The Short

as well as the musicians with whom they worked or for whom they wrote. Nevertheless, it is evident that there was a
greater concern among instrumentalists to emulate a singing style in some quarters than in others. In view of the Italian
hegemony in singing, it is not surprising that it should have been Italian musicians (and those most strongly influenced
by Italy) who pre-eminently modelled their style on vocal technique.
Although nineteenth-century music tends to be much more explicitly marked in respect of legato and the various types
of articulated execution, there is still considerable scope for misunderstanding a composer's intentions. In the 1820s,
for instance, Dotzauer, in his discussion of performance style in general, made clear distinctions between solo playing
and accompanying, and between song-like passages and others, saying that if the passage is not song-like and is not
otherwise marked it should be played in a detached manner. 330 As an example he gave a passage of quavers, without
articulation marks, in a moderato tempo, evidently expecting the type of stroke described in the Paris Conservatoire's
violin and cello methods, where a well-extended bowing with an abrupt check between each stroke is described and its
execution notated in the same way (Ex. 5.5.) Yet comparison with a similar example from Spohr's Violinschule, which is
marked with staccato strokes, provides a timely warning that all may not necessarily be as it seems at first sight, even in
the nineteenth century, for Dotzauer's quavers, without staccato marks, are evidently meant to be played in a more
detached style than Spohr's quavers with staccato marks (see below, Ex. 6.17.)
Ex. 5.5. Dotzauer, Méthode de violoncelle, 56
STACCATO, LEGATO, AND NON-LEGATO 177
One specific place in which late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century musicians seem to have been specially
concerned to avoid inappropriate separation was between the first and second notes of a figure where the first note
was an anacrusis on a metrically weak beat. This was apparently the case even in the context of a performance style
where unslurred notes were generally played in a detached manner. G. W. Fink observed in 1808:
330 Méthode de violoncelle (Mainz, [c. 1825]), 56.