Early 19th century manuscript treatise for singers. In French
[ca. 1810].
Folio (218 x 292 mm). Sewn. 11, [i] (blank) pp. text + 37, [i] (blank) pp. music notated on 12-stave rastrum ruled paper. Uncut. With numerous musical examples.
Contains commentary in 30 numbered paragraphs followed by 30 etudes with varied figurations and rhythmic characters.
Several deletions; corrections to numbering of textual sections.
Browned; several leaves dampstained; inner margins of outer leaves with short tears; occasional tears to outer margins; some showthrough; occasional inkblots; some additional minor defects.
Apparently unrecorded.
The author addresses the intervallic structure of each etude, instructing the reader on which notes to emphasize within a bar in order to arrive at the most musical and nuanced performance.
The musical examples include a slow C major scale on white notes, a scale with trills, a scale with turns, a scale of rising and falling thirds, scales of arpeggiated and stepwise triplets, and chromatic scales. The chromatic scales are the final etude, and the first music in the treatise with a bass line, the other exercises being notated on a single stave for soprano voice. A variation set in F major for voice and bass accompaniment follows the etudes, with its 14 variations employing many of the same figurations covered by the treatise. The variation set concludes, like the treatise, with music based on chromatic scales.
A highly systematic and analytically sophisticated vocal treatise for advanced singers, with an attractive variation set at its conclusion.
A valuable document of late 18th and early 19th century French vocal pedagogy.
Item #39461
Price: $850.00 other currencies