On the Accompanying, Coaching, and Conducting of Recitative
A few introductory thoughts on the art of coaching and performing recitative
The workhorse of storytelling in opera, from the early baroque through the 18th century, was the recitative. A form of monophonic singing in which the rhythms and inflections of spoken language are notated in musical form, the recitative was considered by early opera composers such as Monteverdi and Peri to be of primary importance. The early operas consist almost entirely of recitative with occasional arioso moments injected for variety. In these early operas, recitative was the primary expressive device, but in the 17th century a greater emphasis was placed on arias and the recitative assumed a seemingly more supportive role.
From a contemporary vantage point, we readily view recitative as being subservient to the musical numbers (arias and ensembles), however, the importance of recitative in opera must not be dismissed. Its necessity to the comprehension and pacing of the story at hand requires great skill from the musicians involved; skills that are all too often overlooked by young performers in favor of the dominating musical forms of the opera.
TYPES, FUNCTIONS, AND STYLES OF RECITATIVE:
There are two types of recitative found in opera, secco recitative, and accompagnato.
Secco recitative (dry recitation) is a speech-like setting often of substantial amounts of dialogue. Its sole function is to advance the plot, providing dialogue and development necessary for the often more isolated sentiments expressed in the musical numbers (ie. Arias and ensembles).
Secco recitative is syllabic. It is intended to imitate the rhythms and intonations of spoken dialogue but with pitches. It is accompanied by chords or occasional gestures on a keyboard instrument (eg. harpsichord and fortepiano).
Some secco recitative may employ a continuo group which adds a bass instrument such as cello which doubles the bass notes of the keyboard. However, this addition is not always practical. It might also be interesting to utilize this only for particularly decorative moments such as the recitative preceding Figaro’s “Se vuol ballare” in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. In this particular instant, the notation of the continuo changes from its customary skeletal indication (that of a single note with figured bass indications accompanying the singers) to a formal rhythmic ‘dialogue’ with the singer (indicative of Mozart’s treatment of the orchestra [including continuo] as an active participant in the drama). This passage is, therefore ‘heightened’ in its effectiveness by adding a cello to the harpsichord as Figaro himself assumes an air of authority and control as he deciphers the Count’s intentions toward Susanna. The rhythmic assertion in this passage leans in the direction of the accompagnato recitative, which will be discussed later.
In secco recitative, the singer must utilize parlando (an adjusted use of the voice to a speech-like quality), introducing just enough spin in the voice to project and precisely denote pitch while not pursuing musical line or vocal phrasing as one would in an aria. Since the purpose of this type of music is to imitate speech, a singer could find themselves struggling with issues of stamina throughout an evening’s entertainment if s/he attempts to ‘sing’ through such dialogue. Instead, great emphasis should be placed on the expressive use of diction to project the voice into the theater. Since there is nothing but a harpsichord or piano accompanying (with fairly sparse textures), clear diction will assist in making the voice seem bigger in this context. By clearly articulating initial consonants, in particular, a greater expression can be articulated without having to rely on the full voice.
The accompagnato recitative (accompanied recitation) is a more stylized treatment of text that lies somewhere between the speech-like quality of secco recitative, and the fully lyrical, sung quality of the musical number which usually follows. This style of recitative is “accompanied” by the orchestra, often only strings but sometimes by the complete ensemble.
The function of accompanied recitative is slightly different in that it usually expresses a state of intense emotion (such as heartache, despair, longing, etc.) that leads into an aria or ensemble. Unlike secco recitative, accompagnato does not usually convey a large amount of necessary text or dialogue for the sake of advancing the story. Instead, the text often winds up the drama of a particular moment and most often serves as a vehicle to bridge secco recitative and a musical number. This is achieved by the dramatic introduction of the orchestra, which punctuates heightened text and becomes a partner with the singer in conveying elevated intensities of emotion.
The younger singer may find the delivery of accompanied recitative easier than secco since it allows for a more straightforward vocal approach. Although accompagnato is still largely syllabic and requires strong, declamatory diction, the voice itself may be fully employed in concert with the orchestra which is accompanying.
ACCOMPANYING RECITATIVE:
The Role of the Accompanist: When performing recitative, the role of the accompanist is predominantly threefold.
To provide harmonic support for the singers, assisting to keep the singers on pitch, if needed.
To assist in influencing the pacing of the recitative through such means as filling gestures to create pauses between sentiments, varying the speed of rolled chords to propel the speech forward or to slow down the delivery.
To participate in the drama by adding small musical commentary that underscores emotions or actions, colors important text or illuminates the words and the character’s intentions in some way.
Develop a musical vocabulary:
To participate in the fluid and characterful performance of secco recitative, it is important to develop a repertoire of figurations on which to call when improvising the accompaniment.
A secco recitative, in the case of Mozart and most others, usually consists of nothing more than a bass note, often notated as a whole note, notated beneath the vocal line. In the 18th century and earlier, nothing more was needed by the composer to define the tonality and the nature of the chord. A minimal amount of figured bass might be provided, but rarely were full chords notated and seldom do you find any indication of embellishment or rhythmic indications. The whole note is there merely as a sign-post to tell us what key and inversion a chord is in. The rest is left to the discretion and intuition of the artist who is performing. This allows one infinite possibilities as to how much, or how little, will be added to underscore and flavor the text and the action. By listening to multiple recordings, one will notice a variety of approaches and aesthetics; some accompanists become highly involved in the musical proceedings whereas others remain very austere. Some of this is dictated by both a conductor and stage director who are both entitled to some sculpting of the recitatives, but ultimately it is the accompanist who determines precisely what will be done and when.
By adding tasteful embellishments and figurations in selected places, the accompanist can underline certain emotions, illuminate double-entendre, paint musical imagery and provide a stylistic ‘rim-shot’ to humorous text. Certain common figurations include long, slow, elaborate arpeggiations during overtly romantic, swooning passages; martial figures for heroic statements, etc.
In one especially indulgent performance of Le Nozze di Figaro, after “Aprite, presto aprite”, which concludes with Cherubino running, then leaping out of the window in a frantic escape, the following recitative was introduced by a very quick reference to the famous ‘Lone Ranger’ tune from the overture to William Tell. The process of referencing other music can, of course, be found within the musical text of the supper scene of Don Giovanni and does not need to be excluded from accompaniments in secco recitative. Of course, any participation on the part of the accompanist should never interfere or upstage the singer. However, when thoughtfully engaged with the stage, such accompaniment can continue to assist in pacing while keeping both singers and audience engaged in the musical material.
Through practice and experience, one will create a musical vocabulary that flows naturally but should be somewhat individual. In the beginning, it is always best to start simple, making sure chord changes are clear, precise and never behind the singer. In building one’s arsenal of figurations, start with simple rolled or broken chords, and simple gestures – expanding from these as one’s comfort and imagination grows.
The basic figurations start with rolled chords: simple rolling up or rolling down, a combination of upward and downward rolls, etc. The speeds can vary, but at the beginning of a recitative, it is often advisable to roll the chord in a way that ends with the singer's first pitch placed prominently on top.
Aside from rolled chords, quick five-note scalar figurations (either ascending or descending) can prove very useful in adding little comments, here and there to the text.
One can also experiment with the incorporation of trills and turns that spin into arpeggiations or scales that might serve to elongate rests in the vocal line, etc.
As one is developing this musical vocabulary, it is a valuable exercise to think of various words or sentiments and imagine a musical gesture that might best capture it. For example, the word “amore” abounds in recitatives and rarely is this word (‘love’) going to be used to express a harsh sentiment. If one chooses to musically underscore this word, one is likely to use a slow or florid roll or arpeggio, not too quick or abrupt. The word “basta” (“enough”) on the other hand is usually followed by an exclamation point and should be accompanied by a short, blocked chord and nothing else. In this instance, playing the punctuation is critical to assist in conveying the meaning of the text (especially if your audience is not fluid in Italian).
PREPARING RECITATIVE
1. Begin with the Text
In all vocal literature, the first thing the pianist must concern themselves with is the text: its meaning and, to a lesser degree perhaps, its pronunciation. Secco recitative is at least 99.9% about the text, so the first order of business in preparing recitative is to look first at the words.
In the case of performing recitative, knowledge of the text is hugely important for two reasons:
One cannot successfully accompany stretches of fast-moving recitative by trying to follow the pitches or notated rhythms. If one attempts to do so, one will become lost, disoriented and will cripple the flow of the recitative by, more often than not, being late for chord changes and cadences.
Without a very clear understanding of the meaning of the words, the accompanist will not be able to color and participate in the characterization and essential expressions of the lines being delivered.
Step One: Begin by reading through the text of the recitative.
Do so in order to acquire an understanding of the words and the dramatic narrative of the particular scene. Read it at least a couple of times until you feel you not only understand what is happening in the scene but have an idea of how the scene is unfolding according to the emotional tone of the dialogue.
Step Two: If you are not already fluent in the language, write in a word-for-word literal translation into your score.
Be sure that you clearly write the English word either above or below the corresponding original word, since this level of detailed awareness is critical both in your own preparations but also in coachings and performance.
Step Three: Now that you have a good understanding of the meaning of the text, take a moment to identify words that are specifically colorful, important or meaningful in some way.
These can be nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, pronouns, etc. The apparent importance of words may often be subjective; do not feel inclined to identify every word in a recitative to be of equal importance. Instead, imagine which words you yourself would emphasize if you were the character participating in this conversation. To do so, practice speaking the text, in English, to see where you are inclined to add emphasis.
An easy exercise could be to take the words “I love you” and imagine multiple ways in which you might speak these words in varying circumstances. In one rendering, you might wish to emphasize the word “I”, in another on “you”, in yet another the word “love” itself may warrant more attention. Further characterization can be discovered by imagining it said casually, emphatically, passionately, delicately, etc.. At this point, one begins to discover that we must begin to inhabit the role of stage director and/or actor in the very preparation of this material.
Note: While it is certainly not necessary to do so, one might choose to use colored pencils to underline these “color” words in your score. One might choose two colors, one for nouns and adjectives and one color for verbs of action. Sometimes seeing on the page a color associated with expression can influence the way one will play.
Step Four: Practice speaking the text.
To be able to accompany recitative with precision, it is essential to have a very thorough grasp of the Italian words. Work carefully through the text, speaking the words aloud until they can be recited with speed and fluidity.
2. Learning the Music
Step Five: Learn the vocal part first.
Work through the recitative slowly, learning accurately the pitches and rhythms. In places, it may be helpful to bracket individual notes of the vocal part together in order to clarify the rhythmic organization the composer has set down.
Note about rhythm: In the case of well-constructed recitative (Mozart being especially meticulous about his recitative settings), one will find that the composer has been largely faithful to the prosody of the text, although any form of musical notation is very limited in what it can convey.
In baroque and classical recitative, it was the law of the land that recitative be notated in strict common time. This should be viewed as a simple matter of rhythmic organization and not interpreted as having any impact on performance. The patterns, inflections, rhythms and “tempos” of the language should all be delivered naturally as though it were being spoken. Although one should observe the integrity of the notated rhythm (ie. ensuring that a quarter note is longer than an eighth note, etc.), the listener should never feel as though there is a rhythmic groove or musical phrasing. The speed of delivery should vary naturally according to the dictates of the scene with abrupt changes in mood, dramatic pauses of unmeasured length, etc.. In other words, the pacing of recitative comes exclusively from the drama of the dialogue and not from any notated rhythms.
Especially important to note is that, in Italian, a stressed syllable is longer than an unstressed syllable. This is characteristic of the language and provides a certain lilt when people speak. It was not a convention of composers to try to account for such rhythmic nuances. Rather, it was expected that performers were fluent enough in the language and would ensure that pronunciation sounded natural and fluid. Nothing will make the performance of recitative by the singer feel more unnatural than trying to sing each eighth note with equal value. For example, the word “dove” (“where”) is longer in the first syllable than the second. When spoken, one can almost imagine an internal triplet with the first syllable “do-“ occupying the first two impulses and “-ve” occupying the third event of the triplet. However, such a notation would have been inconceivable and viewed as completely unnecessary to Mozart or his contemporaries. As a result, the simple musical notation is likely to be written as two eighth notes with the expectation that the singer will make the first eighth longer than the second.
So, when learning the vocal part, and reconciling the notated rhythm with the natural rhythm of the text, it is necessary to remember that the notated rhythm is, to some extent, an approximation of the precise rhythm required by the language itself. With that said, it is important to again retain the integrity of the rhythm as laid down by the composer and allow the natural articulation of the language vary slightly in a way that sounds natural as a spoken language, not as a musical line.
Step Six: Prepare the keyboard part.
In the case of recitative, there is not much material that must be prepared pianistically. The overwhelming majority of our preparation has been accomplished in working through the text and learning the vocal part with precision. At this point, however, it is time to play through the chords of the recitative and begin examining how chord changes (especially those modulations that might seem abrupt or unexpected) may be musically underlining something that is being spoken, or an action taking place on stage.
With the harmonic movement of the recitative understood, it is time to apply one’s imagination to the scene and prepare multiple options of interpretation.
Calling upon the vocabulary of keyboard gestures discussed earlier (ie. rolled chords, blocked chords, trills, turns, flourishes, etc.), work through the recitative and seek opportunities where you might accentuate, punctuate, comment upon or otherwise illuminate the color words you’ve already identified and assist in telling the story of the text by discrete musical gestures.
There is no precise science, and very few rules, that dictate what is and is not acceptable, so be creative in this process. Keep in mind that recitatives take shape and form their characterization and pacing throughout the rehearsal process. One will most assuredly not perform the recitative exactly as one prepares it in the beginning. Instead, this is a means of identifying options and opportunities to participate in the drama, and also serve to examine a variety of possibilities that can be discussed in coachings with the singer. Ultimately, the stage director will have some requests, especially regarding issues of timing, and the singers will bring the text to life and infuse it with meaning through their acting. Therefore, preparing for a number of options assists the accompanist in being flexible in the course of rehearsals and even in performances, when inspiration can take the performance in unanticipated directions.
Step Seven: Play and Speak the text.
Apply your creativity to working through the recitative at the keyboard, accompanying as you speak (with full dramatic intention) through the text. This is an intermediary step in the preparation of Step Eight.
Step Eight: Play and Sing the recitative.
Perform the recitative for yourself, exploring as many options for delivery as you can imagine and continuing to explore your arsenal of figurations and keyboard gestures. The more fluid one becomes, the easier it will be to follow any singer through the recitative. For chord changes and cadences, look especially at words on which you will make those changes. Your ear, in listening to the singer’s words, will guide you in the precise placement of gestures, chord changes, and cadences.
COACHING RECITATIVE:
It should be expected that all singers have worked through their recitatives independently in much the same manner as detailed above. All text has been studied and prepared, lines recited, pitches and rhythms solidified and the expression of all of the text contemplated and understood. If there is any deficiency in this preparation, the accompanist’s thorough study of the recitative will be the guide in assisting the singer in this remedial work.
Once the singer has the material solidified, a useful exercise in deciphering the expressive direction of any recitative is to ask the singers to speak through the scene in English (or their native language at least). This is an especially useful exercise in staging rehearsals where, combined with the staging, the pacing can be worked out in great detail.
Asking the singer to speak through the recitative accomplishes several goals. First, it reveals the singer’s knowledge of the text and its dramatic elements. Without a clear, internal understanding of the thoughts being expressed, there is no possibility of a convincing performance being delivered. The recitative is speech, and speech has clearly defined inflections based on the expressive hierarchy of particular words (simply imagine the difference in how one might articulate the words “I love you” compared to “I hate you” in any conceivable situation). A literal, word for word translation should not be sought during this exercise (although the singer should be able to give one if asked), but rather an idiomatic translation should be expected on the spot so that the characters can interact in English, just as they hope to in Italian (or whichever language the opera may be performed in). During this exercise, motivations and reactions of characters can be explored, pacing determined, and countless nuances explored and decided upon that bring the scene to life dramatically.
Pacing/Speed:
Regarding the pacing of secco recitative, there seem to be conflicting attitudes that largely stem from views toward theatre and music in general. One convention is to expedite matters by speeding through recitative as quickly as possible. The objective of this approach is to get to the musical numbers (which the audience is impatiently waiting for) more quickly.
This is a very old-school tradition that has little place in opera performance today. This speed-through approach grew out of opera traditions that placed little importance on acting and stagecraft. In the so-called “park and bark” tradition of opera, recitatives are of little interest to singers or stage directors and, therefore, offer nothing to hold the audience’s interest.
Another reason for this quick-fire delivery was from the necessity of having to squeeze this material onto vinyl recordings that had a very finite amount of space on either side of a record. When a recording such as Le Nozze di Figaro was made, it was imperative to get through the obligatory recitatives quickly to ensure there was enough time left for the ensuing musical numbers.
Obviously, this approach is not conducive to drama and is divorced from any determination to relate the text of the story to the opera in any fashion. Recitative advances the action and tells the story of the opera and, therefore, should be treated with more care. The pacing should not be so fast that it loses its quality of speech. Dialogues between characters must have forward momentum, but retain flexibility and rhythm related to the meaning of the text and the dramatic intentions of the scene.
Also, the speed of ‘speech’ between characters must resist the ‘musical’ temptation to match tempo. Different people speak at differing speeds, and by incorporating this truth into recitative, a greater kinship to spoken dialogue is established. This tendency to deliver consecutive lines at the same speed is one of the things that can make recitative feel pedantic and unnatural. The easiest fix in making a recitative more interesting and engaging is to have the singers simply vary the speed of their lines as they interact with one another.
Once the singers have worked out the dramatic inflections of the text in English, and then applied their understanding to the original language, the recitative can become an engaging part of the opera. If the pacing is more naturally consistent with the story and delivered expressively and intelligently, then it will be exponentially more interesting to the audience that otherwise will become disengaged while waiting for their favorite aria to begin. It is this inextricable relation between the devices of singing and expression that is crucial to the successful presentation of secco recitative.
PERFORMANCE OF SECCO RECITATIVE:
Placement of chords: As a rule, chord changes should normally happen as indicated in the score, assuming they are aligned with obvious harmonic changes in the vocal part. There are some exceptions to this rule, but as a whole the accompanist should consider it to be their responsibility to place changes precisely with the singer, not playing a chord change early or late.
It is worth mentioning that this applies to recitatives that are carefully constructed. One should consider this essay to apply to the skilled recitatives of Mozart. A glaring exception to the “rule” stated above would be the very imprecisely notated recitatives of Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore. In this score, nearly all chord changes are notated as a separate bar of music inserted after the obvious change of harmony in the vocal lines. It is exceedingly obvious that the keyboard should insert the chords earlier than where notated by Donizetti – changing with the singers and not impeding the flow of the text.
Cadences: As mentioned earlier, the pacing of the recitatives can be somewhat influenced by the person accompanying them. By conscientiously applying certain gestures from the keyboard (such as short, blocked chords beneath the singer’s line), the accompanist can entice the singer to move certain lines forward more quickly. This is especially useful at cadences where a singer may be inclined to take time for a seemingly musical reason that, perhaps, does not exist in the stream of dialogue. Particularly at dominant-tonic cadences, a singer may ‘feel’ musically that the music should pause, or that the musical phrase should be rounded off. This despite the fact that the text may continue uninterrupted. Although secco recitative is notated in a fairly straight-forward manner, the speech-like character does demand rhythmic flexibility dictated by the nuances of speech. In these cadential instances, the proper technique is to play a “foreshortened cadence” which is the rapid articulation with the singer of the V-I cadence in blocked chords. This will assist in creating a sense of urgency that the line (thought) must continue, and keep the singer from lapsing into a lyrical treatment of the notated passage.
When a thought does end, or dramatically requires certain punctuation, then the use of a “delayed cadence” is employed. Winton Dean’s essay The Performance of Recitative in Late Baroque Opera illustrates that the delayed cadence was an accepted practice through Mozart. Often, one finds that, despite the convention of notating the V-I cadence beneath the pitches of the singer’s part, the composer will provide a significant rest in the voice part after a particular thought is completed. It is in this rest that the continuo should sound the two chords as an element of exclamation or to provide some dramatic sense of finality. In this way, the accompanist also functions as a participant in the drama of recitative.
A BRIEF WORD ON THE CONDUCTING OF RECITATIVO ACCOMPAGNATO:
Nowhere is the partnership of stage and accompaniment in recitative more clear than in the orchestral interjections of the accompagnato recitative. In Laurel Zeiss’ dissertation on the “Accompanied Recitative in Mozart’s Operas”, she asserts that there exists an equality between orchestra and singer found in this type of recitative that does not exist in other vocal genres (including, presumably, the arias and ensembles themselves). She observes that the majority of accompanied recitatives include some sort of exclamation, such as “O Dio!” or “Ah!” that are indicative of the heightened emotional state of the character. Such elevated expression requires more significant support of accompaniment and, hence, the orchestral contribution provides a significant contribution to the dramatic impact of the text. This serves as a unifying device between these exclamations and the musical number to follow.
When Donna Anna realizes Don Giovanni is the man who murdered her father, her exclamations of “Oh Dei” could not be supported by mere continuo. Instead, Mozart unleashes the orchestra in fits of terror that convey, perhaps more effectively than Donna Anna’s words to Don Ottavio, the violence and horror of this realization. Only through such treatment does the ensuing ‘rage’ aria “Or sai chi l’onore” hold its dramatic weight (which surely would be diminished without the outbursts of the recitative).
What makes the accompagnato recitative challenging for the conductor is the combination of the rhythmic flexibility of the vocal part (as demanded by the text), and the precision required to maintain good ensemble within the orchestra. Another essay will be devoted to the minimums of conducting technique, but it is noteworthy that Recitative Accompagnato is one technique a conductor must master. With that said, many successful conductors do not possess a solid recitative technique. The result is that these conductors will often attempt to ‘straight-jacket’ singers by requiring rhythmic/metrical adherence that is inconsistent with the dramatic context, the demands of the text, or even performance practice; all to maintain the integrity of the ensemble due to faulty conducting technique.
The governing rule of conducting recitative can be expressed in the same terms as describing any fundamental instrument technique: technique is nothing more than being in the right place at the right time!
What is required in this instance is a mastery of conducting both passive and active gestures. If passive gestures are clearly passive, no orchestral player will be inclined to play during a rest or an ‘empty’ bar. Likewise, clearly marking empty bars with a passive gesture (especially in early rehearsals or with inexperienced players) can assist in keeping those players who are required to count several bars of rest oriented and together. During these empty bars (or rests) the conductor must use a process of ‘running ahead’ of the singer with their passive beats until two beats before the orchestra plays. Once in position, the conductor floats on that gesture until the singer ‘catches-up”. At the precise moment, the conductor is already in position to give a clear, active preparatory beat for the orchestra’s entrance. In this way, the orchestra will enter together confidently, in tempo (if applicable) and with the singer without the conductor having to dictate the rhythm or tempo of the vocal line. In essence, the conductor simply ensures that s/he is in place to catch the singer at the right time.
Beyond this fundamental technique, conductors must also decide (like keyboard accompanists in secco recitative) about where to place certain chords in relation to the singer’s line. The same recitative between Donna Anna and Don Ottavio offers several examples of places where one may choose a “delayed” entrance of the orchestra. Common in accompanied recitative will be such a passage where the singer's final syllables cross the bar line, overlapping with a dramatic entrance of the orchestra. An accepted convention is to delay the orchestra’s entrance until after the singer has articulated his/her last syllable. Although this seems to betray the notation (since we cannot expect a meter of 5/4 in Mozart), it is important to remind ourselves that, just as in secco recitative, Mozart is bound by the conventions of having to organize the notation of the recitative in common time. As with secco recitative, the prosody and dramatic delivery of the text are overriding and so just because a singer’s final syllable is notated on the first beat of a measured bar in the score, there is no reason to assume that it must coincide with an attack on the downbeat of the orchestra. Delaying the orchestra downbeat serves a practical function in allowing us to actually hear the final words or syllables which will likely be lost if the loud exclamations of the full orchestra are to be played simultaneously. Such an ‘interruption’ is justifiable if the context allows, but otherwise, the text should be allowed its expression before the orchestra picks up its commentary.