PF Tosi "Observations on the flowery song" (1723)

“These were the teachings of the school of those teachers whom, with disdain, many mediocre singers now call ancient. Observe carefully its rules, strictly examine its precepts and, if you are not blinded by prejudices, you will see that this school teaches singing. in tune., project the voice, make the words understood, express, use one’s own gesture, act in tempo, improvise the appropriate adornments, compose and study delicate and sensitive singing, in which only good taste and judgment triumph. Compare this school with yours, and if you find an area that lacks its precepts to instruct you, take the rest from the Modern. ” Pier Francesco Tosi, Observations on the flowery song, p. 78.

The foundations of the bel canto method and style were laid during the creation of opera and monodiacal singing in the late 16th century. As the new art form developed, virtuoso singers emerged onto the international scene with almost inhuman agility, variety, and beauty. Mostly castrati, but also voiced of all kinds, these highly skilled singers became the world’s first rock stars, with influence, income, and lifestyles to match.

The techniques of these bel canto singers (and most of the singers themselves) originated exclusively in conservatori and private voice studios in Italy. The training and techniques they used were passed down orally from master to apprentice for generations and very little was recorded in writing. Pier Francesco Tosi was the first to publish (in 1723) a treatise on song of considerable length and detail. It quickly became a fundamental and stylistic model for the generations of singing treatises that followed, from Mancini in 1777 to Richard Miller and Clifton Ware today. Within 40 years, Tosi’s Opinioni de ‘cantori antichi, e moderni, or sieno osservazioni sopra il canto figurato had been translated into English, German, and French.

Tosi, who was a castrato, when writing Opinioni, drew on his own musical training in bel canto as a child in Italy (probably Milan), as well as his extensive experience as a professional singer and singing teacher. He also clearly developed his repertoire and taste for ornamentation from the many singers he observed throughout his career, including “Il Cortnoa”, “La Santini”, “Sifacio”, Rivani and especially Pistocchi. While his treatise is directed at and expresses a clear bias towards the castrated male voice, Tosi’s occasional mention of singers of other types shows that he believed that all singers were trained in the same way.

From Tosi’s writings we discover the surprising fact that bel canto training focused on auditory aesthetics with almost no physiological instruction. Unlike the many process-based singing methods developed since Garcia’s Treatise (1840) that have focused on breathing, abdominal support, throat and head resonance, and laryngeal and pharyngeal positioning, the “old Italian” method was results-based, focusing on intonation, tone, and the successful and tasteful use of ornamentation. In fact, the scope of Tosi’s physical advice to the singer was: “Never let the Scholar hold the Musick-Paper, in Singing, before his Face” (p. 29) “compos[e] [the mouth] in one way […] rather inclined to a smile “(p. 12) and” the scholar’s voice […]It must always come out clean and clean, without passing through the Nose, nor drowning in the Throat; which are two of the most horrible defects of a singer “(pp. 10-11). It can be seen that even these instructions were given to specifically fix an oral or visual aesthetic, rather than as part of a technical method.

Opinioni mainly addresses the singing teacher, indicating what and how they should teach their students. It also includes a chapter and several passages for the future professional singer with advice on good taste, ornaments, performing skills, and the life and business of professional singing. Tosi highlights the need for a long period of training for students in musical reading and composition, singing, and ornament construction, as well as grammar, diction, social decorum, and acting. All the standard ornaments of the time are painstakingly presented: appoggiatura, messa di voce, eight types of trills, passaggi (divisions), and portamento. Tosi also dedicates a chapter each to recitative and arias singing, preaching on the need to improvise one’s graces and divisions on the ground in performances.

There are some teachings of Tosi in his Opinioni that have been particularly interesting to singers and scholars over the years. Tosi clearly advocates joining and combining the chest and head registers, (p. 11) the first recorded vocal pedagogue to do so. While earlier writers such as Zacconi (Practica di Musica, 1592, ch. 2) and Caccini (Le nuove musiche, 1602, intro.) Declared that singers should only sing with their “natural voice”, Tosi went so far as to say “Yes [the chest and head register] if they are not perfectly united, the Voice will have several Registers and, consequently, it will lose its Beauty. “(p. 11) Tosi is also the first recorded encouragement of the use of rubato as an ornament. While again and again he criticizes singers who accidentally sing out of tempo or lengthen the notes with self-aggrandizement as in modern fermata, anima”[t]he stealing time […], as long as you do a Restitution with Wit “, that is, as long as the singer recalls the accompaniment, allowing him to keep the tempo (p. 67).

Another interesting element of Opinioni are Tosi’s discussions of intonation and music theory. During a period when keyboards, strings, and even singers used various methods of temperament, Tosi laments that “except for a few teachers, modern intonation is very bad.” (p. 9) Talk about a different “major and minor semitone” (or a major and minor semitone) whose “[d]The difference cannot be known by an organ or harpsichord, if the keys of the instrument are not divided. “(P. 9) Consequently, he warns that” if a soprano sings D sharp, as E is out of tune, because the latter goes up. “(p. 10) Tosi’s remedy for poor intonation is to initiate the young singer into music theory, using the traditional range created by Guido. Old-fashioned at the time Tosi wrote his treatise, however he insisted on its use.

Opinioni it was indeed a turning point for much more than the theory and tuning of early Baroque music. Tosi spends a considerable amount of time in his treatise praising the “ancient” cantabile style (or “Pathetick”, as the original translator put it) of his generation, around the end of the 18th century. He can’t seem to understand why “the mode” has moved into the fast-paced and highly ornate “Allegro” style, popular at the time of writing, which he weighs down with insufficient singing training, ignoring the traditional ways of Church and music. virtuous demonstrations “in bad taste” as the great sin of the “modern” musical generation. However, being a pragmaticist, he continues to encourage that “it will be helpful to a prudent scholar, who wishes to be an expert in both ways” (p. 40).

Pier Francesco Tosi was born in Cesena, Italy in 1653 or 1654. There is a disagreement between sources as to whether he was the son of the composer Giuseppe Felice Tosi. He was neutered before puberty to preserve his high-pitched voice. While it is not known where he received his rudimentary musical training, he sang in a church in Rome from 1676 to 1677 and in Milan Cathedral from 1681 to 1685, when he was fired for “misconduct.” Thereafter, he made his only recorded opera appearance at Reggio nell’Emilia in 1687 (at Varischino’s Odoacre) and was established for a time in Genoa. In 1693, Tosi moved to London, where he took singing students and sang at weekly public concerts. In 1701 he entered the service of the Austrian Emperor Joseph I and of Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine, whom he served as a musical agent and diplomat, traveling extensively until 1723. In 1724 he returned to London in flames with the works of Handel, where he again taught and He was a founding member of the Academy of Ancient Music. He took holy orders sometime before his death in Faenza, Italy, in 1732. In addition to being a well-known soprano (in the cantabile style, singing mainly chamber music) and singing teacher, Tosi was a composer of several arias and cantatas. (Biographical information taken from “Tosi, Pier Francsco”, New Grove Dictionary of Opera.)

John Ernest Galliard (1666-1747), English translator of Opinioni, was a successful opera composer and oboist in London, playing an important role in the musical life of the city in the first half of the 18th century. He was a founding member of both the Royal Society of Musicians and the Academy of Ancient Music, the latter in which Tosi also participated. Due to the quality of the translation and his long personal relationship with the author, Galliard’s Tosi de Opinioni translation and annotation (published in 1742 as Observations on the Florid Song) has long been regarded as an authoritative and high-quality translation. quality. (Biographical information taken from “Galliard, John Ernest”, New Grove Dictionary of Opera.)