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As contrasting examples in which the two principal colours may be employed effectively, I may cite the Bacchic air, “Ô vin, dissipe la tristesse,” and the pensive monologue, “Être, ou ne pas être,” both from the opera Hamlet, by Ambroise Thomas. The forced, unnatural quality of the first calls for the use of a clear, open, brilliant timbre.
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But for the second, “To be, or not to be”:
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a sombre, closed timbre is necessary. The opening recitative of Vanderdecken in Der fliegende Holländer by Wagner would be absurd, and utterly out of harmony with the character and his surroundings, if sung in the open timbre. Perhaps I ought to explain that “open” (voix claire, Fr.), and “closed” (voix sombre, Fr.), are technical terms, of which the equivalents are accepted in all countries where the art of singing is cultivated; terms that apply to quality of tone, not to the physical process by which these effects are produced. Such a mistake is not infrequently made by vocal physiologists who are not practical musicians or singing-teachers. Nor must the term “clear timbre” be understood to mean the “white voice” (“voix blanche,” or “voce bianca”); this, like the guttural timbre, being only occasionally employed for the expression of some violent passion, such as hate.
Like the admirable paintings of Eugène Carrière, for instance his masterly portrait of Paul Verlaine, a song, sometimes an entire rôle, may be worked out in monochrome; though the gradations of tint are numerous, they are consistently kept within their preconceived colour-scheme. Some few exceptional singers, like Jean-Baptiste Faure or Maurice Renaud, have this gift of many shades of the one colour in their singing of certain rôles. The colour is determined by the psychological character of the personage portrayed; a gay, reckless Don Giovanni calls for a brighter colouring throughout than that necessitated by the music allotted to a gloomy Vanderdecken or an embittered and vengeful Rigoletto. One may, therefore, formulate the following rule: The general character of the composition will decide the tonal colour appropriate for its general interpretation; the colouring necessary for its component phrases will be determined by the particular sentiment embodied in them. Emotions like sorrow, fear, despair, will find fitting expression in the sombre quality of voice, graduated in accordance with the intensity of the emotion. The opposite sentiments of joy, love, courage, hope, are fittingly interpreted by gradations of the clear and brilliant timbre. The dark or sombre voice will be used in varying shades for the recitative from Samson (Handel), “Oh, loss of sight:”