Interpretive properties of recitation in the vocalist’s performing arts
Authors: Zhang Xiqui 
Published: March 2021

Background. One of the main positions of the vocalist’s practice is to understand the recitation as a kind of interpretation of the musical text, which is fixed in the notes. In the process of performing a piece of music, be it the song, the romance, the recitative, the aria in an opera or a musical drama, one specific variant is selected each time from its many potential meanings. This is the performer’s interpretation of the declamatory intonation, because the composer usually does not indicate the tone, timbre and strength of the voice, minimally orienting a singer in the desired intonation, in the duration and location of pauses for breath and in another wide arsenal of methods of declamatory expression. The aim of this research is to study the interpretive properties of recitation in the sphere of vocal music. Discovering the nature of the interpretive properties of declamatory intonation, based on the simultaneous and consistent sound of speech and music, will help to overcome the performance difficulties in the vocalist’s work on mastering the artistic technique of this area of expression. The main results. The specificity of the combination of words and music in the structure of melodic declamation, its origins in various national cultures, both European and Chinese, the peculiarities of being in different genre conditions (musical drama, opera recitative) are considered, certain difficulties and tasks for the singer-reciter are outlined. In European art, the tradition of melodic recitation has its roots in ancient mysteries. The beginning of European secular melodic recitation was marked at the end of the 16th century, but it was developing in the works of musicians known as the “Florentine Camerata” (Vincenzo Galilei, Giulio Cacchini, Jacopo Peri, Ottavio Rinuccini, etc.), becoming one of the origins of opera. A distinctive feature of melody recitation at that time was the desire for solo recitative singing. Later, as an expressive mean, recitation was existing within the opera genre, and from the middle of the 18 century in Europe, this technique was contributing to the formation of an independent concert genre – chamber and vocal works with ballad texts, which found their place in the works of romantic composers (F. Schubert, R. Schumann, etc.). Note, that in the process of historical development, the genre of melodic declamation, on the one hand, modifies in the form of a recitative in European opera, on the other – remains independent within the musical-stage drama, still popular in various national cultures. The Chinese Suzhou musical drama, which is indicative of our study, originated more than 200 years ago, beginning with folk melodies, including xiaochang (“little songs’), tales, dance movements, gestures (khuaguden dances – “with flowers, drums and lanterns’) etc., and gradually spread at the area near the city Suzhou in the lower Yellow River. It later spread to Anhui Province, the Northern parts of Jiangsu Province, and the Southern parts of Shandong Province. The creative achievements of this art, local at the beginning, later assimilated in the national Beijing Opera. But from its origins, this kind of musical and stage action is inextricably linked with the life of the Chinese people, is based on unpretentious plots, so it remains popular to this day, capable of significant emotional impact on the recipient – the audience and listener. Note, that the genre varieties of musical drama developed from the 16–17 centuries both, in China and in the different cultures of the European, American, and Asian continents, where they exist and today. This stability of the genre is not least due to the fact that in the structure of musical drama is an artistic synthesis of several types of art: the word interacts with music, live stage action. The melodic reciter in this context faces certain difficulties. So, one of the basic means of musical expression for the singer is diction, clear pronunciation of a word, which, in close connection with the melody, is subject to the task of transmitting the artistic content of the work – from composer to listener. It is impossible to convey the musical idea of the composition, to create a certain emotional mood, to embody one’s interpretation of the poetic image of the performed music without a clear proclamation of language inversions, which contain the significance of the immanent artistic content. This requirement does not apply to technical musical constructions used for singing, for “warming up” the singer’s vocal apparatus, nor does it apply to vocals performed without words. Every artist, including a vocalist who uses a verbal word, must understand its importance in creating a unique artistic image, consciously use diction as an articulatory technique of revealing the musical text content in the poetic context of chamber, opera, or musical-dramatic genres. Conclusions. So, verbal-musical factors of declamatory intonation have the immanent possibility of various interpretations in the process of vocal performance. Recitation is based on the expressiveness of the word, perceived by the listener or theatrical spectator on several levels: 1) auditory – we hear the intonation richness of shades of musical speech; 2) mental – we understand the logical meaning of texts; 3) psycho-emotional – with the help of imagination, fantasy, we sympathize with the moods, emotions of the heroes of the work of art. At the same time, the basis of interpretation in the art of singing is the voice as a physical phenomenon: it is not only a material carrier of speech sounds, but also the main tool for expressing musical meanings: the variety of voice sound modulations is inexhaustible. Therefore, the role of breathing in the process of clear proclamation of the word, diction in the process of vocal intonation is difficult to overestimate. It is necessary to emphasize the presence of constant transitions in the part of the performer-reciter from linguistic constructions to recitative and pure vocal. Mastering the techniques of correlation of singing and recitation is relevant for any vocalist, which caused an in-details study of this problem.