SIEGING AS AN ART 677 



mentioned genius I myself heard sing Mozart's air from his opera 

 " II Ee Pastore," and in this she sang a trill with violin obligato in 

 the most perfect legato style, so that every note agreed with the trill 

 of the violin, a marvellous achievement, but in addition, the feeling 

 of the song was expressed in the most touching way. 



Now what are the technical terms which can convey the qualities 

 of this grand vocal art? Surely they are the unerring attack of the 

 note in the very centre of the sound : the sostenuto, or sustaining all 

 notes and joining them to others with a perfect legato without either 

 jerkiness or slurring, and with the quality of expression intended; the 

 messa di voce or swelling from piano to forte and back to the softest 

 sound without loss of quality; command over execution; expression 

 and pathos; breadth of phrasing which is only possible to those who 

 have command of a long breath ; and intensity or carrying power suffi- 

 cient for the largest halls or theatres. Handel, Bach, and Mozart, and, 

 among the moderns, more especially, Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and 

 Verdi, knew how to bring into play all the resources of their singers in 

 respect to the points I have just mentioned. They gave them time to 

 breathe and collect themselves between the phrases by a bar or two 

 of the orchestra, in a manner quite different from later composers who 

 often give little or no time for the singer to breathe. 



Bach and Handel, both born in 1685, were two of the greatest musi- 

 cians who ever lived Handel, in 1706, travelled all over Italy, met 

 the well-kno',\ r u singers of the c'ay and com o- fed opera:: In- them, 

 and for many years was connected with the King's Theatre, London. 

 In the numberless masterpieces of this great composer we meet with 

 every device favorable to the singer's art. Matchless recitative 

 loveliest airs slow, sustained notes fostering messa di voce many 

 spaces for the singer to recover breath and calm trills and passages 

 invocations and triumphant phrases. For recitative, " Deeper and 

 deeper still," and for sustained notes, " "Waft her, angels," and " Com- 

 fort ye " ; for vigorous passages, " Ev'ry valley " and " Love sounds 

 the alarm " ; for prayerful utterance, " Pious orgies " ; for invocation, 

 "0 sleep," "Father of Heaven," and "0 Liberty," also "Heart, 

 thou source of pure delight" (" Acis and Galatea"). How many of 

 these commence with the voice unaccompanied ! Note the phrasing of 

 Handel, where he interrupts the musical phrase, sometimes more than 

 once, on a single word, in the air " Where'er you walk " from 

 " Semele." 



Sebastian Bach, who was neither a traveller nor a writer of operas 

 like Handel, at times gives to the singer uncouth and awkward pas- 

 sages, difficult chromatic intervals words recited on the highest 

 notes a voice-part perhaps treated too much like a solo stop on the 

 organ disregarding the compass or most favorable parts pertaining 

 to the different voices. Yet in spite of all this, what effects ! In 



