The Solfeggio Tradition

Abstract

The book is the first study of the solfeggio tradition, which was fundamental to the training of European musicians c. 1680–1830. It addresses one of the last major gaps in historical research concerning eighteenth-century performance and pedagogy. The method flourished in Italian conservatories for disadvantaged children, especially at Naples. The presence of large manuscript collections in European archives (almost three hundred in Italy alone) attests to the importance of this kind of exercise. Drawing on research into more than a thousand manuscript sources, the book reconstructs the way professional musicians in Europe learned and thus conceived the fundamentals of music. It reveals an approach that differs radically from modern assumptions. Solfeggi underpinned an art of melody that allowed practitioners to improvise and compose fluently. Part I provides contextual information about apprenticeship, the church music industry, its associated schools, and the continued significance of plainchant to music education. Part II reconstructs the real lessons of an apprentice over the course of three or four years from spoken to sung solfeggio. Part III surveys the primary sources, classifying solfeggi into four main types and outlining their historical origins, characteristic features, and pedagogical purposes.