Principles of Orchestration, with Musical Examples Drawn from His Own Works

by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov

Recitative and declamation.

The accompaniment of recitative and melodic declamatory phrases should be light enough to allow the voice to come through without strain, and the words to be heard distinctly. The most convenient method is to employ sustained chords and tremolo on the strings or wood-wind, giving free latitude to the voice from a rhythmic point of view (a piacere).

Another excellent plan is to write short chords in the strings combined with wood-wind in different ways. Sustained chords and those entailing change of position should occur preferably when the voice is silent, thus permitting both conductor and orchestra to keep a closer watch over the singer's irregularities of rhythm in a piacere recitatives. If the accompaniment is more complex in character, melodic, polyphonic or ornamental in design, the recitative must be sung in tempo. Any phrase which it is necessary to emphasise in accordance with the sense of the words assumes a more cantabile character, and must be reinforced by the orchestra. Opera, today, besides demanding much greater care in the treatment of the text than in the past, abounds in constant transition from declamation to cantabile, or in the fusion of the two. The orchestra offers more variety of texture and must be handled with greater regard to its relationship to the words, and the action on the stage. This class of orchestration can only be studied from lengthy examples. I refer the reader to operatic full scores and content myself with giving one or short instances:

Examples:

[No. 287.] Snegourotchka 16.

[No. 288.] The Tsar's Bride 124-125.

The following double examples, similar from a musical point of view, show different methods of handling an orchestra from the standpoint of accompaniment to the voice, and the tutti form.

Examples:

[No. 289]-[291]. Sadko 99-101 and 305-307 (compare also [Ex. 75]).

Vera Scheloga 3-7 and 28.

Care should be taken not to score too heavily when accompanying singers in the wings.

Examples:

* [No. 292.] Sadko 316, 318, 320.

* Legend of Kitesh 286-289, 304-305.