The Short

572 PORTAMENTO
Ex. 15.13.Bériot, Méthode, 236
Vocal Portamento between Notes on the Same Syllable
The other type of portamento that seems to have been ubiquitous in late eighteenth-century and nineteenth-century
singing, the simple connection produced by slurring the voice between two notes sharing the same syllable, was
described by J. F. Schubert thus:
There is yet another cercar della nota which is universal nowadays and is indeed very much misused by the majority of
singers. It consists of a gentle, imperceptible drawing up or down of the voice from one note to another. It certainly
cannot be done on the keyboard;on the violin it occurs when the player draws two different notes together with one
finger on one string and at the same time melts them into each other. This gliding up and down of the voice is a real
beauty of singing if it is well executed and brought in at the right place.Otherwise, however, it becomes disgusting
and unbearable. 1116
This type of portamento was considered by Schubert to be particularly appropriate to use between successive
semitones with a crescendo in a rising phrase and diminuendo in a falling one, but he warned: ‘if this ornament[Manier]
is not to become too strident the melting of one note into another should not happen too slowly.’ 1117 Schubert's
description of this practice seems to connect it with the messa di voce crescente described in Lasser's VollstÄndige Anleitung
of 1798, which occurred ‘if one draws up the voice from a note to the note a semitone higher imperceptibly through all
the commas until the second[note] is reached’. 1118 When applied to descending semitones Lasser called thismessa di voce
decrescente.
Comparison with Fröhlich's treatment of the same subject in his Musikschule reveals that here, as elsewhere, Fröhlich
copied much of his text word for word from Schubert, but there are some additions that suggest either that Fröhlich
was a greater lover of portamento in general or that, as other accounts suggest, use of the device by singers and
instrumentalists increased rapidly during the early years of the nineteenth century. Fröhlich repeated Schubert's
comment about sliding a finger on the violin verbatim, except that he referred to the ‘violin, viola, violoncello, etc.’; but
he then went on to say:
1116 Neue Singe-Schule, 57.
1117 Ibid.; Fröhlich, Musikschule, 59.
1118 p. 154 . A comma is a ninth of a tone.