A

BRIEF ANALYSIS

OF

SONG AND RECITATIVE.

WHEN the phenomena of Speech, Song and Recitative, are regarded independently of verbal distinctions, they display a nearer resemblance than is discoverable by a general view of their effects and names. It is the duty of philosophy to look into the real existences of things; to break down many of those lines of separation which the poor conveniences of classification have established; and to exhibit, as far as available with finite resources, that clear and comprehensive picture of nature, surveyed at once and always, by the infinite discernment of her own self-present, aud self-percipient eye.

To the common ear, speech and song are totally different. Let us examine their relationships by a comparison of their several constituents.

In taking up this subject, I have no new vocal function to describe. Song and Recitative are only certain combinations of the five modes of sound and their forms, enumerated in the preceding history of speech. It is my design to point out the man

ner of these combinations; in order to complete the survey of vocal science; and if the natural and expressive use of the voice does at all admit the Pretensions of Recitative, to show the relationship between its three leading divisions.

OF SONG.

THE art of Vocal Music has long been studiously cultivated; and although it has never yet received a full elementary analysis, either of its structure or its effects, its investigations have accumulated a mass of observation, and framed a body of rules for governing the great and brilliant results of its practical execution.

It is, at this time, beyond both my design and ability to offer anything like a detailed consideration of the topic before us. The opportunities for inquiry on the subject of Song, as well as on that of all the Fine Arts, are too limited in this country, as regards companionship in knowledge, the higher discussions of taste, and eminent examples of executive skill, to furnish a proposed record, in that order and with that clearness which always characterize a direct transcript from nature. It becomes the American, in knowing himself on these matters, to touch those points only, which the physiology of his own organs may furnish, and, in this day at least, to leave the full description of the singing-voice, to the ample means of European experience and education. I propose to give only a general account of the functions of song; leaving it to those whom it may professionally concern, to make a practical application of the principles here developed, or to regard them only as a pastime of knowledge, in natural history.

As song consists in certain combinations of the five modes of the voice, employed as the ground of arrangement in speech, the proposed analysis will be given under the same general heads: and first,

Of the Pitch of Song. The movement of song has every direction and extent, ascribed to speech; together with two forms of intonation, which do not belong to the latter.

In illustrating the nature of the equable concrete I described the Protracted Vanish. As a single unimpassioned effort, it consists of a rapid concrete-rise through the interval of a tone, and of a prolongation on one line of pitch at the summit of that tone. Let us call the former of these constituent movements, the Concrete, and the latter, the Note. Of this ascending concrete with its conjoined note, there are two conditions. First when the Concrete ascends and terminates in the note, at the summit of the interval; thus constituting the Protracted Vanish.

In ascending by this combination of the concrete and note, through the seven places of the musical scale, the movement is made according to the following notation of time and pitch: where I suppose the succession to be on the staff of the bass-cliff.

The Second condition is, when the Note begins the interval with its prolongation, and the concrete then rises to the summit of the interval; thus constituting the Protracted Radical. In ascending the scale, by this combination of note and concrete, the progression is made according to the following notation.

Song variously employs both these movements: the protracted radical less frequently perhaps than the protracted vanish: for the voice in its instinctive intonation, appears to fall more readily into the latter. Not having however sufficiently examined this case, I leave it for future inquirers. Regarding the vocal

effect or expression in these two forms of the protracted note, there seems to be no difference between them: and should no better reason be found for a singer's choice in taking one or the other, it might perhaps, in some cases, be decided by the nature of the elements on which it is executed. Thus the radicals of the dipthongs, a-we, a-h, and ou-t, have more volume and audible character, than their respective vanishes e-rr and oo-ze. Thus too, when a subtonic begins and ends a syllable, or when a subtonic begins, and a tonic ends it, there may be reason for a choice. Hence we may understand why a singer, having reference to the more agreeable sound, and more impressive effect of a long-drawn note, would prefer using the protracted radical, or protracted vanish, as the nature of the syllable might allow.

The time of the concrete rise in the foregoing scales, is here represented by a semiquaver, and that of the note by a semibreve, two comparative terms in music, expressing the proportion of one to sixteen.

There may be a Simple, and a more Complex structure of song: formed respectively, by the discrete, and the concrete movements of the voice.

As the successions of pitch in song, when formed according to the preceding scales, are made by a transition either to proximate or remote degrees, without the continuous slide from one degree into another, a vocal melody founded on these scales, forms the plainest kind of song, resembling the discrete music of a flute.

In this kind of melody, the length of the note, when compared with the concrete, is different according to the time of the musical composition. Its longest quantity may exceed the proportion represented in the above scales. Its shortest, as in quick-timed songs, changes the syllabic movement to an equable concrete; the voice becoming altogether concrete by the obliteration of the note: and were it not for an occasional long quantity on the note of song, and the wide transitions of radical pitch, it would pass for speech; since as such we hear it in the rapid parts of comic songs. This is the reason why it does not require much musical skill to sing them; the greater part of their intonation being in the equable concrete.

The foregoing diagrams of the tone represent,—with the exception of the semitone, not here noted,-the most simple form of the concrete of song. But other scales of wider concretes may be constructed.

The following diagram, represents the protracted vanish; with a concrete, varying from a second to an eighth and a wider range of the concrete might be exhibited, for song occasionally uses it. Having given above, a full scale of the concrete of a second, with its protracted vanish, it is unnecessary to form a full scale for each of the other intervals. The reader can in his mind or on paper, do this for himself.

Now, taking this diagram, with the page inverted, it will exhibit the notation of a Protracted Radical with an issuing concrete of the several intervals of the scale: observing, that here we begin with the octave; a difference of no account in the explanation. Thus, we have a representation of all the forms of the protracted radical and protracted vanish, with their rising concretes of every extent, used in song. But song likewise employs the downward concrete in connection with the protracted notes; and of these movements there are two conditions. The First descends by the concrete, and terminates in the protracted note. The Second, on the contrary, begins with the protracted note, and then descends by the concrete, as in the following illustration: