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Chapter 1: the Tradition of Florentine Bel Canto

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Chapter 1: the Tradition of Florentine Bel Canto 1 The Tradition of Florentine bel canto by Liliana Celani, Kathy Wolfe, and Stephan Marienfeld omposition of Classical music the tone is a very powerful one. register, with a mixture of both, and the Caccording to the Italian Renais- The basic elements of bel canto train- third register (also called registro di testa, sance principle of bel canto (beautiful ing are elevation, roundness of sound, or head register) with a predominance singing) is one of the best examples of vibrato, and clear registration. All of of the head voice. This is the register mankind’s ability to discover an existing these are produced using physical attrib- which requires most elevation of the physical principle, and to use that dis- utes of the universe, including the voice, or singing in maschera, in the covery to create new works of science human mind and body, which exist for mask, which means exploiting to the and art, which then increase humanity’s us to discover. utmost the bones and sinus cavities power to build civilization. Today, bel above and around the eyes. canto signifies the physical principle, Bel canto as a Physical Principle The Renaissance genius Leonardo da discovered in the Fifteenth century by Contrary to widespread opinion in the Vinci was the first to study how the Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) and his music world, bel canto is not merely the voice resounds in the head, in different collaborators, that the human singing Italian opera repertoire connected with locations according to the vowels used, voice is innately endowed with differen- Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835), Gaetano which each have a different natural tiated voice registers and other qualities, Donizetti (1797-1848), up to Giuseppe pitch and a different placement in the which allow a composer to create a Verdi (1813-1901); rather, it is a scientif- head, and his drawings were incorporat- unique density of new ideas in a musical ic technique of singing, which makes ed in a treatise on the voice, “De Vocie,” work. such repertoire possible, and which which was unfortunately separated into This density of new ideas is essential composers such as Bellini and Verdi, but different sections, some of which are still to Mozart’s 1782-1785 “musical revolu- also J.S. Bach (1685-1750), Wolfgang included in the Codex Atlanticus. A tion” of Motivführung, as LaRouche has Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), Ludwig famous bas relief by another Renaissance indicated in a number of writings.1 van Beethoven (1770-1827), up to genius, Luca della Robbia, kept in the Book I of A Manual on the Rudiments Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), had in Museo del Duomo in Florence, shows a of Tuning and Registration, Lyndon H. mind when they composed their vocal group of children singing bel canto, and LaRouche’s 1991 music textbook, docu- works—not only choral works and one can tell from the expression of their ments that for 400 years, from the 1430 operas but also Lieder (art songs)— faces which ones are singing in the Florentine Golden Renaissance to the which latter are the “Rosetta Stone” of third, high register, concentrating the death of Beethoven in 1827, the basic music, since they unify the beauty of sound in the head, and which ones are principles of bel canto were taught as a singing with the beauty of a poetic text, singing the medium and low parts. form of mass literacy to all children who consciously using all characteristics of The second element of bel canto, learned to read and write. the human singing voice (its differences besides the scientific use of the natural Bel canto shows itself in many ways in registers, color, dynamics, accents) in registers of the voice, and the conscious to be a physical principle naturally order not only to reflect, but even to balance between elevation (singing in embedded in the human voice, a physi- enrich the poetic text. the mask) and appoggio (support, which cal principle which the Renaissance The precondition for true bel canto is means supporting the sound sul fiato, masters discovered, rather than manu- impostazione, or placement of the voice “on the breath”), is the ability to obtain a factured. The most familiar example is (from the Italian word posto, “to place”): round sound by “covering” it, using that of the opera singer, who, with his or which means that with bel canto, the round vowels such as “o” (as in “mode”) her voice alone, fills with sound a hall of singer finds the best place to amplify the or even “u” (as in “mood”) in the third 4,000 seats, without amplification. Bel voice, simultaneously mobilizing all res- register. Aperto ma coperto (“open but canto also exhibits the quality of “least onating chambers (chest, throat, and, covered”) used to be the iron rule of the action,” in which the smallest physical particularly, head). The balance between old school of bel canto singing—an only effort produces the most powerful such resonating chambers will vary apparent contradiction, since it means result. Renaissance teachers would place according to the natural registers of the that the mouth has to be open, but the a candle before the student’s mouth, and voice, the first register (also known as sound covered. note that when a bel canto tone is pro- the “chest” register) with more chest res- The third element, which confers duced, the flame does not move, even if onance than head, the second, or center particular freedom and beauty to 30 singing, is vibrato, which should not be generally caused by a lack of appoggio, perceive a clear register shift from the confused with either tremolo or the trill. or support of the voice, and indicates a second to the third, high register (partic- Vibrato, the fleeting oscillation of the problem of intonation. (In most cases, ularly in the tenor voice, which is voice between two pitches on either side singers who “go flat” or whose voices stronger), as a change of color. Third- of the conceived tone, is natural to the tremble, lack either elevation, or sup- register notes, if sung with the right voice, and is the effect of correct port, or both.) impostazione, have a particular brilliance, impostazione (placement). The trill, As Leonardo da Vinci indicated in which they lose if they are shouted, or which is a true half or whole step sung his treatise on the human voice,2 bel sung in the throat, where they become alternately in very rapid succession, has canto singing can be compared to paint- opaque. First-register notes, being sung the same musical meaning in singing as ing, because of the conscious use of “col- mostly with a chest resonance, are per- it has in instrumental, or piano composi- ors” in the voice, either as natural colors ceived as darker notes. This implies that tions; namely, to maintain a certain sus- (conferred by the different registers), or each note of the scale does not have the pension before going back to the tonic, as a conscious change of color for pur- same value for singing. or as a leading tone just before a modu- poses of interpretation. (For example, For example, middle C (c ) is a high lation. The presence of a tremolo, which great singers are able to make their voice note for a bass singer, who shifts to his comes from the Italian tremare, or trem- darker while singing a part in a Lied high register on d . The same note is a bling (of the voice), is a clear indication corresponding to a change in the poetic center-register note for the tenor, and is that the singer is suffering from a vocal- text, or a change from major to minor, a low, chest-register note for a soprano technical problem. Tremolo is diametri- or to make it lighter in a particularly or a mezzosoprano, and, as such, it will cally opposed to a normal vibrato, and is joyful part.) Generally, the audience will be perceived differently by the listener, depending on who sings it. As the following musical examples demonstrate, great composers such as Concerning Musical Terminology J.S. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Verdi were aware of these differences in regis- When specific notes are referred to in the text and in the musical examples, the following tration when they wrote their vocal nomenclature is used: works, and developed the well-tem- pered scale based on this palette of vocal colors. Not only notes, but also intervals œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ have a different value according to the & œ œ œ œ cœ′ dœ′ e′ f′ g′ a′ b′ c″ d″ e″ f″ g″ a″ b″ c′′′ register and scale in which they are œ œ sung. ? œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ For example, the same interval cre- œ œ œ ates more or less musical tension as the Bœ′ Cœ D E F G A B c d e f g a b c′ distance between the tonic and the note corresponding to the register shift is There are instances when not a specific note in a specific register, but, rather, a gener- smaller or greater. In the mode of C al member of the scale is being referred to. In such instances, a capital letter is used. major/C minor, a diminished fifth, or Vocal registers are indicated in some musical examples. The chart below shows how Lydian interval (c to fˇ ), corresponds the first (“chest”) register, the third (“head”) register, and the fourth (“super-high”) regis- to a register shift for a tenor and a sopra- ter are marked.
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