The Short

From the mid-nineteenth-century singer's point of view, Manuel García, like Corri, treated phrase division essentially
as a matter of breathing; but this was only one of seven elements that made up what he called ‘the art of phrasing’ (the
others being pronunciation, formation of the phrase, time, fortepiano, ornaments, and expression). In his
consideration of phrase formation he made the important point that declamatory music or recitative, being musical
prose, ‘pays no regard to the number of bars or symmetry of cadences, or even to regularity of time’ and is ‘wholly
influenced by prosodic accents and excitement of passion’, whereas in ‘melodious verse … there reigns a perfect
regularity—required to satisfy the rhythmical instinct’. And he observed that ‘a complete symmetry must be
established between the different parts of the melody, and they must be enclosed within certain easily perceptible limits
of duration. In this way our ear may unfailingly recognise each element of a phrase.’ 288 He explained that ‘Good
melodies, like speeches, are divided by pauses, which are regulated … by the distribution and length of the several ideas
composing such melodies’, and having observed that the singer should inhale ‘whenever rests occur simultaneously in
words and melody’ he remarked: ‘Such rests may be introduced even where not marked by the composer, either for a
better development of ideas, or to facilitate their execution.’ He continued:
Breath should be taken only on the weak accents of a bar, or after the terminal note of a melodic figure; this
method enables the singer to attack the next idea or group at the beginning of its value. Pauses which separate
phrases and semi-phrases, are of longer duration than those merely separating figures or groups of notes: long rests,
therefore should be selected for taking long, full breath; little rests between figures admit only of very short breaths,
rapidly taken, and, on this account, are termed mezzi-respiri. These are seldom indicated, it being left to the singer to
insert them when required. 289
He illustrated this with two examples from Mozart's Don Giovanni (Ex. 4.25.)
ARTICULATION AND PHRASING 155
Sometimes, however, García noted, ‘in order to increase the effect of a phrase, it is allowable to unite its different parts
by suppressing pauses which separate them’, and he gave an example from Donizetti's Anna Bolena (Ex. 4.26,) but
without indicating where the necessary breath would have to be taken. In cases where a similar effect was achieved by
means of a portamento he instructed that the breath should be taken immediately after this had been executed,
illustrating the point with passages from Rossini (Ex. 4.27.) This procedure recalls Corri's indication of a breath after a
portamento in Dibdin's ‘Say little foolish flutt'ring thing’ (Ex. 4.20 above).
In contrast to the joining of phrases for a particular effect, García noted that short figures, or even successive notes
were sometimes required to be separated, not only between words but also within words, and that this could be done
288 New Treatise, 46.
289 Ibid. 48.