Recital
A recital is a form of the classical concert evening in which one or more vocal soloists are usually the focus and sing songs for an evening . The tradition was founded in the 19th century and is still enjoyed today - e.g. B. in music theaters, classical concert halls, music colleges, music schools, in church settings or at private house concerts - great popularity.
Programming
The artists select the repertoire from the genre that on the one hand brings their individual skills to best advantage, but on the other hand also follows a certain concept that creates a connection between individual songs or between different song cycles. This context can be created thematically (Russian songs, spring songs, songs as homage to a famous singer), already given within a song cycle ( winter journey , women's love and life , children's songs for the dead , the book of the hanging gardens , I hate music! ) Or above Composers are produced ( Schubertiade ). The selection of songs shows not only the voice of the singer and his skills, but also his sense of style and his understanding of the text. Trained listeners can usually tell from the selection of the program alone what the voice of the singer will sound like, what specialties and preferences of the voice are.
“Every cultivated woman has learned to dress carefully in order - for example as a singer on the podium - to accentuate her beauty inconspicuously and yet clearly. Such a task of culture, of cultivated taste, [...] is usually solved very well. But also to transfer this requirement to the program of songs and arias for a concert and to design it in such a way that it corresponds to the personality of the singer - that is, the beauty of the voice as well as the lively individuality and character artistic type fully emphasizes: this task is taken much less seriously. Otherwise there would not be so many template programs without personality value, without an inner tension, without diversity, without the attraction of changing the mental landscape, without coordination of the individual program groups - within themselves and with each other. A program will be most effective when two conditions are met: first, each group of songs must be correctly placed in the overall program in terms of tension. And secondly, the group has to combine changeable tension and resolution into a closed whole. A single group of songs should be structured like a sonata or a symphony with the balanced alternation of their movements. Unfortunately there are enough singers whose 'symphonies' consist only of adagio movements. "
If a concert consists exclusively of art songs, it is called a recital. If songs and arias are combined in a program, one speaks of a song and aria evening. As a variant of the duo with piano, there is the option of having a recital with a classical harp or guitar , for which numerous transcriptions are available.
The Viennese chamber singer Gustav Walter , who organized his first events of this kind on his own in the 1850s and 1860s, is considered to be the inventor of the classic evening of love with piano accompaniment in a public concert hall . Walter was particularly famous for his interpretations of Schubert and sang a number of world premieres of vocal pieces by the composers Johannes Brahms and Antonín Dvořák .
Song singing
Since the song requires a differentiated phrasing , flexibility in the volume of the voice , a clear understanding of the text in the sung language, a sure sense of musical style and fine art of characterization, not all opera singers are predestined for song singing from the outset. The singer's voice cannot be heard so clearly in any other concert setting - which, conversely, also means that a recital is even more dependent on the performance of the singer than an opera. For opera singers in the area of tension between the theater stage and the smaller concert framework, the art song can therefore have good voice-training effects that compensate for the requirements of the stage acoustics. Even for beginners in singing lessons, the art song is one of the first musical genres on which the mastery of the voice instrument can be practiced. The difficulty of the songs increases with advancing ability and is regularly adapted to the skills already acquired.
Franziska Martienssen-Lohmann distinguishes songs that are aimed at an imaginary “you”, songs of the pure self, which the singer formulates himself immersed in his own world, a hymn group in which no “you” or “me” and also those The walls of the hall no longer exist, and a group that directly addresses the audience, plays with them, flirts with them or includes them in the presentation. The narrative ballads and chants, which require a special art of characterization from the singer, since he has to play several roles in one voice, occupy a special position.
“The first sonic requirement of the song singer is the color ability of the voice. The stage singer sings the whole evening the lighter or the darker figure he embodies; the song singer, however, has so many figures to embody when he sings songs that evening! His “role subject” changes with each song. Each of his “roles” has its own vocal color. [...] When Schubert's “Death and the Maiden” is sung by a man, the subdued foreplay means inner calm: because the singer is death who speaks afterwards. But if a woman's voice sings the song, it's something completely different. She embodies the girl who feels death is approaching, who grasps the never heard of these chords of foreplay with horror - who is transfixed in trembling horror. The beginning of the mission “Over, oh, over!” Breaks out from her as if from nameless horror. The prelude, so far from everything that is called theater, demands in its features the urgent inner tension of listening, which inevitably has to discharge itself in the sound of pleading. And yet in the fear of death she must not behave so dramatically and wildly that the words of death: "You beautiful and tender figure" would have to lose their validity completely. Every song, no matter how small or large, is a scene and shape on the stage of the human heart. "
By restricting the accompaniment to the piano , the accompanist plays an important role, as he not only provides the singer with a template for the presentation of his voice, but also has a strong influence on the entire atmosphere of the recital with his interpretation . Ideally, the singer and accompanist should complement each other artistically and personally so that they can deliver a common, coherent interpretation.
Concert frame
A suitable environment for a recital is a rather small stage compared to an opera house, which is not affected by unforeseen events (passers-by, photographers, background noise from adjacent rooms). An acoustics with a longer reverberation as naves may have in itself, has an unfavorable circumstances to the understanding of the text from. Thanks to these relatively simple requirements, it is also possible to organize a recital in a private setting or to combine songs with other program items (conferences, exhibition openings, celebrations, etc.) or art forms ( performance , dance , painting , often together with a director ). In the latter case, recital and music theater merge.
In contrast to an opera, there are traditionally no scenic actions at a recital, although recitals have recently been staged or enriched with ballet and other arts in order to make the relatively static arrangement more visually interesting for the audience. The advantage for the artist and audience in traditional performance is a greater concentration on the music. A recital creates a particularly personal form of communication between the artist and the audience.
If they are accompanied by piano, recitals are not electronically amplified, even on large concert stages. For open-air performances, large organizers use orchestral songs more often; in this case the voice is amplified electronically. A high quality of the instrument and prior tuning of the piano are a matter of course for professional organizers.
Famous song interpreters
Some of the most famous and recognized song interpreters in the world have included:
See also
literature
- Hermann Danuser (Ed.): Musical poetry. 2 volumes. Volume 1: From Antiquity to the 18th Century, Volume 2: From the 19th Century to the Present - Non-European Perspectives. (Handbook of the musical genres, volumes 8.1 and 8.2) Laaber 2004
- Dieter Lohmeier (ed.): Secular and spiritual song of the baroque . Amsterdam 1979 (Daphnis 8.1)
- Günther Müller: History of the German song . 2nd edition 1959
Web links
- Recital - An Evening of Song , Lehigh Saengerbund, accessed December 17, 2012
Individual evidence
- ^ Recital with diva and harp. In: Hamburger Abendblatt. 17th September 2009.
- ↑ Karl-Josef Kutsch , Leo Riemens : Large singer lexicon . 4th edition, Volume 1: Aarden – Castles. Saur, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-598-44088-X , p. 4962f ( online via De Gruyter online , subscription access).
- ^ Franziska Martienssen-Lohmann: The knowing singer. “Liedgestaltung”, p. 209 ff.
- ↑ z. B. in the Städtische Bühnen Münster, staging of the Winterreise as a recital with ballet, season 2011/2012, or in Salzburg 2009. Courage for the grotesque: a staged recital with Patricia Petibon in Salzburg. In: nmz-online , August 14, 2009.