Messa di voce

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Messa di Voce ( Italian for “to set the voice”, from the Italian mettere ) is a “dynamic vocal ornament ” on a particularly long sustained note.

It consists of an increase and decrease in the volume of the voice (crescendo, decrescendo) during the hold tone, ideally from pianissimo to fortissimo and vice versa, without changing the pitch or other aspects such as intonation and vibrato . The castrati of the Baroque period, who were usually very strong built, were able to demonstrate their controlled strength and lung volume.

The term must not be confused with mezza voce ("half voice", singing with half commitment).

Historical ornament

The number and length of the sustaining notes in the musical text show the extent to which the composers trusted their singers to perform this feat, which in bel canto was often considered the ultimate test of a singer's singing skills. This ornament was first mentioned as a musical-rhetorical device by Giulio Caccini in Le Nuove Musiche 1601/2 ("crescere et scemare della voce") , but he still calls it esclamazione ("exclamation"). The term messa di voce is found for the first time in Domenico Mazzocchi 1638. Giuseppe Tartini did not think it was compatible with vibrato, but with a long trill . In Baroque opera it was often provided at the beginning of arias and can also be found, for example, in Vincenzo Bellini's Norma (1831).

The ornamentation can also be applied to other instruments. In the course of historically informed performance practice, the messa di voce has been demanded again from singers, especially in the last twenty years.

Vocal pedagogy

Today a similar procedure is used as a preparatory exercise in singing education. The ornament went out of fashion when the castrati were no longer common. Domenico Corri (1746–1825) already defines the messa di voce as “the preparation of the voice for a crescendo”. In order to avoid confusion with the ornamentation in early music , the Riemann Musiklexikon recommends speaking of "swell tone" in this case.

Remarks

  1. ^ Riemann Musik Lexikon, Sachteil, Mainz: Schott 1967, p. 563
  2. ^ Domenico Corri: The Singer's Perceptor. London 1810. Quoted from: Cornelius L. Reid: Functional Voice Development. 3. Edition. Schott, Mainz 2005, ISBN 3-7957-8723-8 .
  3. ↑ Riemann Musik Lexikon, subject part, p. 563

literature

Web links

Wiktionary: Messa di voce  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations