Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

34 RECITATIVE RECITATIVE
of art, this particular style of composition has
undergone less cliange, during the last 300
years, than any other. What simple or unaocompanled
Recitative (Redtaiivo secco) is to-day,
it was, in all essential particulars, in the time
of ' Euridice. ' Then, as now, it was supported
by the lightest possible accompaniment, originally
a figured-bass. Then, as now, its periods
were moulded with reference to nothing more
than the plain rhetorical delivery of the words
to which they were set ; melodious or rhythmic
phrases being everywhere carefully avoided, as
not only unnecessary, but absolutely detrimental
to the desired effect— so detrimental that the
difficulty of adapting good recitative to poetry
written in short rhymed verses is almost
insuperable, the jingle of the metre tending
to crystallise itself in regular form with a
persistency which is rarely overcome except by
the greatest masters. Hence it is, that the
best poetry for recitative is blank verse ;
and
hence it is, that the same intervals, progressions,
and cadences have been used over and
over again by composers who, in other matters,
have scarcely a trait in common. We shall best
illustrate this by selecting a few examples from
the inexhaustible store used by some of the
greatest writers of the l7th, 18th, and 19th
centuries ;
premising that, in phrases ending
with two or more reiterated notes, it has been
long the custom to sing the first as an appoggiatura,
a note higher than the rest. We have
shown this in three cases, but the rule applies
to many others.
(o) Peei(1600). (o) Cavalieri (1600).
^-EpS^^l^^l
che tra pun-geii-tl Bplnl. le fu meglior pen - siero.
zb;
fe
Haydn (1V98).
(c) Mozart (17SC).
(,,)
,,,
i^cbe carta i quellat Be U eonte viene
Beethoven (1805).
(I) Mendelssohn (1836).
I
(o)
Carissimi(16^.
e^I^eISe^eE
in Tic - to - ri • a la - ra - el {Sung) Ib - ra - eL
1=^E=
mJ. S. Bach (1T34).
,^» il. i3. UACH (
^^
*
they re-joi-oed ex - ceeding-ly (Sung) ceed-lDg-ly.
„ (")
, (6) Handel (1713).
il ne-mi-co traacorre A mi dunque Agi-lea ?
i.^^^=fei^g=^^^
b»