometimes I D Stereo Album L-7120 - $5.98 D Stereo Album L-218 -S5.98 I sang solos in secular music: e.g., in The D Book/Album Comb. D Book/Album Comb. Siege of Rhodes, one of the first English L-7120C - $7.95 L·218C - $6.45 operas. Shaw, in his introduction to the I I Purcel! Society Edition mentions that the Even Unto Death EasterProgram Builder No. 14 name of a woman soloist, a "Mrs. Ayliff," D Book ME-21 - $.75 D Book ME-114 - $.75 was written on Purcell's score of his I I 1693 Birthday Ode to Queen Mary. How• ever, the second soprano part in the solo I Lillenas Check or money order enclosed $ ------I quintet of the same work was sung by Publishing Company Name _ "the Boy" and the mezzo-soprano and Box 527 alto solos were performed by men. I Kansas City, Mo. 64141 Address------~ I In summary, women probably were al• City_=====------State------:~~ lowed to participate in before L --D-ep~6-- _z-_'P::----~-=--=--=J

JANUARY 1976 27 TREBLE ... Whether these women sang solos alone ting to the growth of mixed choirs was or with the choir is open to question. the increasing number of women soloists with outstretched neck, screaming Nevertheless, the event was noteworthy. in opera, oratorio, and other sacred above the voices of the multitude and Mattheson was director of the Hamburg works. The type of treble soloists used the swell of the organ, like a seagull cathedral from 1715-1728. Not only a often depended on the occasion for which in a tempest!" (Liemohn, 14:107) conductor, he was also a critic, theorist, a work was written, where it was to be The first evidence of women singing diplomat, composer, instrumentalist, and performed, and the available performing religious music in church comes from s+nger. Although unsuccessful in per• resources. For example, at the first per• Germany. In 1715 Johann Mattheson be• manently establishing women in church formance of Mozart's Miss brevis In came director of the Lutheran cathedral choirs, he influenced German musical B-flat K. 275 (272b) in 1777, a in Hamburg and presented an oratorio thought considerably, especially in the sang the soprano solo. However, in 1791 of his own composition. In it he included introduction of dramatic and concerted this same solo was sung by an eleven• three female opera singers as soloists. music into the Lutheran· Church. He be• year old girl. We also know that Con• "Never before had women been per• came close friends with Handel when stanze Mozart sang the soprano solo in mitted to take part in the formal music the latter arrived as a young man in the first performance of the Mass in c minor in Salzburg (1783). of the Lutheran churches in Hamburg" Hamburg in 1703 and later helped per• (Cannon, 5:50). Liemohn enlarges on suade Handel to settle in England. The music itself was also responsible this: Perhaps Mattheson was also influential for the growth of female participation. [Mattheson] used three or four in Handel's decision to sometimes use Music in the second half of the 18th women in his choir, against stiff pro• women in the choruses of his oratorios. century became melody-dominated, as tests at first, but with growing favor In a contemporary but undated print opposed to previous Baroque polyphony. as the people became more accus• reproduced in The Oxford Companion Perhaps this was why women sang only tomed to the practice. Nevertheless (Scholes, 18:plate 121) there is a picture the soprano parts in oratorio in England. we cannot say that his experiment of Handel presiding at the rehearsal of Burney provides an excellent contem• was either wide-spread or long-lived one of his oratorios. The soloists and porary (1772) account of this need for (14:67-68). the choir include women and no boys strength in the soprano part: are visible. On the same page, however, , in particular, sung ad• is a print by Hogarth (dated 1734) en• vent very agreeably; but there is titled "Oratorio as seen by Hogarth" generally a want of steadiness in such which does picture several boys but no young musicians, which makes it to women. be wished that females were per• At Handel's own performances of Mes• mitted in the church to take the siah (1742-1759) the soprano and alto soprano part, which is generally the solos were taken at various times by wo• principle, as the voices of females men, countertenors, castrati, ·and even a are more permanent than those of boy. More than four soloists often sang boys (4:17,II). in each performance. "This was of some This was in Brussels. A little later in importance, because, in contemporary another church in the same city: practice the soloists sang with the chorus, [I] was glad to find . . . two or and they must have constituted a sub• three women who, although they did stantial part of the small ensemble" not sing well, yet their being em• FDR CONCERTS: (Lang, 13:340). For example, in the first ployed proved that female voices performance of Samson in Covent Gar• might have admission in the church, den (1743) the three female soloists joined without giving offence or scandal to David Willcocks' with the boys in the accompanying piety, or even bigotry. If the practice "choirs of virgins" to Dalila's "My were to become general, of admitting arrangements faith and truth, 0 Samson, prove." But women to sing the soprano part in the with the exception of these soloist addi• cathedrals, it would, in Italy, be a tions, oratorio choruses remained all male. service to mankind, . . . in general We may then summarize Handel's chorus: the want of treble voices, at least 1) women were the exception rather than of such as have had sufficient time FIVE FOLK the rule, 2) they were used only in to be polished, and rendered steady, addition to the male voices, usually, the destroys the effect of the best com• soprano part exclusively, and 3) the typi• positions, in which, if the principal cal chorus consisted of basses, tenors, melody be feeble, but the SONGS falsettists, and boys. These same gene• subordinate parts, meant only as at• ralizations may be applied to other 18th tendants, and to enrich the harmony century oratorio choruses, e.g., the Co• of the whole, can be heard (4:20- For unaccompanied vent Garden revival of Thomas Arne's 21,II). (1773), the famous Handel com• The greatest factor which helped to mixed chorus memoration program in Westminster Ab• break down the prejudice against mixed bey (1784), and the Stoughton Musical choruses was the growing educated mid• Society (1774). dle class interest in music after the On the continent similar mixtures of middle of the 18th century. The first l. The Lass of Richmond Hill singers were evident. Donington's last amateur mixed chorus worthy of note Barbara Allen piece of evidence in The Interpretation of was organized by Karl Christian Fa.sch 2. Early Music (1st edition) is very interest• (1736-1800). Fasch was associated with 3. Drink to me only ing in this respect. This document is a the two important early Classical com• Early one morning list of musical directors and personnel posers, C.P.E. Bach and Georg Benda 4. of various European opera houses, courts, and worked at the court of Friedrich 5. Bobby Shaftoe and churches compiled by Friedrich W. the Great. Several of his female pupils Marpurg. No reliable generalizations or persuaded fellow students and friends to (Complete 56.135, $3.95) definite conclusions can be derived from form a small mixed choir which Fasch this list. It simply reflects the variety was requested to direct. He complied, of treble voices - women, men, boys, and by 1790 between 10 and 16 people At all fine music stores; and castrati - in choruses between 1754 attended regular choral rehearsals at the or copies on examination and 1758. summer house of Councillor Milner near Berlin. In 1793 the choir was granted from the publisher. What were some of the reasons for the gradual introduction of women into the use of a room in the Royal Academy Write Department CJ. practice of choral music? The influence of Arts from which they derived their of men like Mattheson who helped break name . The group numbered down the barrier between theater music 147 in 1800 when Fasch died. In memory and church music has already been men• of their founder the society performed ..------•Music Department tioned. Many people took seriously the Mozart's conducted by their new OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, INC. ideas of Rousseau and the Enlightenment. leader, Karl Friedrich Zelter. Religious dogma and authority were of• Other amateur groups were soon form• 200 MADISON AVENUE, NEW YORK, N.Y.10_016 ten questioned. Another factor contrrbu- ed in the early 19th century. In Leipzig

28 THE CHORAL JOURNAL the Singverein was formed in 1802, and treble parts in the church choirs of large the Gesangverein in Luebeck was founded cities. in 1805. A choral society was organized INTERPRETATION: in Erlangen in 1806. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS Another early amateur chorus was the How does the fact that boys, castrati, Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Society falsettists, women, and various combina• of the Friends of Music) founded in tions of all four were common at dif• Vienna in 1813 at the instigation of Dr. ferent times in the history of choral Choral Music von Sonnleithner. The choir's first music affect modern interpretation of patron (1814-1831) was Cardinal Arch• music written before the middle of the duke Rudolf, Beethoven's pupil and pa• 19th century? tron. Members of the Gesellschaft der It is impossible to know exactly the rorfhe · Musik:frewide joined the regular chorus kind of vocal quality produced by castra• of the Kaerntnerthor Theatre to sing ti. They sang not only soprano parts but the premier in 1824 of Beethoven's Ninth alto as well. Although the vocal bands Symphony and three movements of the remained relatively unchanged from child• l\lissa Solerrmis, In a pre-concert conver• hood, their capabilities in terms of breath BICENTENNIAL sation with Lichriowsky, Schindler said: support· and body resonance increased as The choruses at the theatre are also they aged. Therefore, it is possible . that BACON good; Schuppanzigh says that the their voices were characterized by the women's choir of the society (Gesell• general quality of boys' voices with a Bennington Riflemen In preparation schaft der Musik:freunde] is pot of richer, more colorful tone, vocal agility, Buttermilk Hill (Song the best because they are all young and volume potential. of 1776) In preparation girls, which is true .... The women's It is much easier to discuss boys' BINKERD choir is thoroughly bad .... Twenty voices, Throughout most of childhood (From "Institutional Cannons for to twenty-four for each part in the boys and girls have essentially the same chorus are already on hand (Thayer, ·Mixed-Voices") vocal quality. But as boys approach The Wealthof Illinois':' SATB 21:159,III). puberty and the eventual voice change, Ten years earlier Beethoven wrote a there is an increase in brilliance and COPLAND cantata, Der glorreiche Augenblick, for clarity of the upper pitches of their (From "Old American Songs") the Congress of Vienna in 1814. In this voices. At this time the voice can become At the River SA, SSA, SATB, TTBB work the chorus is divided into three quite buoyant, resonant, and expressive Boatmen's Dance SATB, TTBB separate groups of men, women, and if properly trained - and the boys of Ching-A-Ring- .. . . children. Thus, Beethoven wanted and the early scholaa cantorum and court Chaw ·' SSAA, SATB. TTBB probably had performing resources for chapels certainly received more intensive -. The Dodger · . . TTBB two distinct and different tone colors for training than the average elementary or LBoughtMe a Cat>· SSA, SATB, TBB his treble voices, a technique later used junior high school child today. Little Horses . SA, SSA, TTBB by Berlioz and other composers. Bee• Authorities disagree concerning whe• LongTime .i\go . SSA, SATB thoven was not the first composer in• ther or not is a natural function Simple Gifts · SA or TB terested in the effect of different tone of children's voices. It is certainly not (From "The Tender Land") colors in treble voices. A Gaude Virgo in impossible to instill some degree of vi• Promise of Living.piano duet the Trent Codices by the 15th century brato in the young voice. However, the French composer H. Battre includes spe• accompaniment. . . ·.. SATB general rule is probably: ", . . as the Stomp Your Foot, piano duet cific directions indicating that certain voice matures so will the vibrato of the . accompaniment · SATB,TTBB passages should be sung by pueri (boys) singer" (Swan, 20:54). It may therefore and others by mutate voces (changed be assumed that a relatively "straight" Younger Generation SA,SSA, voices. tone characterized at least the soprano SAB,SATit In London and other large English parts in music intended for and per• :. IlYKEMA ...... cities boys and adult male falsettists formed by boys. still prevailed in singing the treble parts Although the range for boys' unchanged America, Our Homeland (optional . · in choirs. However, in the smaller towns voices has a potential of G below middle obbli~atofor Bbtrumpet) TTBB there was a scarcity of trained boys' C to two octaves above middle C or FLOYD. · · voices and women therefore often sang higher, more practical and safer ranges in the smaller church choirs. (From"''The Passionof are: low voices - B-flat below middle C Jonathan Waae"),_>· In the rest of Europe small mixed to C above middle C; high voices - chotrs consisting of men and women alone Down in Galilee middle C to the second F above. But Free as a Frog became common by the time the Ro• boys who are true altos are quite rare, man tic movement was firmly established and historically, falsettists or counter• (From "Susannah") after about 1840. tenors often provided the necessary The Jaybird Song The following statements summarize voices. the variety of different vocal forces used KLEIN . ··· -. ·•··••·. In modern performances of older works Cranberry Comers, U.S.A. (avail-/.> in singing treble parts in choral music some conductors ask for a very thin, from the 15th century to the middle of able with Full Band; no Full . · "white," almost breathy quality from the Score) SSA,SA.B, Sf..}:B, TTBB the 19th century: women because they realize that boys' 1) Prior to c. 1750 women participated voices were used. While it is certainly KUBIK.'< . · .. ·· .... · .. ··. ·.. :_ in singing vocal music as follows: possible to obtain this kind of tone from Dan:fell5rew (optional obbligato for a) congregational unison stngtng, b) pre• boys' voices and falsettists, a group of violoncello and string ) SATB dominantly solo or ensemble (one singer boys and countertenors well trained in to a part) secular music, e.g., madrigals, the use of some vibrato and vocal reso• WASHBURN oratorio, opera, and c) females per• nance is capable of producing a bright, We Hold These Truths . • forming only with other females. The full, resonant tone. Also, castrati and ("Bicentennial Ode''jfor Chorus, only exceptions were women singing in women soloists were often added to the Band and/or Orchestra> SATB opera and oratorio choruses in the 17th treble voices, thereby contributing vocal WILSON /EHRET and 18th centuries. maturity to the sound. Black is.the Color ofMyTrue 2) In sacred music before c. 1750 treble The voices of boys and countertenors Love's Hair SSA, SAB parts were sung by boys, castratr, and are certainly not as powerful as those Tail ·Fiy-- SA adult male falsettists. of mature women and this must be con• 3) Women first started singing sacred sidered in the performance of music writ• All the above are accompanied except music in the middle of the 18th century. ten before the 19th century as well as in those marked =, 4) The first important mixed choirs works by Britten, Stravinsky, and others Complimentary octavos J1•Qj[Qble if.'request~d were amateur choral singing societies. who sometimes prefer children's voices. on organizational letterhead. Bicentennial The first of these societies were formed In other words, considerations of balance brochure and choral catalog available 11po11 c. 1800. are important. In all-male choirs, how request. Address all inquiries to: 5) By the middle of the 19th century, could the boys be heard above the instru• mixed choruses singing sacred and secu• ments and the bigger voices of the basses BOOSEY & HAWKES, INC lar music were common, In England, and tenors? Denis Arnold (1:982-85) sug• P.O. Box 130, Oceanside, N.Y. I 1_572 however, boys and men continued to sing gests several possibilities. Large concert

JANUARY 1976 29 increase the number of partials in the the dark, often "hooty" quality in the TREBLE overtone series and affect the overall lower ranges of all voices in modern, blend of the choir. Therefore, vibrato, mixed choirs. halls were relatively rare before the 19th which is essentially a rapid fluctuation The addition of even one good counter• century and concerts were often given of pitch, must never become too wide. to a small alto section can contri• in the smaller rooms, chambers, and Rhythmic precision within each section bute a very pleasing, appropriate tone chapels of the aristocratic courts. In is also necessary; otherwise, different quality in the performance of Renais• large cathedrals the vocalists were usually pitches will sound at different times. sance and Baroque music. Even untrained mingled in with the instrumentalists, not Diction is inseparable from the cultiva• countertenors can be used on treble parts, placed in back of them. In the theater tion of a bright choral tone and a unified especially In less serious, secular music. instrumentalists were often placed in the pronunciation of each word is important. Conductors should not be so pedantic wings behind the scenes. But most im• For example, every diphthong and triph• as to always insist on recreating the portant, loud volume and a wide vocal thong should be analyzed to decide what exact number and type of performing range were often secondary in importance two or three vowel sounds form the forces used in the past. Whenever boys, to vocal ornamentation, and this probably syllable and how long each sound is sus• women and castrati joined in various demanded an overall decrease in dyna• tained. Dark vowels (e.g., "o") produce combin~tions in the singing of treble mics from those with which we are a greater number of audible partials in parts in choral music, problems of blend familiar today. the overtone series than bright vowels were certainly created. In this respect, The music and acoustical factors often (e.g., "ee"). Therefore, a slight brighten• the modern mixed choir is often more provide clues pertaining to tone quality. ing or modification of the dark vowels fortunate. Although variety of vocal color For example, the overlapping phrases, will brighten the tone. Emphasis on pure within· sections was probably evident in free rhythm, and polyphonic imitation of explosive consonants ("p", "t", "k") and performances of the past, it cannot be demand the thin, white tone voiced explosive consonants C'b", "d", concluded this was desired; often, these mentioned above. The same can be said "g", "j") will provide a crisp quality of combinations of voices merely reflected for music written for a place such as tone. expediency in terms of economics and St. Mark's in Venice with its very slow Another valuable technique is vocaliza• availability of vocal forces, church dogma, acoustical decay and magnified, rever• tion and rehearsal at a very soft dynamic and prejudice against women. berant sound. But, as Dr. Burney sug• level. Vocal exercises, at least in the gested, the music itself may demand first stages of tone development, should INTERPRETATION: something different from the forces that be descending scale passages beginning PRACTICAL APPLICATION were actually used for its presentation. in the head register of the voice. The In consideration of the vocal qualities Given the historical survey of treble value of this exercise is to transfer the voices and general suggestions for inter• of male treble voices, subtlety of dyna• light, ringing quality of the head register mics, acoustics, and compositional style, pretation, Giovanni Gabrieli's Jubilate down into the middle or chest register. Dea has been chosen as a practical ex• it may be concluded that the most appro• The low of treble parts in priate choral tone for much early music ample of how this information may be music of the Renaissance and Baroque applied to performance. would be best characterized as light, periods may be due to a greater preva• "floating," and bright. Several choral There is little evidence concerning the lence of falsettists as well as different number and types of singers at St. Mark's techniques are conducive to this kind of standards of pitch. In either case, an easy tone. Cathedral iri Venice during Giovanni Ga• solution to the problem of consistently brieli's tenure as organist (1584-1612). Precise pitch is essential. Even slight low pitches is simply the transposition of However, enough related information can pitch variations within each part will the entire piece upward, thereby avoiding be found to arrive at the conclusion that boys, adult male falsettists, and c:;i-strati probably sang treble parts. An ordinance concerning the choir of St. Mark's was issued in 1403 and stated: Since it reflects on the fame and honor of our dominion if our Church of St. Mark has good singers, in view of the fact that this church is the ranking one of our city, the under• SELECTION OF EASTER MUSIC signed have resolved to engage eight Venetian-born boys as asslstants, to BILLINGS{ed. Daniel) - The Lord is Ris'n Indeed. An Anthem for Easter. be taught in singing. However, a boy Mixed voices (SATB) a cappclla (66496) . $ .60 from Montana should be exceptionally - Two Easter Anthems (Crucifixion: Resurrection). SATB a cappella ( 66342) .60 included, as he is now in the employ BINGHAM - Per'ect Through Suffe6ng, SATB, Organ (66348) . 1.25 of the church and sings excellently CHAPMAN - Festival Overture. Organ solo ( 6365) . 3.00 (Kenton, 12:31). Winterfeld, the great 19th century mu• HAMMERSCHMIDT- An Easter Dialogue. SSATIB,2 Trps, 4 Trbs, Cb, Org. sicologist, claims that in the early 16th Set of Ports (7): $2.80 Vocal Score (66307) . 1.25 century there were no less than forty PEETERS - Canticum Gaudii (Song of Joy). SATB. 2 Trps, 2 Trbs, Org. singers at St. Mark's. It is also known Score and Parts (66426): $5.00 Choral Score (66426d) .20 that Gabrieli spent several years of his Entrata Festiva. Processional and Recessional.Score and Parts (6159) .... 5.00 youth at the Munich court and enjoyed Choral Score (6159d): $.20 a close professional and personal rela• Hymn Preludes for Lent and Easter, from Op. 100. Organ solo {6402) . 4.00 tionship with Lassus, Thus, Gabrieli may I Know t~at :ny Reedem er live+h, Hymn-Anthem. SATB, Organ { 6346) . .40 have easily been influenced by the num• PINKHAM- "Easter Cantata. SATB. Brass, Pere. Vocal Score {6393) . · · · · · .. · · 1.75 bers and types of singers at Munich (see *St. Mark Passion. Sopr, Ten, Bar, Bass Soli, SATB, Brass, Timp, above). Like the court at Munich, St. Per:, Cb, Harp, Organ. Vocal Score (6900) • •. · • · · · · · · · · 3.50 Mark's was a very important and well• *Stabat Mater (Lat). Sopr solo, SATB, Org. Vocal Score (6855) . 2.50 endowed musical institution and could easily afford the best possible .muaical ROREM - Christ the Lord is ris'n today. SATB a cappella { 6390) . .30 resources. It was also found that Ga• TCHEREPNIN,A. . Mass (English). 3 equal voices a cappella (66162) . .60 brieli's successor, Monteverdi, used castra• - Processionaland Recessional. Organ solo (6839) ... • ... · • ... · · • · · • · · · 2.50 ti at St. Mark's (see above). TITCOMB. Christ the Lord is risen today. SATB, 2 T rps, Org ( 6388) . .40 Even if the above information were Set of Trumpet Parts ( 2): $.80 not available, an examination of the com• WILLAN. 0 sing unto the Lord a new song. SATB, Brass, Org (6016) . .60 positional style of Jubilate Dea would Set of Brass Parts (2 Trps, 2 Trbs] (4): $2.00 indicate that Gabrieli probably intended the treble parts for male singers. For "Score and Parts available on rental almost one-third of the piece all eight vocal parts sing polyphonically at the C. F. PETERS CORPORATION same time. A wide vibrato and dark, heavy vocal tone would quickly obscure 373 Park Avenue South, New York, N.Y. 10016 (2121 686-4147 the individual vocal lines. Similarly, the continually changing rhythmic patterns and metric accents found in Jubilate Deo

30 THE CHORAL JOURNAL demand the buoyant, light, clear tone Scholes. London: Oxford University and Documents, No. 16. [Romel: Amer• discussed previously. Press, 1959. ican Institute of Musicology, 1967. There is no reason for the women of Cannon, Beekman C. Johann Mattheson. Lang, Paul H. George Frederic Handel. a modern mixed chorus to try to imitate Yale Studies in the History of Music, New York: Norton, 1966. the sound of boys, castrati, or falsettists. Vol. I, ed. Leo Schrade. New Haven: Liemohn, Edwin. The Organ and Choir But in order to do stylistic justice to the Yale University Press, 1947. in Protestant Worship. Philadelphia: score, several rehearsal techniques for Dart, Thurston. The Interpretation of Fortress Press, 1968. Jubilate Deo will be suggested. The Music. New York: Harper and Row, McKinney, Howard D. and W. R. Ander• first of these is the use of pianissimo 1963. son. Music in History: the Evolution of singing, particularly where the choral David, Hans T. and Arthur Mendel (eds.). an Art. 2nd ed. New York: American texture is extremely thick. This tech• The Bach Reader. New York: Norton, Book, 1957. nique also enables the singers to hear 1966. Pincherle, Marc. An Illustrated History the other voice parts and increase the Donington, Robert. The Intepretation of of Music, trans. Rollo Meyers. London: individual performer's awareness of the Early Music. New York: St. Martin's Macmillan, 1960. polyphonic texture. Press, 1963. Rice, William C. A Concise History of The second technique is that of stac• Drinker, Sophie. Music and Women. New Church Music. New York: Free Press, cato singing. The vocalists may either York: Coward-Mccann, 1948. 1965. sing the words or use an explosive, Hough, John. "The Historical Significance Scholes, Percy. The Oxford Companion voiced consonant (e.g., "d") but it is of the Counter-Tenor", Proceedings of to Music. 10th ed. London: Oxford Uni• essential that no note, no matter what the Music Association (Valduz: Kraus versity Press, 1970. its value, is sustained longer than one Reprint, 1966), 64:1, November, 1937. Spitta, Philipp. Joh!!nn Sebastian Bach, eighth-note. If pianissimo sing.ing and Hume, Paul. Oathollc Church Music. New trans. Bell and Fuller-Maitland. Lon• staccato singing are combined, the proper York: Dodd, Mead, 1960. don: Novello, 1889. tone quality should result when normal Kenton, Egon. Life and Works of Gio• Swan, Howard. "The Development of a dynamics and articulation are' resumed. vanni Gabriell. Musicological Studies Choral Instrument," Choral Conducting: A valuable procedure for obtaining A Symposium, ed. Harold A. Decker rhythmic precision (and therefore, clarity and Julius Herford. Englewood Cliffs of tone) is the mental reduction of rhyth• (New Jersey): Prentice-Hall, 1973. mic passages into smaller note-values. ACDA DIVISIONAL Thayer, Alexander W. The Life of Lud• For example, the first three measures wig van Beethoven (unabridged re• of the soprano I part in Jubilate Deo CONVENTIONS print of the Kriehbehl edition, 1921). would be reduced to eighth-notes. The Carbondale: Southern Illinois Univer• singers must "feel" the eighth-notes while sity Press, 1960. :•: singing the written note-values. EASTERN February 27-28 Hotel Washington ~gSfJ±r:if=iJ±FffHg Washington, D. C. NORTH CENTRAL March 4-6 Ohio State University ~ Columbus, Ohio NORTHWESTERN Extremely loud dynamics should be avoided in performances of Jubilate Deo. February 27-28 This is especially important in the tenor University of Washington and bass voice parts. It must be re• Seattle, Washington membered that boys and falsettists prob• ably sang the treble parts and they SOUTHERN would never have been heard if the basses and tenors sang with a fortissimo. February 19-21 If the Schirmer edition of Jubilate Deo Hospitality House is used, perhaps each of Woodworth's Williamsburg, Virginia editorial dynamic markings might be de• creased one dynamic panel, i.e., a forte SOUTHWESTERN marking would become a mezzo-forte, a mezzo-forte a mezzo-piano, etc. Cadential March 19-20 ornamentation is entirely appropriate in Hilton Inn West this work and if it is added the volume Oklahoma City, Oklahoma of sound must be reduced at the cadence in order that the ornaments can be WESTERN heard. Outside the scope of this study, but February 12-14 nevertheless very effective, is the emerg• Rickeys Hyatt House ing or concertato-ripieno tech• Palo Alto, California nique of the early Baroque period. The structure of Jubilate Deo lends itself very readily to this technique in which tutti sections of full chorus with organ and instruments doubling the voice parts ACDA BICENTENNIAL (the ripieno) may alternate with sections CELEBRATION '76 sung by soloists or small chorus accom• July 19-24, 1976 panied by organ alone (the concertato). National Music Camp BIBLIOGRAPHY lnterlochen, Michigan Arnold, Denis. "Monteverdi Singers", Mu• sical Times, 111:982-85, October, 1970. Bridges, Robert. Collected Essays. XXII. 1977 ACDA London: Oxford University Press, 1935. Bukofzer, Manfred. "The Beginnings of NATIONAL CONVENTION Choral Polyphony", Studies in Medie• March 3-5 val and Renaissance Music. New York: Fairmont Hotel Norton, 1950. Dallas, Texas Burney, Charles. An Eighteenth-Century Musical Tour in France and Italy, ed.

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