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

66 Marianne Tråvén
techniques of the eighteenth century focused, as Reid has shown, on other
aspects of voice teaching (Reid, 1971, p. 165). Pure breathing exercises, as
practised by many today, were probably unknown to singers of this period.
It is not until the nineteenth century and the teachings of Manuel García,
Jr, that voice teachers singled out breathing procedures for specific study
(García 1982, pp. 3–57). Intercostal breathing, required for many dramatic
roles of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, is clearly linked to changing
tonal ideals and the use of larger orchestras and larger opera houses
(Donington 1965, p. 516).
The messa di voce
The messa di voce designates a vocal technique and ornament using a gradual
crescendo and diminuendo, usually on a single note. During the eighteenth
century the messa di voce was one of the first exercises in the singer’s
curriculum, used during the whole career as a warming-up exercise, performed
in a comfortable range. Many eighteenth-century arias starts with
this ornament, as does the cadenza, and it was essential for the singer, so
essential that Tosi advised singers who were not trained in displaying long
cadenzas to use only the messa di voce and the trill. The use of messa di voce
at the cadenza lived well into the nineteenth century, but as an exercise it
was moved farther into the curriculum, trained by advanced students rather
than beginners. It was still an important part of the curriculum and has been
even into the twentieth century (Pulte 2005). We shall therefore investigate
its place within the curriculum as a marker for change.
The solfeggio
The word solfeggi is often used to designate vocal exercises, such as scales,
intervals or melodic exercises, sung on the solmisation syllables. In the
eighteenth century there were two different kinds of solfeggio, so before
embarking on analyses or suppositions we have to define what the word
solfeggio means. In doing so I find it important to make a clear distinction
between the solfeggio designed to develop the vocal organs and the use of
the solmisation system to teach sight-reading. In the eighteenth century,
the concept of solfeggio was expanded, chiefly in Italy, to encompass exercises
sung on single vowels. These agility and ornamentation exercises
were often expressly composed by vocal instructors in order to eliminate
certain vocal problems (Jander 1980, pp. 454–455). Such exercises were
often considered too complicated to be sung on the traditional solmisation
syllables, for which reason Porpora advised his students to use the vowel