Part 4 (2/2)

To oblige the Taste of the Singers and the Hearers, the _Allegro_ will now and then be mixed with the _Pathetick_. The _Airs_ will not always be drowned with the Indiscretion of the Instruments, that hide the artful Delicacy of the _Piano_, and the soft Voices, nay, even all Voices which will not bawl: They will no longer bear being teased with _Unisons_[73], the Invention of Ignorance, to hide from the Vulgar the Insufficiency and Inability of many Men and Women Singers: They will recover the instrumental Harmony now lost: They will compose more for the Voice than the Instruments: The part for the Voice will no more have the Mortification to resign its Place to the Violins: The _Soprano's_ and _Contr'Alto's_ will no more sing the _Airs_ in the Manner of the Ba.s.s, in Spight of a thousand _Octaves_: And, finally, their _Airs_ will be more affecting, and less alike; more studied, and less painful to the Singer; and so much the more grand, as they are remote from the Vulgar.

But, methinks, I hear it said, that the theatrical Licence is great, and that the _Mode_ pleases, and that I grow too bold. And may I not reply, that the Abuse is greater, that the Invention is pernicious, and that my Opinion is not singular. Am I the only Professor who knows that the best Compositions are the Cause of singing well, and the worst very prejudicial? Have we not more than once heard that the Quality of the Compositions has been capable, with a few Songs, of establis.h.i.+ng the Reputation of a middling Singer, and destroying That of one who had acquired one by Merit? That Musick, which is composed by one of Judgment and Taste, instructs the Scholar, perfects the Skilful, and delights the Hearer. But since we have opened the Ball, let us dance.

-- 25. He that first introduced Musick on the Stage, probably thought to lead her to a Triumph, and raise her to a Throne. But who would ever have imagined, that in the short Course of a few Years, she should be reduced to the fatal Circ.u.mstance of seeing her own Tragedy? Ye pompous Fabricks of the Theatres! We should look upon you with Horror, being raised from the Ruins of Harmony: You are the Origin of the Abuses, and of the Errors: From You is derived the _modern_ Stile and the Mult.i.tude of Ballad-makers: You are the only Occasion of the Scarcity of judicious and well-grounded Professors, who justly deserve the t.i.tle of Chapel-Master[74]; since the poor Counterpoint[75] has been condemned, in this corrupted Age, to beg for a Piece of Bread in Churches, whilst the Ignorance of many exults on the Stage, the most part of the Composers have been prompted from Avarice, or Indigence, to abandon in such Manner the true Study, that one may foresee (if not succoured by those few, that still gloriously sustain its dearest Precepts) Musick, after having lost the Name of Science, and a Companion of Philosophy, will run the Risque of being reputed unworthy to enter into the sacred Temples, from the Scandal given there, by their Jiggs, Minuets, and Furlana's[76]; and, in fact, where the Taste is so deprav'd, what would make the Difference between the Church-Musick, and the Theatrical, if Money was received at the Church Doors?

-- 26. I know that the World honours with just Applause some, tho' few Masters, intelligent in both Stiles, to whom I direct the Students in order to their singing well; and if I confine the Masters to so small a Number, I do beg Pardon of those who should be comprehended therein; hoping easily to obtain it, because an involuntary Error does not offend, and an eminent Person knows no other Envy but virtuous Emulation. As for the Ignorant, who for the most part are not used to indulge any, but rather despise and hate every thing they do not comprehend, they will be the Persons from whom I am to expect no Quarter.

-- 27. To my Misfortune, I asked one of this sort, from whom he had learned the _Counterpoint_? he answered immediately from the Instrument, (_i.e._, the Harpsichord)--Very well. I asked farther, in what _Tone_ have you composed the Introduction of your Opera?----What _Tone_! what _Tone_! (breaking in upon me abruptly) with what musty Questions are you going to disturb my Brains? One may easily perceive from what School you come. The _Moderns_, if you do not know it, acknowledge no other _Tone_ but one[77]; they laugh, with Reason, at the silly Opinion of those who imagine there are two, as well as at those who maintain, that their being divided into _Authentick_ and _Plagal_, they become Eight, (and more if there were need) and prudently leave it to everybody's Pleasure to compose as they like best. The World in your Time was asleep, and let it not displease you, if our merry and brisk Manner has awakened it with a Gayety so pleasing to the Heart, that it incites one to dance. I would have you likewise be lively before you die, and, abandoning your uncouth Ideas, make it appear, that old Age can be pleased with the Productions of Youth; otherwise you will find, that you will be condemned by your own Words, that Ignorance hates all that is excellent. The polite Arts have advanced continually in Refinement, and if the rest were to give me the Lie, Musick would defend me Sword in Hand; for she cannot arrive at a higher Pitch. Awake therefore, and, if you are not quite out of your Senses, hearken to me; and you will acknowledge that I speak candidly to you; and for a Proof be it known to you----

-- 28. That our delicious Stile has been invented to hide with the fine Name of _Modern_ the too difficult Rules of the _Counterpoint_, cannot be denied.

-- 29. That there is an inviolable Rule amongst us, to banish for ever the _Pathetick_, is very true; because we will have no Melancholy.

-- 30. But, that we should be told by the old _Bashaws_, that we strive who can produce most extravagant Absurdities never heard before, and that we brag to be the Inventors of them ourselves, are the malign Reflections of those who see us exalted. Let Envy burst. You see, that the general Esteem which we have acquired, gives it for us; and if a Musician is not of our Tribe, he will find no Patron or Admirer. But since we are now speaking in Confidence and with Sincerity, who can sing or compose well, without our Approbation? Let them have ever so much Merit (you know it) we do not want Means to ruin him; even a few Syllables will suffice: It is only saying, He is an _Ancient_.

-- 31. Tell me, I beseech you, who, without us, could have brought Musick to the Height of Happiness, with no greater Difficulty than taking from the _Airs_ that tiresome Emulation of the first and second Violin, and of the Tenor? Is there any that ever durst usurp the Glory of it? We, we are those, who by our Ingenuity have raised her to this Degree of Sublimity, in taking also from her that noisy murmuring of the fundamental Ba.s.ses, in such Manner,----(mark me well, and learn) that if in an _Orchestre_ there were an hundred Violins, we are capable of composing in such a Manner, that all and every one shall play the very _Air_ which the Voice sings. What say you to that? Can you have the Face to find Fault with us?

-- 32. Our most lovely Method, that obliges none of us to the painful Study of the Rules; which does not disquiet the Mind with the Anxiety of Speculation, nor delude us with the Study of reducing them into Practice; that does not prejudice the Health; that enchants the Ear _a la Mode_; that finds those who love it, who prize it, and who pay for it the Weight in Gold; and dare you to criticise upon it?

-- 33. What shall we say of the obscure and tedious Compositions of those whom you celebrate as the Top of the Universe, tho' your Opinion goes for nothing? Don't you perceive that those old-fas.h.i.+oned Crabbednesses are disgustful? We should be great Fools to grow pale, and become paralytick in studying and finding out in the Scores, the Harmony, the _Fugues_, their _Reverses_, the _Double Counterpoint_, the Multiplication of Subjects, to contract them closer, to make _Canons_, and such other dry Stuff, that are no more in _Mode_, and (what is worse) are of little Esteem, and less Profit. What say you now to this, _Master Critick_? Have you comprehended me?----Yes, Sir. Well, what Answer do you make me?----None.

-- 34. Really, I am astonished, O beloved Singers, at the profound Lethargy in which you remain, and which is so much to your Disadvantage.

'Tis You that ought to awaken, for now is the Time, and tell the Composers of this Stamp, that your Desire is to Sing, and not to Dance.

CHAP. VIII.

_Of_ Cadences.[78]

The _Cadences_, that terminate the _Airs_, are of two Sorts. The Composers call the one _Superior_, and the other _Inferior_. To make myself better understood by a Scholar, I mean, if a _Cadence_ were in _C_ natural, the Notes of the first would be _La, Sol, Fa;_ and those of the second _Fa, Mi, Fa_. In _Airs_ for a single Voice, or in _Recitatives_, a Singer may chuse which of these _Closes_ or _Cadences_ pleases him best; but if in Concert with other Voices, or accompanied with Instruments, he must not change the Superior for the Inferior, nor this with the other.[79]

-- 2. It would be superfluous to speak of the broken _Cadences_, they being become familiar even to those who are not Professors of Musick, and which serve at most but in _Recitatives_.[80]

-- 3. As for those _Cadences_ that fall a fifth, they were never composed in the old Stile for a _Soprano_, in an _Air_ for a single Voice, or with Instruments, unless the Imitation of some Words had obliged the Composer thereto. Yet these, having no other Merit, but of being the easiest of all, as well for the Composer as for the Singer, are at present the most prevailing.[81]

-- 4. In the Chapter on _Airs_, I have exhorted the Student to avoid that Torrent of _Pa.s.sages_ and _Divisions_, so much in the _Mode_, and did engage myself also, to give my weak Sentiments on the _Cadences_ that are now current; and I am now ready: But, however, with the usual Protestation of submitting them, with all my other Opinions, to the Tribunal of the Judicious, and those of Taste, from whence there is no Appeal; that they, as sovereign Judges of the Profession, may condemn the Abuses of the _modern Cadences_, or the Errors of my Opinion.

-- 5. Every _Air_ has (at least) three _Cadences_, that are all three final. Generally speaking, the Study of the Singers of the present Times consists in terminating the _Cadence_ of the first Part with an overflowing of _Pa.s.sages_ and _Divisions_ at Pleasure, and the _Orchestre_ waits; in that of the second[82] the Dose is encreased, and the _Orchestre_ grows tired; but on the last _Cadence_, the Throat is set a going, like a Weather-c.o.c.k in a Whirlwind, and the _Orchestre_ yawns. But why must the World be thus continually deafened with so many _Divisions_? I must (with your leave, _Gentlemen Moderns_) say in Favour of the Profession, that good Taste does not consist in a continual Velocity of the Voice, which goes thus rambling on, without a Guide, and without Foundation; but rather, in the _Cantabile_, in the putting forth the Voice agreeably, in _Appoggiatura's_, in Art, and in the true Notion of Graces, going from one Note to another with singular and unexpected Surprizes, and stealing the Time exactly on the true _Motion_ of the Ba.s.s. These are the princ.i.p.al and indispensible Qualities which are most essential to the singing well, and which no musical Ear can find in your capricious _Cadences_. I must still add, that very _anciently_ the Stile of the Singers was insupportable, (as I have been informed by the Master who taught me to _Sol-fa_) by reason of the Number of _Pa.s.sages_ and _Divisions_ in their _Cadences_, that never were at an end, as they are now; and that they were always the same, just as they are now. They became at last so odious, that, as a Nusance to the Sense of Hearing, they were banished without so much as attempting their Correction. Thus will it also happen to These, at the first Example given by a Singer whose Credit is established, and who will not be seduced by a vain popular Applause. This Reformation the succeeding Professors of Eminence prescribed to themselves as a Law, which perhaps would not have been abolished, were they in a Condition to be heard; but the Opulency of some, Loss of the Voice, Age and Death of others, has deprived the Living from hearing what was truly worthy our Admiration in Singing. Now the Singers laugh at the Reformers, and their Reformation of the _Pa.s.sages_ in the _Cadences_; and on the contrary, having recalled them from their Banishment, and brought them on the Stage, with some little _Caricatura_ to boot, they impose them on the Ignorant for rare Inventions, and gain themselves immense Sums; it giving them no Concern that they have been abhorr'd and detested for fifty or sixty Years, or for an hundred Ages. But who can blame them? However, if Reason should make this Demand of them, with what unjust Pretence can you usurp the Name of _Moderns_, if you sing in a most _Ancient_ Stile? Perhaps, you think that these overflowings of your Throat are what procure you Riches and Praises? Undeceive yourselves, and thank the great Number of Theatres, the Scarcity of excellent Performers, and the Stupidity of your Auditors. What could they answer? I know not. But let us call them to a stricter Account.

-- 6. _Gentlemen Moderns_, can you possibly deny, but that you laugh among yourselves, when you have Recourse to your long-strung _Pa.s.sages_ in the _Cadences_, to go a begging for Applause from the blind Ignorant?

You call this Trick by the Name of an _Alms_, begging for Charity as it were for those _E Viva's_, which, you very well know, you do not deserve from Justice. And in return you laugh at your Admirers, tho' they have not Hands, Feet, nor Voice enough to applaud you. Is this Justice? Is this Grat.i.tude?----Oh! if they ever should find you out! My beloved Singers, tho' the Abuses of your _Cadences_ are of use to you, they are much more prejudicial to the Profession, and are the greatest Faults you can commit; because at the same time you know yourselves to be in the Wrong. For your own Sakes undeceive the World, and employ the rare Talent you are endowed with on Things that are worthy of you. In the mean while I will return with more Courage to my Opinions.

-- 7. I should be very desirous to[83] know, on what Foundation certain _Moderns_ of Reputation, and great Name, do on the superior _Cadences_ always make the _Shake_ on the third in _Alt_ to the final Note; since the _Shake_ (which ought to be resolved) cannot be so in this Case, by reason of that very third, which being the sixth of the Ba.s.s hinders it, and the _Cadence_ remains without a Resolution. If they should go so far as to imagine, that the best Rules depended on the _Mode_, I should notwithstanding think, they might sometimes appeal to the Ear, to know if That was satisfied with a _Shake_ beaten with the seventh and the sixth on a Ba.s.s which makes the _Cadence_; and I am sure it would answer. No. From the Rules of the _Ancients_ we learn, that the _Shake_ is to be prepared on the sixth of the Ba.s.s, that after it the fifth may be heard, for that is its proper Place.

-- 8. Some others of the same Rank make their _Cadences_ in the Manner of the Ba.s.ses, which is, in falling a fifth, with a Pa.s.sage of Swift Notes descending gradually, supposing that by this Means they cover the _Octaves_, which, tho' disguised, will still appear.

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