Concerning Sprechgesang
Concerning Sprechgesang
Concerning Sprechgesang
.
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Concerning
"Sprechgesang"
by
Ralph
W.
Wood
IN
In the score of Pierrot Lunaire one does find an explanatory foreword. Here it is:
" The melody given for the speaking voice in notes is (apart from a few specially
indicated exceptions) not meant to be sung. The reciter has the task of transforming it, with a thorough regard for the prescribed intervals, into a speechmelody. He accomplishes that by (I) keeping the rhythm absolutely strict,
as if he were singing; i.e. with no more freedom than he would allow himself
for a song melody; (ii) fully realizing the difference between singing-tone and
speaking-tone: the singing-tone holds fast to the pitch from beginning to end
of a note, whereas the speaking-tone does give it at first, but then at once departs
from it by either rising or falling. The performer must, however, watch carefully not to fall into a ' singing' way of speaking. That is not at all what is
meant. In no way, it is true, must a realistic-natural speech be striven for.
On the contrary, the difference between ordinary speech and a speech that
co-operates in a musical form is to be distinct. But it must never remind one
of singing.
"Further there is to be said regarding the performance: the performer never
has the task of bringing out the mood and character of the sense of the words,
but only of the music. So far as the composer considered tone-painting of
the events and feelings given in the text to be called for, it will be found in the
TEMPO
music. Where the performerdoes not find it, he must beware of adding something that the composer did not intend. For that would be not an addition but
a subtraction."
The vocal line to which the performeris thus tutored to addresshimself (as a matter
of fact, herself) is an extremely intricate one, full of the awkward intervals and of the
conflicts with the accompanimentthat are typical of all Sch6nberg's mature writing.
The notes are written in the usual way, but (except when actual singing is intended-see
the parenthesisat the beginning of the "Foreword ") with crosses through their stems.
The compass is:
(with, during one of the brief " sung " passages, a low E flat thrown in, for which
however an octave-higher alternativeis offered). Some notes are marked " toneless,"
and one group is to be "whispered tonelessly" and is notated without note-heads
(i.e. pitch indications)at all. There are such things as acciaccaturas(e.g. jumping up an
augmented fourth) and glissandos (e.g. dropping an augmented eleventh). A certain
five detached notes all have shakes marked over them. It is worth noting that the
composer uses the voice-part, for contrapuntalpurposes, just as if it were an authentic
melodic line (i.e. sometimes giving repetitions, imitations, etc., of it in various of the
instrumentalparts).
PierrotLunairehas been mentioned on the heels of the Gurrelieder,because of
Schonberg's comparison in the letter cited; but in fact Die glicklicheHand, which was
begun just after Erwartung,and thus well before PierrotLunaire(though the latter was
finished first, being written with characteristic speed, whereas Die glckliche Hand
was only composed by fits and starts over a long period), contains among its many
extraordinaryingredients a chorus whose lines, delivered through holes in a velvet
back-curtainjust large enough to frame their faces and in a memorable lighting and
colour-scheme,are largely spoken. All the notes in their parts, except those to be sung,
are notated as in PierrotLunaireand markedeither " whispered" or " spoken." Those
who have heard this very rarely-performedwork say that the effect of these passages
for the chorus is extremelybeautiful, above all the transitionsfrom speech to song.
That the appearanceof difficulty in the vocal line of PierrotLunaireis no layman's
illusion is proved by the referencesto it madeby some of its interpreters.Erica Wagnerwho toured widely performing the work, and likewise made a gramophone recording
of it, under the composer's baton-admits being brought to tears during the rehearsal
period. Gutheil-Schoder,who performedit in Copenhagen,speaks of having " sworn
at his too many, far too many, note-heads " and says that " his never-heard-ofintervals"
have given her a " nightmare." But they were, of course, devoted admirers of the
thing that had brought them so much travail and tribulation.
Both Marya Freund (with whose interpretationEnglish and French listeners are
more familiar) and Gutheil-Schoder made their justly vast reputations as singers.
Erica Wagner, though she had indeed studied music, is famous as an actress pure and
simple. This brings us to a crucial ambiguity of the whole " Sprechgesang" situation.
" Sprechgesang" is not a term employed by Sch6nberg himself; but it has been freely
used by many of his critics, apologists and biographers,almost as if it were synonymous
with his own " Sprechstimme." Percy Scholes, for one, has done well to point out
that, on the contrary, there is a differencebetween the two words almost amounting
to an antithesis; " Sprechgesang" means a ' parlando' manner of singing, and indeed
is translated in standard dictionaries as "recitative," whereas "Sprechstimme" in
itself simply means " speaking voice."
CONCERNING
"SPRECHGESANG"
TEMPO
tenderness and sadness in the music to which Marie sings the snatches of her half
nonsense-wordslullaby with the equally extraordinary,heart-breakingpoignancy of her
" rhythmic declamation" of the quotations she reads out from her Bible (" Es war
einmalein armesKind und hatt' keinen Vater und keine Mutter,"and the rest of them),
and with her sung wailings of anguish that interruptthe latter.
It may be observed that Berg's vocal lines, of whatever category, are difficult, but
considerablyless so than those of Sch6nberg (and than those that Webern, too, gives
singers). He offers more aid, too, in the accompaniment. And he'll even be found
showing an enharmonic change on a note so as to help the vocalist to cope with an
interval.
... Finally we must come to BenjaminBritten'sTheRapeof Lucretia. Can anyone
who has once heardit ever forget the remarkableintensity createdby the Male Chorus's
spoken commentaryduring the minute or so before the commission of the actual rape ?
The printed notes to which his words are set are given exact rhythm and pitch values
(even including ? glissando indication at one point) but have crosses instead of heads.
So far from its being like a normal, sung melody, only five notes are used:
C)
*4
and clearlyno more than the rough idea of various levels of the voice is intended to be
conveyed by this pitch-notation. In performance (on the stage and as privately
recorded for gramophone) the intonation seems very loose, in relation to the printed
stave. There is a tendency to singsome of the highest notes; and, on the other hand,
most of the other notes are ratherwhisperedthan spoken. Apart, incidentally,from the
word "(spoken)" at the beginning of the section, the score contains no explanationof
how it is to be rendered. The accompaniment(a further strong contrast to the Sch6nberg-Berg specimens) is for indefinite-pitchedpercussion only - bass drum, tenor
drum, side drum, cymbal-nothing else. These two simple-looking pages constitute
something like a stroke of genius.