PRACTICAL REFLECTIONS ON THE FIGURATIVE AR T OF SINGING BY GIAMBATTISTA MANCINI Singing Master at the Imperial Ooon oj Vienna Tramlated by PIETRO BUZZI Founder and Director of the Verdi School of Singing, Los Angeles RICHARD G. BADGER THE GOIULUI PRESS BOSTON CowriIM 1111'." BicluJrtJ G. Soilger AU B(g1&U Baert. -~y - S33-'l r I; ') J·..3'1/. /J?~ .r v· TIN GorIMJw& p",., BOIItm, U. 8. A. I ~ GIAMBATrISTA MANCINI, singing master at the Imperial Court of Vienna, studied the art of singing under Antonio Bernacchi of Bologna and Leonardo Leo of Naples. Born in Ascoli Piceno (Italy) in the year MDCC­ XVI and died in Vienna in the year MDCCC. Third edition reviewed, corrected and augmented by the author was published in Milan (Italy) in the year MDCCLXXVII, by Giuseppe Galeazzi, Printer of the Royal House. This work has been translated into the French language by two different writers; one edition was published in the year MDCCLXXVI under the title "L'art du chant figure" and another edition was printed also in Paris in the year MDCCLXXXXVI under the title of "Beflexions pratiques sur Ie chant figure." TO HER ROYAL HIGHNESS The serene Mary Elizabeth, Archduchess of Austria, Princess of Hungary, Boheme, ete., etc. Giambattiata Mancini Among the many gifts and virtues which so luminously adorn the heart of your RoyallIighness, the art of music occupies no little part of your thoughts and time. It is for this reason that I dedicate these thoughts to you, which are a collection formed from experience and meditations, and which I consider to have been of most use in my profession. This book h88 been published with the authority of your great name. To no greater honor and glory could I aspire. However, in reviewing my work, I found reasons for modification and enlargement. I trust, Serene Princess, that you will be indulgent and read this edition. Permit me again to present and dedicate to you this public humble tribute of respect, gratitude and veneration. I , lr TO COMMANDER ALESSANDRO BONCI. Dlustrious Master of the Art of Singing: My love and devotion to art, led me to devote five years of thorough search throughout the libraries of Europe, before I found this precious manuscript. I have spent the greater part of the last two years in translating it into the English language, assisted by my most devoted pupil, Miss Lucy La-Costa Godsey. I feel that this is one of the most important works ever written concerning the art of singing. It comes to prove to us that the art of the great Italian masters has not disappeared, for this book was written by the Dean of these great masters, when the golden era of song was in its full glory in Italy. There is a tendency today among the English speaking people, and even to some extent in our beloved Italy, to teach voice culture by scientific and mechanical methods, and as a result our old traditions have been nearly destroyed. I have unbounded faith that the publication of this classic will be of vast importance in restoring the old and only correct method of the art of training voices, and singing. 7 To you, the only living exponent of the art that made Italy famous during the XVI and XVII centuries, I dedicate this endeavor for three reasons: First, you and your sublime art completely corro­ borate the rules and precepts set forth in this book. Secondly, for the interest you are showing the English speaking people in helping them solve the problem of combining the art of "Bel Canto" with their language. Thirdly, under the patronage of so excellent a museial authority as you, I may have the assurance that my feebleefforts willmeet with indulgence. PIETRO BUZZI, Lyric Tenor-Director of the Verdi School of Singing, Loa Angeles, California. 8 Signor PiMro BuB, Singing MutM aM DirlClm oJ dul YeNi School, LoI A.ng., OaliJomia: My DIlAB PBoI'B88OR:-I have just finished read­ ing your splendid translation of Giambattista Mancini's "Osservazioni pratiche sul canto figurato" and must congratulate you upon your success. The oddstyle of the ancient writers is difficult to translate into modem English. While you have made a literal translation, you have also made it very plain and easy to understand. Undoubtedly, this book will prove a great enlight­ enment to the whole musical profession and more particularly to this young and wonderful nation in which at the present time there is such a widespread movement in favor of the liberal arts, espeeially of music and song. This work appears at a propitious moment, as not one of the many new methodshas proved as good or successful as the old Italian method. Ifthe modem scientific discoveries would blend themselves with the old Italian method, using the latter as a founda­ tion, then the art of song would again be raised toits former high standard. 9 I strongly recommend your work to the English speaking people, as it will show them how to broaden the vowels without sacrificing the consonants, and also how to control the syllables at the front of the mouth without tightening the "Faueis," an act that invariably mars the purity of tone. Even in our Italian Language, which is so liquid and pure, the vowels are often emphasized in order to insure the tone at its right place and pitch, thus making it round and sonorous throughout, in soft as well as in loud passages. Wishing you the success to which your earnest endeavor entitles you, I accept your kind dedication and endorse the book most heartily. ALE88ANDBO BONCI. 10 PREFACE CCIDENTALLY, now and then utility has .given life to the arts, which have disappeared with the disappearance of their usefulness. These arts have been ruined and buried by the succession of centuries. Some of them have not grown beyond a mediocrity, in which state they were born; especially this is true of those in China. Many of them have been at different times more or less cultivated, according to their utility and the degreeof interest taken in them by nations and individuals. On the other hand many other arts have gradually been brought to perfection. The larger part of the arts, however, that have had their birth in a favored and beneficial climate, have had with hardly any exception their prosperous life from Africa to Europe, from Egypt to Greece, and were brought from Athens to Rome. But the north­ em people's desire for pillage and devastation broke and destroyed the Roman dominions, and laid the veil of ignorance over the CoDBtantine Empire, burying in their barbarism the arts, their founders and supporten. They annibilated the stores of 11 It PREFACE knowledge and attainments, and many original products of the talents and industries of our great ancestors. When the liberal arts were recalled to a new life, aftersuch a disastrous epoch andcenturies of oblivion it was still necessary to recover and assemble the few fragments left intactfrom the rascality of man, and to imitate these remains. Through the imitation of perfect models, one can acquire great knowledge and culture. (Although as Marmontel says in his article "Critique," one may misconstrue the word imitation by carrying it to such an extreme that one becomes a slave to models, and thus destroys his own creative ability.) Thus a painterin his examinations gives his pupils some work of Raphael to copy. But not every art has perfect models for the stu­ dents to copy and observe. Singing is one of those arts which lives more by the transmission of its precepts than by examples or illustration. Precept and theory ought to have been in all times and ages the element and inspiration of every science and every art. But as man comes from the hands of nature absolutely ignorant, it is only through intuition, observation and experience that he is able to deduce and solve them. We conclude then that experience is the wisest teacher of all the arts. In music it is especially true; and those who are the most experienced and practiced in it, must beyond a doubt, possess the most knowledge. I do PREFACE 18 Dot flatter myself to such a point, but I only wish for the benefit of the whole profession, to give these suggestions and visions of wisdom which I have acquired in my.many years devoted to this art. I published in Vienna in 1774, some of my thoughts and reflections upon vocal music, for the benefit not only of the teachers, but also for those who study.' My efforts have been accepted indulgently, not only in Italy and Germany, but also in France, where they have been translated into that language in the past year 1776 by Mr. De-Fougiers, and a little later in the month of March they were mentioned in the book "Literary Story" by the Rev, Abbot Rozier, I . page 161. But as I found I had omitted some things which I deem useful, I started again, out of pure pastime, to write them out and to these I have added many other reflections. The requests of friends, and the authority of professors, have urged me to reproduce the above mentioned reflections and make them more perfect and also enrich them as I have done. I could verify this statement by publishing the gracious letters received from Father Maestro Martini, Giovanni Haffe, alias Saffone, Gaetano Latilla, Nicolo Piccini, Giovanni Amadeo Naumann, and other famous professors of our art. · H these letters were not so full of undeserved compliments and praise, I would publish them, but modesty forbids.