Recitative

Recitative

Recitative IPA|/rɛsɪtə'ti:v/ (also known by its Italian name "recitativo" (IPA|/retʃita'ti:vo/)) is a style of delivery (much used in operas, oratorios, and cantatas) in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech. The mostly syllabic recitativo secco ("dry", accompanied only by continuo) is at one end of a spectrum through recitativo accompagnato (using orchestra), the more melismatic arioso, and finally the full blown aria or ensemble, where the pulse is entirely governed by the music.

The term recitative (or occasionally liturgical recitative) is also applied to the simpler formulas of Gregorian chant, such as the tones used for the Epistle and Gospel, preface and collects.

Origins

The first use of recitative in opera was preceded by the monodies of the Florentine Camerata in which Vincenzo Galilei, father of the astronomer Galileo Galilei, played an important role. The elder Galilei, influenced by the writings of the ancient Greeks and wishing to recreate the old manner of storytelling and drama, pioneered the use of a single melodic line to tell the story, accompanied by simple chords from a harpsichord or lute.

In the baroque era, recitatives were commonly rehearsed on their own by the stage director, the singers frequently supplying their own favorite baggage arias which might be by a different composer (some of Mozart's so-called concert arias fall into this category). This division of labour persisted in some of Rossini's most famous works: the recitatives for The Barber of Seville and La Cenerentola were composed by assistants.

ecco

Secco recitative, popularized in Florence though the proto-opera music dramas of Jacopo Peri and Giulio Caccini during the late 16th century, formed the substance of Claudio Monteverdi's operas during the 17th, and continued to be used into the Romantic era by such composers as Gaetano Donizetti, reappearing in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress. It also influenced areas of music outside opera from the outset; the recitatives of Johann Sebastian Bach, found in his passions and cantatas, are especially notable.

In the early operas and cantatas of the Florentine school, secco recitative was accompanied by a variety of instruments, mostly plucked strings with perhaps a small organ to provide sustained tone. Later, in the operas of Vivaldi and Handel, the accompaniment was standardised as a harpsichord and a bass viol or violoncello. When the harpsichord went out of use in the early 19th century, many opera-houses did not replace it with a piano; instead the violoncello was left to carry on alone or with reinforcement from a double bass. A 1919 recording of Rossini's "Barber of Seville", issued by Italian HMV, gives a unique glimpse of this technique in action, as do cello methods of the period and some scores of Meyerbeer. There are examples of the revival of the harpsichord for this purpose as early as the 1890s (e.g. by Hans Richter for a production of Mozart's "Don Giovanni" at the London Royal Opera House, the instrument being supplied by Arnold Dolmetsch), but it was not until the 1950s that the 18th-century method was consistently observed once more.

Accompagnato

Accompanied recitative, known as accompagnato or stromentato, employs the orchestra as an accompanying body. As a result, it is less improvisational and declamatory than "recitativo secco", and more song-like. This form is often employed where the orchestra can underscore a particularly dramatic text, as in "Thus Saith the Lord" from Handel's "Messiah"; Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were also fond of it. A more inward intensification calls for an arioso; the opening of "Comfort Ye" from the same work is a famous example, while the ending ("The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness") is accompagnato.

Post-Wagner uses

Later operas, under the influence of Richard Wagner, favored through-composition, where recitatives, arias, choruses and other elements were seamlessly interwoven into a whole. Many of Wagner's operas employ sections which are analogous to accompanied recitative.

Recitative is also occasionally used in musicals, being put to ironic use in the finale of Weill's The Threepenny Opera. It also appears in Carousel and Of Thee I Sing.

Instrumental recitative

Recitative has also sometimes been used to refer to parts of purely instrumental works which resemble vocal recitatives. Perhaps the most famous of these occurs in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, at the beginning of the last movement, where Beethoven wrote (in French) "In the manner of a recitative, but in tempo."Arnold Schoenberg labeled the last of his "Five Orchestral Pieces", Op. 16 "The obligato recitative" and also composed a piece for organ, "Variations on a Recitative" opus 40. His Fourth String Quartet has a striking unison passage recalling similar examples in Ludwig van Beethoven's "Piano Sonata No. 17" ("The Tempest") and "Piano Sonata No. 31".

See also

* Melodrama ("Historical sense" section)


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  • Recitative — Rec i*ta*tive , a. Of or pertaining to recitation; intended for musical recitation or declamation; in the style or manner of recitative. {Rec i*ta*tive ly}, adv. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • recitative — [res΄ə tə tēv′] n. [It recitativo < L recitare,RECITE] Music 1. a type of declamatory singing, with the rhythm and tempo of speech, but uttered in musical tones, used in the prose parts and dialogue of operas and oratorios 2. a work or passage …   English World dictionary

  • Recitative — Rec i*ta*tive (r[e^]s [i^]*t[.a]*t[=e]v ), n. [It. recitativo, or F. r[ e]citatif. See {Recite}.] (Mus.) A species of musical recitation in which the words are delivered in a manner resembling that of ordinary declamation; also, a piece of music… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • recitative — 1640s, from It. recitativo, from recitato, pp. of recitare, from L. recitare (see RECITE (Cf. recite)). Style of musical declamation intermediate between speech and singing. The Italian form of the word was used in English from 1610s …   Etymology dictionary

  • recitative — ► NOUN ▪ musical declamation of the kind usual in the narrative and dialogue parts of opera and oratorio …   English terms dictionary

  • recitative — recitative1 /res i tay tiv, ri suy teuh /, adj. pertaining to or of the nature of recital. [1855 60; RECITE + ATIVE] recitative2 /res i teuh teev /, Music. adj. 1. of the nature of or resembling recitation or declamation. n. 2. a style of vocal… …   Universalium

  • recitative — UK [ˌresɪtəˈtiːv] / US [ˌresətəˈtɪv] noun [countable/uncountable] Word forms recitative : singular recitative plural recitatives music in opera, the ordinary words that are sung or spoken between the important songs …   English dictionary

  • recitative — noun Etymology: Italian recitativo, from recitare to recite, from Latin Date: 1656 1. a rhythmically free vocal style that imitates the natural inflections of speech and that is used for dialogue and narrative in operas and oratorios; also a… …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • Recitative —    Operatic composition originating in the late 16th century for solo singer harmonized by instrumental accompaniment with virtually no meter and whose speech rhythms and phrase structure are determined entirely by the text. Recitative allows… …   Historical dictionary of sacred music

  • recitative — récitatif фр. [рэситати/ф] recitative англ. [рэситэти/в] речитатив …   Словарь иностранных музыкальных терминов

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