Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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476 SISTINE CHOIR SIVORI
ti-eble voices were gradually supplanted by
a new kind of adult male Soprano, called the
Soprano falsetto, imported, in the first instance,
from Spain, in which country it was extensirely
cultivated by means of some peculiar system
of training, the secret of which has never publicly
transpired.' At the close of the 16th century,
Spanish Soprani were in very great request
and were, indeed, preferred to all others, until
the year 1601, when a far more momentous
change was introduced.
During nearly the whole of the 17th and the
greater part of the 18th centuries the theatres
of Europe were supplied with adult male Soprano
and Contralto voices, preserved by a process so
barbarous, that at one time it was forbidden in
Italy on pain of death. Yet, notwithstanding
this penalty the system prospered, and enriched
the stage with many of its most accomplished
ornaments, such as Nicolini Grimaldi, Senesino,
Carestini, Pacohierotti, Farinelli, and others.
It has been said that Farinelli's wonderful voice
was accidentally preserved, and the story is
probably true ; for it is certain that very iine
voices are sometimes preserved by accident, and
quite reasonable to suppose that such accidents
may very frequently happen, though should the
sufferers possess no musical talent one is not
likely to hear of them. In these purely accidental
cases no singer, with a good voice, has
ever been refused admission into the Pontifical
Choir ; but the transgression of the law, which
was formerly punishable with death, now renders
the offender de facto excommunicate, and therefore
effectually prevents his reception into the
CoUegio. One of the most learned and accomplished
musicians in Rome, in command of
one of its most celebrated choirs, remembered
the admission of three artificial voices, accidentally
produced, while he was studying under
Baini. Two of them proved too weak to be
used, except as ripieni ; but the third developed
into a magnificent Soprano. The trained
Soprano falsetto, which needs no accident to
produce it, is not yet extinct.^
Italian choirmasters draw a careful distinction
between the different voices they employ.
The Voce hianca or natwale is by no means
uncommon, but produces only Contralto singers.
The true adult Soprano, arte faita (made by
method ^), is an excessively rare voice, produced
' rather in the head than in the chest or throat,'
and lasting, generally, to extreme old age, to
the astonishment of the uninitiated hearer, who
cannot understand its co-existence with a long
white beard.^ The occurrence of such phenomena
1 Nevertheless, this secret does not aeem to be altogether lost. A
laiiy traveUer in Spain and Portugal, amnslngly expressed her
surprise, on discovering that certain high flute-like notes, which
she believed to have been produced by some beautiful young girl,
really emanated from the throat of a burly individual with a huge
black baard and lohUlan's !
2 These statements are founded on information supplied to ue by
gentlemen resident in Rome, whose high position and long experience
render their evidence more than ordinarily trustworthy.
^ i.e. not by operation.
* In Adamt da Bolsena's Ouervazioni (Boma, 1711) will be found
is, however, so exceptional, that Pope Pius IX.
founded the Scuola di S. Salvatore, ne£^r St.
Peter's, for the express purpose of supplying the
choirs ofRome with boys, subject, as in England,
to be discharged on the breaking of their voices,
It remains only to say a few words concerning
the style of singing practised- by this matchless
choir, and the lessons to be learned from it.
For the last three centuries at least there have
been preserved certain traditional ornaments
and forms of expression which are profound
mysteries to the uninitiated. For instance,
the Second and Third Lamentations, on the
three last days in Holy Week, are sung, as is
generally supposed, by a high voice ; but, when
that voice is too weak for the task, it is assisted
by another, which, even in the most difficult
AbbellimeTiti keeps so exactly with it, that the
two voices are invariably mistaken for one.
Again, there has long been a traditional way
of making crescendi and diminuendi, which has
astonished even the most experienced choirmasters.
The secret of this wonderful effect
is, that, not only the amount of tone produced
by each individual voice, but the actual number
of voices employed, is gi-adually increased in
the one ease and diminished in the other. The
marvellous effects produced by the ' Miserere
have already been described at vol. iii. p. 216 ;
and those associated with the 'Improperia,' at
vol. ii. p. 462. Such effects would no doubt be
condemned by English choirmasters as ' tricks '
—but they are not tricks. No means can be so
condemned, with justice, provided the effect they
produce be artistic and legitimate. [A catalogue
of the singers of the Cappella Pontificia is
given in the Miv. Mus. ItaX. for 1907.] w. s. ii.
SIVORI, Eenbsto Camillo, a great violinist,
bom at Genoa, Oct. 25, 1815. He began the
violin at five, under Restano, and continued it
under Costa, until about the year 1823, when
Paganini met with him, and was so much struck
with his talent, as not only to give him lessons,
but to compose six sonatas and a concertino for
violin, guitar, tenor, and violoncello, which they
were accustomed to play together, Paganini
taking the guitar. This was sufficient to launch
the lad into Paganini's style. [After a stay of
six months in his native city, Paganini left for
a tour in Germany in 1824, but before his departure
he demonstrated the interest he took
in young Sivori by desiring that he should
accompany him on his travels. Owing to the
child's tender years, however, his parents refused
to abandon him to the care of the great violinist.
This being the case, Paganini recommended the
elder Sivori to place his son with his own
former master, Giacomo Costa, and for three
years this teacher guided the child's studies so
adroitly that when Paganini returned to Genoa
in 1827, he found him well equipped as a
numerous portraits of Soprani and Contralti, with long beardsmany
of them priests.