Theatrical Declamation and German Vocal Music of the Late Romantic Period

Abstract

A curious but well known fact is that German vocal music was rarely performed in Germany and Austria before the early nineteenth century. Until then Italian vocal music was favoured. But when German audiences finally began to accept their own vocal music, their national composers were faced with a serious problem : the German public could not understand the texts in its own language because the singers enunciated deplorably. Deeply perturbed, musicians to whom distinct enunciation of German was vital vigorously sought solutions. Among them Wagner was most forceful, since comprehension of his texts is essential to his aesthetics. `Die Ausbildung der Gesangskunst ist bei uns Deutschen ganz besonders schwierig, unendlich schwieriger als bei den Italienern ... Der Grund hiervon liegt ... in den Eigenthumlichkeiten der Sprache ... Die richtige Entwicklung des Gesanges auf Grundlage der deutschen Sprache ... kann ... nur glucken durch ununterbrochene Ubung an solchen: Gesangswerken, in welchen der Gesang der deutschen Sprache vollkommen entsprechend angeeignet ist.' l In short, to Wagner the solution for the German singer's poor enunciation lay only in the foundation of a German school of singing. But just as vocal music in Germany was dominated by Italians until about 1830, so too was vocal training. And this latter domination was to continue for well over another generation. However, when the break finally came, it proved to be radical: German singing masters were satisfied with nothing less than a complete breach with the Italian method and the foundation of a new school. Such extremists were encountered