Heart to Heart: Expressive Singing in England 1780-1830

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Introduction
1 Styles of Singing
2 Discovering the Proper Manner of Delivery
3 The Power of Sound
The tones of the passions
Registers
Vibrato
4 Phrasing
The expressive pause: punctuation, rests, and breathing
Staccato
5 Loud and Soft Singing
Messa di voce
Accent and emphasis
6 Tempo and its Breaches
7 Execution
Graces: greater elegance and deeper intensity
Appoggiatura
Acciaccatura
Mordent
Turn
Shake
Divisions
Cadenza
8 An Expressive Countenance: The Actor of the Passions
9 Heart to Heart: The Dramatic Display of Passion
The Promethean fire of eloquent expression
The language of the soul
Notes
Bibliography
Index

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This book establishes the principles of interpretation that singers active in England (both foreign and English) applied to recitatives, arias, and songs, by composers such as Handel, Mozart, and Rossini. Expression lay at the heart of persuasive singing during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and Robert Toft here ably places the concept and its practices in a broad cultural perspective. Singing was related closely to speaking in this period: when the techniques of delivery that were common to both arts (emphasis, accent, tone of voice, pauses, breathing, and gesture) are combined with resources peculiar to singing (portamento, messa di voce, tempo, rubato, vibrato, and ornamentation), the style which emerges differs markedly from that of the late twentieth century. Most singers today perform the repertoire of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, but until now no book has addressed the principles which governed song performance in this period or shown how historical understandings may be used to move and delight modern audiences.

Reviews

Notes: Journal of the Music Library Association

[an] informative and fascinating look at vocal practice... [which makes] a valuable contribution to the field of performance practice... All should read this book to dispel modern myths about bel canto

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