Opera on the Move in the Nordic Countries during the Long 19th ...

60 Marianne Tråvén
holm 1851), Möller’s Lärobok i kyrko-sång (Lund 1849) and Stieler’s vocal
manual discussed below (MTB 1806, D3:4). The Academy of Music played
an important part in supplying manuals and exercise books for singers and
musicians. Its collection made it possible for singers in Stockholm to profit
from the best schools in Europe in accordance with the wishes of the opera
management. 15
Eighteenth-century vocal technique
In the eighteenth century when there were many different schools with
different vocal methods governed by individual and national preferences in
sound and style, vocal didactics were essentially based on empirical study
and experience. The teacher tried to instil knowledge and proficiency mainly
by demonstration and explication. Manuals were therefore often considered
unnecessary, and the written word was distrusted, because it permitted
different interpretations. This did not mean that there were no written
manuals; on the contrary, during the century a widening market supported
by well-to-do citizens furthered the publication of music manuals, which
preserve some of the general principles used in vocal production.
One of these principles was muscular freedom. This was applied to the
mechanism of the vocal organs as well as to posture, movement and expression
when singing. To force the voice, tire the student with excessive
practice or forcibly augment the range was not allowed. Vocal comfort was
always emphasised. Forcing was also recognised as a threat to the resonant
15 The catalogues from the first part of the nineteenth century consist of Frigel’s from
1806 (added to by several hands), the catalogue by Drake dated 1839, and a catalogue
labeled “W. Bauck”, which contains an inventory that, according to one annotation,
was probably made sometime between 1800 and 1880. However, considering the
discrepancies with the material in the 1806 catalogue, this catalogue was probably
made between 1820 and 1880. In the catalogue by Drake there are no music books or
singing manuals, but in the later inventory we find the works of García, Panofka and
Bordogni. From the Academy’s protocols we learn that García donated his manual in
1842 and donated a new edition in 1848. This last was an ornate and luxuriously bound
copy that earned him membership in the Academy in Stockholm. Panofka also donated
his manual in 1854, while Bordogni’s manual probably came to the collection in 1860
with a donation attributed to Oxenstierna. Another copy was given to the Academy
in the 1880s as part of the collection of the Harmonic Society. A handwritten copy of
some of Bordogni’s solfeggio exists in the hand of Wikström, choirmaster at the opera
between 1807 and 1847. Missing from the collection was the famous Metodo pratico de
canto (1832) by Nicola Vaccai. I am greatly indebted to Marina Demina at the Music and
Theatre Library in Stockholm for helping me with this information.