Observations on the Florid Song; Or, Sentiments on the Ancient and Modern Singers

by Pier Francesco Tosi

CHAP. VIII.

Of Cadences.[78]

he 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 Passages 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 Passages 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-cock 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 Bass. These are the principal 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 Passages 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 Passages 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 Passages 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 Gratitude?——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 Bass 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 Bass 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 Bass, 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 Basses, which is, in falling a fifth, with a Passage of Swift Notes descending gradually, supposing that by this Means they cover the Octaves, which, tho' disguised, will still appear.

§ 9. I hold it also for certain, that no Professor of the first Rank, in any Cadence whatsoever, can be allowed to make Shakes, or Divisions, on the last Syllables but one of these Words,—Confonderò—Amerò, &c. for they are Ornaments that do not suit on those Syllables which are short, but do well on the Antecedent.[84]

§ 10. Very many of the second Class end the inferior Cadences in the French Manner without a Shake[85], either for want of Ability to make one, or from its being easy to copy them, or from their Desire of finding out something that may in Appearance support the name of Modern. But in Fact they are mistaken; for the French do not leave out the Shake on the inferior Cadences, except in the Pathetick Airs; and our Italians, who are used to over-do the Mode, exclude it every where, tho' in the Allegro the Shake is absolutely necessary. I know, that a good Singer may with Reason abstain from the Shake in the Cantabile; however, it should be rarely; for if one of those Cadences be tolerable without that pleasing Grace, it is absolutely impossible not to be tired at length, with a Number one after another that die suddenly.

§ 11. I find that all the Moderns (let them be Friends or Foes to the Shake) in the inferior Cadences beforementioned go with an Appoggiatura to the final Note, on the penultimate Syllable of a Word; and this likewise is a Defect, it appearing to me, that on such Occasions the Appoggiatura is not pleasing but on the last Syllable, after the Manner of the Ancients, or of those who know how to sing.[86]

§12. If, in the inferior Cadences, the best Singers of these Days think they are not in the wrong in making you hear the final Note before the Bass[87], they deceive themselves grossly; for it is a very great Error, hurts the Ear, and is against the Rules; and becomes doubly so, going (as they do) to the same Note with an Appoggiatura, the which either ascending or descending, if not after the Bass[88], is always very bad.

§ 13. And is it not worst of all, to torment the Hearers with a thousand Cadences all in the same Manner? From whence proceeds this Sterility, since every Professor knows, that the surest way of gaining Esteem in Singing is a Variety in the Repetition?

§ 14. If among all the Cadences in the Airs, the last allows a moderate Liberty to the Singer, to distinguish the end of them, the Abuse of it is insufferable. But it grows abomable, when the Singer persists with his tiresome Warbling, nauseating the Judicious, who suffer the more, because they know that the Composers leave generally in every final Cadence some Note, sufficient to make a discreet Embellishment; without seeking for it out of Time, without Taste, without Art, and without Judgment.[89]

§ 15. I am still more surprised when I reflect, that the modern Stile, after having exposed all the Cadences of the theatrical Airs to the Martyrdom of a perpetual Motion, will likewise have the Cruelty to condemn to the same Punishment not Those in the Cantata's only, but also the Cadences of their Recitatives. Do these Singers pretend, by their not distinguishing the Chamber-Musick from the immoderate Gargling of the Stage, to expect the vulgar E Viva's in the Cabinet of Princes?

§ 16. Let a sensible Student avoid this Example, and with this Example the Abuses, the Defects, and every other Thing that is mean and common, as well in the Cadences as elsewhere.

§ 17. If, the inventing particular Cadences without injuring the Time, has been one of the worthy Employments of the Ancients (so call'd) let a Student revive the Use of it; endeavouring to imitate them in their Skill of somewhat anticipating the Time; and remember, that Those, who understand the Art of Gracing, do not wait to admire the Beauty of it in a Silence of the Bass.

§ 18. Many and many other Errors are heard in the Cadences that were Antique, and which are now become Modern; they were ridiculous then, and are so now; therefore considering, that to change the Stile is not always to improve it, I may fairly conclude, that what is bad is to be corrected by Study, and not by the Mode.

§ 19. Now let us for a while leave at Rest the Opinions of the aforesaid Ancients, and the supposed Moderns, to take notice what Improvement the Scholar has made, since he is desirous of being heard. Well then, let him attend, before we part with him, to Instructions of more Weight, that he may at least deserve the Name of a good Singer, though he may not arrive at that of an eminent one.