Chapter 1 - Literature review

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Table of contents — Introduction — Chapter 2 — Chapter 3 — Chapter 4 — Conclusion — Bibliography — The Spreadsheet — Summaries of analysed works — Thesis in PDF

Contents

1.0 Overview

The goal of this literature review was to explore primary and secondary sources containing information pertaining to the relationship between harmony and emotion in 18th-century French music. Several continuo treatises from this era were explored along with contemporary singing treatises. Secondary sources included literature relating to French continuo, early music performance practices in the French baroque, historically informed singing, and harmony.

1.1 Continuo and voice treatises from 18th-century France

A cornerstone in the topic of continuo and harmony in 18th-century France is Rameau’s “monumental […] and extremely influential” Traité de l’harmonie published in 1722.1 Rameau sets forth the concept of the fundamental bass; the idea that many figures can refer to one chord and that there exists an implied fundamental bass to every chord being played. With this concept come the principles of harmonic inversion and harmonic generation. Rameau, therefore, conceives of a vertical understanding of continuo realization, and therefore of harmony itself.2 In his remarkable work, Rameau briefly references the various emotional colours associated with different chords. Indeed, he begins his chapter about chord properties with the following statement: 

Harmony may unquestionably excite different passions in us depending on the chords that are used. There are chords which are sad, languishing, tender, pleasant, gay, and surprising. There also certain progressions of chords which express the same passions. Although this is beyond my scope, I shall explain it as fully as my experience enables me to do.3

This is very promising, but Rameau unfortunately does not make good on his promise. He speaks briefly of the power of dissonance but does not expand on his initial idea of chords being associated with emotions at all.

A significant hurdle in finding information about expression, rather than strict realisation rules, in French Baroque treatises is the seemingly agreed-upon fact that the elusive bon goût cannot possibly be described in writing; rather, only through a careful observation of the masters and a natural intuition can an aspiring continuo player learn to play with grace. As Saint-Lambert explains in his 1702 Principes du clavecin:

But what is annoying about all this is that the reader will never thoroughly understand how all these agréments are to be excuted, because it is impossible to explain them clearly in writing, since the manner of executing them changes according to the pieces in which they are used. […] But neither all this nor anything else I might say could render comprehensible a thing for which good taste is the only arbiter.4

The intangibility of good taste may have been elegant and noble, but it is not very useful to the 21st-century reader.

Consequently, most continuo treatises written in France between 1690 and 1730 mention expression very little. References to harmony are even more rare. This, however, is not surprising, as a vertical, rather than purely contrapuntal, conception of basso continuo realization was only put on paper in Rameau’s revolutionary 1722 treatise. More surprising is the equal absence of any instruction regarding expression. Although authors describe correct realizations in detail for almost all possible figures, they do not include how these realizations might (and arguably should) be played differently depending on the mood, colour, and text (if applicable) of the melody being accompanied. This much is true of the treatises by Delair, Boyvin, Couperin, Campion, Clérambault, and Dandrieu.5

Saint-Lambert, in his 1707 Nouveau traité de l’accompagnement du clavecin, de l’orgue, et des autres instruments, addresses the matter of expression in a continuo realization directly, stating that the most artful accompanists must know how to adapt their playing to the colour of the voices being accompanied and that of the airs being sung. He adds that a good continuo player demonstrates “bon goût” by embodying the spirit of the words being sung, supporting the singer in expressing such contrasting emotions as languor, or fury.6 And here Saint-Lambert stops. How exactly the continuo player should learn this invaluable skill is never made clear.

In Addition au traité d’accompagnement et de composition par la règle de l’octave (1730), Campion comes tantalizingly close to elucidating exactly how continuo playing is tied to emotion. While speaking of recitative, he makes it clear that accompanists can take great liberties with the consistency of the tempo in order to follow the expression of the singer. Thus, a continuo player will know when eighth notes should be half notes, or half notes, eighth notes, all according to the singer’s expression.7 But once again, the matter ends there.

Very few singing treatises were written in France in the early 18th century. One of the few is Jean Rousseau’s Méthode claire, certaine et facile pour apprendre à chanter la musique (1710). Rousseau was a viol player and music theorist; consequently, his singing treatise mainly covers music theory and rules of interpretation, such as ornamentation and choices of tempo. However, it does not mention harmony at all. The same can be said of François David’s Méthode nouvelle ou principes généraux pour apprendre facilement la musique et l’art de chanter (1737). In his Principes de musique. Divisez en quatre parties (1736), Montéclair does mention singing, but only covers the subjects of syllable alignment and ornamentation.

1.2 Contemporary works on continuo, historically informed singing, and harmony

Looking instead to contemporary works about harmony or early music performance practice does not yield more successful results. Most authors make no mention of harmony at all; if they do it is only in passing, as if referencing something so obvious it does not need to be expanded upon. One such example can be found in A Performer’s Guide to Baroque Music, written by Robert Donington, an English musicologist and viol player, and an important contributor to the early music movement of the 20th century. In his chapter about the treatment of accidentals, Donington discusses musica ficta—the unnotated accidentals that a performer is expected to add when context demands it—and how to know whether to employ it or not. Using an excerpt from Monteverdi’s Orfeo as an example, Donington first argues for raising an F natural in an ascending phrase by stating that ”[…] the second measure shows a clearly notated augmented second from E flat to F sharp; and others as clear occur elsewhere in Orfeo to emphasize words of grief or compassion.”8 Later, he makes a similar argument against adding musica ficta: “At Ex. 32(d), on the other hand, the words are happy, and also the shape of the melody precludes an augmented second.”9 It is very clear that the emotion of the sung text is informing Donington’s arguments about chord colour, yet what he bases these associations of harmony to feeling upon is entirely unclear.

When it comes to modern singing treatises, the main takeaway is that while a varied array of topics is mentioned in relation to performance practice in the Baroque period, harmony is not. In Style in Early Music singing, an article by historical singer Andrea von Ramm, a number of topics are covered such as character, meaning of the text, expression, sociological/melodic/personal expression, register, agility, vibrato, rhythm, diction, and improvisation. Nevertheless, Ramm manages to avoid mentioning harmony altogether. A more notable and telling example of this phenomenon is Singing in Style, by Martha Elliott, the first historical overview of vocal performance and style.10 In it, Elliott discusses performance elements such as the use of vibrato, historical pronunciation, tempo, temperament, and ornamentation, yet barely mentions harmony. While discussing basso continuo realisation, she states, in a short sentence between parentheses, that “It is crucial, however, for singers to be thoroughly familiar with the bass line of Baroque music and to understand how it interacts with their vocal line.”11 As crucial as the fact may be, nothing more is said about it.

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Footnotes

  1. Robert Zappulla, Figured Bass Accompaniment in France (Turnhout: Brepols, 2000), 21. ↩

  2. Ibid. ↩

  3. ” Il est certain que l’Harmonie peut émouvoir en nous, différentes passions, à proportion des Accords qu’on y employe. Il y a des accords tristes, languissans, tendres, agréables, gais, & surprenans ; il y a encore une certaine suite d’Accords pour exprimer les mêmes passions ; & bien que cela soit fort au-dessus de ma portée, je vais en donner toute l’explication que l’expérience peut me fournir.” Jean-Philippe Rameau, Traité de l’harmonie (New York: Broude Brothers, 1965), 154. The English translation of this text has been taken from the edition by Philip Gossett, (1971), p.154. ↩

  4. “Mais ce qu’il y a de fâcheux en cecy, est qu’on ne comprendra jamais bien comment il faut exprimer tous ces Agrémens ; parce qu’il n’est pas possible de le bien expliquer par écrit, à cause que la manière de les exprimer change, selon les Piéces où on les employe. […] Mais tout cela, ny tout ce que je pourrais dire de plus, ne feroit point assez entendre une chose dont le bon goût est le seul arbitre.” Michel de Saint-Lambert, Les principes du clavecin (Genève: Editions Minkoff, 1974), 57. The English translation of this text has been taken from the edition by Rebecca Harris-Warrick, (1984) p.99. ↩

  5. A full list of the works consulted for this literature review can be found in the bibliography. ↩

  6. “Le plus grand goût qu’on puisse faire paroître dans l’Accompagnement, c’est de sçavoir bien se conformer au caractere des voix qu’on accompagne, & à celui des Airs qui sont chantez, entrant même dans l’esprit des parolles, & n’animant point l’accompagnement quand la Chanson parle de Foiblesse & et Langueur, & au contraire ne se laissan point traîner quand l’Acteur s’anime & s’emporte, qu’il parle de Couroux, de Vangeance de Rage, de Fureur.”
    Michel de Saint-Lambert, Nouveau traité de l’accompagnement du clavecin, de l’orgue, et des autres instruments, Basse Continue, France 1600-1800. Vol. I. VI vols. (Paris: Anne Fuzeau productions, 2012), 300-301. ↩

  7. “Les accompagnateurs sçavans ne suivent point de mesure dans le récitatif. Il faut que l’oreille s’attache à la voix pour la suivre, & fournir harmonie au chant qu’elle débit ; tantôt lentement, tantôt legèrement, de sorte que les croches deviennent quelquefois blanches, & quelquefois les blanches deviennent croches par la célérité, selon l’entouziasme, & l’expression plus ou moins outrée des personnes qui chantent.”
    Thomas Campion, Addition au traité d’accompagnement et de composition par la règle de l’octave, Basse Continue, France 1600-1800. Vol. II. VI vols. (Paris: Anne Fuzeau productions, 2012), 241. ↩

  8. Robert Donington, A Performer’s Guide to Baroque Music (London: Faber and Faber limited, 1973), 138. ↩

  9. Donington, A Performer’s Guide to Baroque Music, 139. ↩

  10. Martha Elliott, Singing in Style (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2006), inside jacket. ↩

  11. Elliott, Singing in Style, 11. ↩