Spianato

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spianato (Italian: smooth, even, flat) is a performance designation in instrumental music and means "even, balanced, unpathetic, simple"; As an adjective to “canto”, the word describes a style of vocal performance in a corresponding sense.

In instrumental music

The term “spianato” is used very rarely and is actually only known from Chopin's Andante spianato et grande polonaise brillante , op. 22. In addition, the 3rd movement ( Adagio ) in Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 3 is referred to as cantabile spianato .

Heinrich August Pierer's Universal Lexicon of the Present and the Past , a work that is still very close to the time of Chopin and Paganini, states: "spianato (Italian, music) simple, unaffected".

The pianist Erik Reischl writes with regard to the Andante spianato mentioned above: “Even musicians are mostly unfamiliar with the attribute 'spianato'. It comes from the Italian 'spianare', which means 'level' or 'smooth'. So we are dealing with a 'flat' Andante. "

Franklin Taylor defines similarly: "Spianato: ... A word used by Chopin in the Andante that precedes the Polonaise in E ♭ op. 22 to denote a smooth, even style of performance with little dynamic variety."

The French-language Wikipédia defines: spianato - apaisé (roughly: calm, calm).

In vocal music

A particular style of singing, especially in 18th and 19th century Italian opera, is known as Canto spianato .

In Peter Lichtenthal's Italian music lexicon from 1836 it says: “Il so detto Canto spianato o sia il Cantabile … soffre pochi abbellimenti.” The canto spianato is almost equated with cantabile and it is explained that this tolerates only a few decorations.

The singer and singing teacher Manuel García (1805–1906) writes about the Canto spianato :
“This genre of singing, the most sublime of all, but also the less prominent [French] because of the slowness of its movement and the simplicity of its forms. "Le moins piquant"; what is probably meant is: "less lively, less stirring"] based solely on the shades of passion, on the diversity of the musical chiaroscuro ". García then discusses the peculiarity of the canto spianato in detail and finally says: "These rules of ... canto spianato given by us here are only applied in all their rigor to the largo ." He cites two examples by Handel (not the well-known ombra mai fu ), namely

  • "Ahi, di spirti turba immensa" (from the oratorio Convito d'Alessandro, in the English original Alexander's Feast ),
  • "Tutta raccolta in me" (from the opera Ezio ),

as well as by Joseph Haydn

  • “Fac me vere” from the Stabat Mater.

Then he says: "The other cantabili ... are gradually approaching ... the ornate style" and gives the following numbers as examples:

As far as the three corrections are concerned, García may have to be credited with considering the aria Vaccais, because it was practice to insert it in Bellini's opera, to actually belong to I Capuleti ei Montecchi , that Zingarelli's opera at that time possibly also with the name sequence “Romeo e Giulietta ”, and the aria from“ Rosmonda d'Inghilterra ”, which is often sung in“ Lucia di Lammermoor ”, may have been considered to be more or less official in“ Lucia ”.

Peter Berne largely follows García in his book Belcanto and writes: “Canto spianato is a broad, slow chant, the effect of which is mainly produced by the carried legato ; it should be kept simple and tolerate only a few and simple decorations. "

The lexicon of the singing voice says with the keyword “Canto spianato”: “Ital. "Simple singing" "and then refers to the singing teaching of García, who is referred to in this dictionary as" Manuel Garcia fils ".

Canto spianato and Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner used "Canto spianato" as a pseudonym when he published an article entitled "Pasticcio" in the Neue Leipziger Zeitschrift für Musik, edited by Robert Schumann , which deals with the art of Italian singing.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Universal Lexicon of the Present and the Past, Vol. 16, 1863, p. 538 ( digitized from zeno.org ).
  2. ^ Erik Reischl: Chopin: Andante spianato et Grande Polonaise, Fantasie, Berceuse, Barcarolle ; accessed on March 25, 2019.
  3. ↑ Franklin Taylor:  Spianato. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
  4. ↑ List des termes italiens employé en musique ; accessed on March 25, 2019
  5. ↑ Article Canto . In: Peter (Pietro) Lichtenthal (Ed.): Dizionario e bibliografia della musica . Antonio Fontana, Milan 1836, vol. 1: A – K , pp. 124–131, quotation p. 127 ( digitized version of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek ).
  6. ↑ Manuel García: Garcias Schule or Die Kunst des Gesangs in all its parts completely treated by Manuel Garcia . Schott, Mainz, probably 1841, Vol. 2 (French and German), therein Chapter 5: Of the different styles , § II: Simple, broad song. Canto spianato , pp. 95–98 (digitized version from the Berlin University of the Arts ).
    Other editions:
    • Nouveau traité sommaire de l'art du chant . Paris 1856;
    • Traité complet de l'art du chant en deux parties . Reprinted in facsimile of the Paris edition, 1847, by Minkoff Éditeurs, Genève 1985.
  7. ↑ Peter Bernes homepage, accessed on March 25, 2019
  8. ↑ Peter Berne: Belcanto. Historical performance practice in Italian opera from Rossini to Verdi. A practical textbook for singers, conductors and répétiteurs . Wernersche Verlagsanstalt, Worms 2008, ISBN 978-3-88462-261-2 , quotation p. 135.
  9. ↑ Ann-Christine Mecke et al. a. (Ed.): Lexicon of the Singing Voice. History, scientific basics, singing techniques, interpreters. Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2016, ISBN 978-3-89007-546-4 .
  10. ↑ Neue Leipziger Zeitschrift für Musik , vol. 1 (1834), issue of November 6th (part 1), pp. 250–252, and issue of November 10th (part 2), pp. 255–256 ( digitized version of the Bayerische State Library ).