"Only at the cost of losing the basis of all my certainties can I question what is conveyed to me by my presence to myself"
Merleau-Ponty, M. Phenomenology of Perception, Routledge, 2006:504
Abstract
This music research drama thesis explores and presents a singer’s artistic research process from the first meeting with a musical score until the first steps of the performance on stage. The aim has been to define and formulate an understanding in sound as well as in words around the concept of pure voice in relation to the performance of 17th century vocal music from a 21st century singer’s practice-based perspective with reference to theories on nothingness, the role of the 17th century female singer, ornamentation (over-vocalization) and the singing of the nightingale. The music selected for this project is a series of lamentations and mad scenes from Italian and French 17th century music dramas and operas allowing for deeper investigation of differences and similarities in vocal expression between these two cultural styles.
The thesis is presented in three parts: a Libretto, a performance of the libretto (DVD) and a Cannocchiale (that is, a text following the contents of the Libretto). In the libretto the Singer’s immediate inner images, based on close reading of the musical score have been formulated and performed in words, but also recorded and documented in sound and visual format, as presented in the performance on the DVD. In the Cannocchiale, the inner images of the Singer’s encounter with the score have been observed, explored, questioned, highlighted and viewed in and from different perspectives.
The process of the Singer is embodied throughout the thesis by Mind, Voice and Body, merged in a dialogue with the Chorus of Other, a vast catalogue of practical and theoretical references including an imagined dialogue with two 17th century singers.
As a result of this study, textual reflections parallel to vocal experimentation have led to a deeper understanding of the importance of considering the concept of nothingness in relation to Italian 17th century vocal music practice, as suggested in musicology. The concept of je-ne-sais-quoi in relation to the interpretation of French 17th century vocal music, approached from the same performance methodology and perspective as has been done with the Italian vocal music, may provide a novel approach for exploring the complexity involved in the creative process of a performing artist.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgement 14
PART I Libretto 17
ARGOMENTO 19
SCENARIO 21
PERSONAGGI 27
PROLOGUE 28
Towards a deeper understanding and knowledge
of vocal expression and pure voice
A pure voice experience 31
Searching for pure voice in performance 32
Nothingness 32
Accademia degli Incogniti: observers of nothingness 32
and supporters of the Venetian 17th century opera
Singing voices from the 17th century: the voices of 33
Anna Renzi and Anne Chabanceau de La Barre
Selecting music manuscripts 38
The lamento and the plainte 38
The mad scene and the scene of fury 39
Singing and observing: a method 42
Affections, passions, feelings and emotions: 42
with reference to rhetorics
Seeking vocal nothingness and je-ne-sais-quoi 44
by applying mindful awareness
Over-vocalization and the singing of the nightingale 45
Creating a music research drama thesis 46
ACT I 49
Embodying transformation
Scene 1 Deidamia 50
a soldier 52
Helen of Troy 61
the abandoned lover 64
Scene 2 Ottavia 69
disprezzata 71
afflitta 73
che fò? ove son? che penso? che penso? 76
o delle donne miserabil sesso 77
fabricar la morte partorir la morte 78
Nerone empio Nerone 80
in braccio di Poppea 80
pianti miei martiri miei 81
destin punir fulmini t’accuso t’incolpo 81
mio lamento mio tormento 82
à Dio 83
vado 85
disperata 86
baciar cor mio mura 87
io solinga pianti passi 88
sacrilego duolo 89
ACT II 93
Finding pure voice through
ornamentation, repetition, movement and improvisation
Scene 1 Arianna 94
Scene 2 Ariane 111
ACT III 118
Performing je-ne-sais-quoi
Scene 1 Armide (1664) 119
Scene 2 Armide (1686) 129
PART II Cannocchiale 137
ACT I 138
Embodying transformation
Scene 1 Deidamia 139
Voice, where is your source? 140
Observing the inner images: a singers method 141
A natural voice in the distance 142
The Nightingale and the Singer 142
Out there - on stage - performing her observations 144
Observing Nature and Art through scores of lamentation and madness 145
Nature 147
Improvising on Lucia’s madness 148
The soldier 149
Art & Nature - male & female - or all in one 150
Rehearsing the amazon on the roof 152
The kabuki dancer 153
The calling woman by the wall 155
Guerrier allarmi - calling out for me 155
In between boldness and fear- finding the theater and a baron 156
Curls in Venetian red 159
Beautiful Helen of Troy 160
Silenzio o Dio 161
The abandoned lover 163
Scene 2 Ottavia 164
Words, words and only words 165
Words and contradictions 165
Scorn transformed through a flow of air 166
Trust 168
The hidden chapel 171
The angel and Ottavia 175
Taking farwell 176
Report from a corset 179
Vivaldi’s putte, their fenced balcony
and a glimps of the shaddows of Teatro Novissimo 181
Et io - a performing self 182
Silence 183
ACT II 184
Finding pure voice through ornamentation, repetition,
movement and improvisation
Scene 1 Arianna 185
The sounding line 186
Trillo – experiencing change 187
The red line 188
The rocky shore 190
Touching - feeling - hearing 190
Teseo mio 191
The arm of Latona 192
The siren 194
The horizon 194
Don’t leave me behind! 195
Herself in the other 197
From death to joy 198
Scene 2 Ariane 199
The rock 200
Suspension until the end 201
Fear, nothing and physics in the air 201
Sweet tenderness 203
Considering the self through the personal and the private 204
Complexity 205
Balancing in golden heels on a slippery rock 206
Gone 206
ACT III 208
Performing je-ne-sais-quoi
Scene 1 Armide (1664) 209
Flying above and letting go 210
A pair of golden high heel shoes 212
Empty chairs in Jardin du Luxembourg 213
Growing wide in Switzerland 215
In-between moments: nothingness and je-ne-sais-quoi 216
The silent pause 219
Fury 222
Scene 2 Armide (1686) 223
Chiaro scuro: from simplicity to complexity and back again 224
Battling with fluidity 225
Desire 226
Following the path of a singer 227
Voices on a map 230
Limitations of logos 231
Figures of fury and madness in French 232
Wonder, infinity and nothing 233
EPILOGUE 231
Entretiens de les trios chanteuses: Renzi, de La Barre et Belgrano 231
WONDER 231
DESIRE 233
LOVE 234
HATRED 235
JOY 237
SORROW 238
A letter to Gian Vincenzo Gravina 240
BIBLIOGRAPHY 243
Sources and libretti; Musical manuscripts,
modern prints and transcriptions 245
Other musical scores 246
Recordings 246
Literature 247
Weblinks 255
List of Illustrations 257
Swedish Summary 259
FILMS
ACT I
Scene 1 Deidamia 29:34
Scene 2 Ottavia 38:31
ACT II
Scene 1 Arianna 31:16
Scene 2 Ariane 24:26
ACT III
Scene 1 Armide (1664) 13:52
Scene 2 Armide (1686) 8:50