The Short

602 PARALIPOMENA
keyboard instrument from the pit. A writer in 1799 observed that ‘If one wants to get rid of the harpsichord qua
keyboard instrument, so one at the same time banishes its substitute, the pianoforte, and makes use of the violin to
direct, as is now becoming ever more common.’ 1155 Coupled with this tendency was the practice of accompanying
recitatives in the theatre with a cello or occasionally, strange as it may seem, with a violin. The same writer in the
Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung observed:
If one wants to attain these important goals by giving the chords on the violoncello, as in some places, or on the
violin, as in others: so one has the disadvantage—leaving aside the question of whether the necessarily skilled men
may well not be easy to find everywhere— that the chords on the former are too dull and transitory, and perform
the necessary service neither for the singer nor hearer; the chords of the latter, however, sound too high and
pointed, and repulsively offend the ear, particularly in the accompaniment of tenor and bass voices. 1156
The cello, nevertheless, seems to have been growing in favour as the principal accompaniment instrument for
recitative at that time. Among the notable exponents of this practice were Johann Georg Christoph Schetky, whom the
writer of the above article admitted to be highly effective at it, noting that he always gave the singers their note at the
top of the arpeggiated chord. 1157 Schetky's own Practical and Progressive Lessons for the Violoncello includes instructions for
the accompaniment of recitative that confirm this account; it advised: ‘In Recitative the Violoncellist should fashion
the Chords in such a manner that the highest note is the Singer's next one and should be struck as soon as the Singer
has pronounced the last word viz. [Ex. 16.17] ,’ 1158
Ex. 16.17. Schetky, Practical and Progressive Lessons, 38
1155 Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, 2 (1799), 17.
1156 Ibid. 18–19.
1157 35.
1158 (London, 1811), 38.