RECITAL, a term which has come into use in England to signify a performance of solo music by one instrument and one performer. It was probably first used by Liszt at his performance at the Hanover Square Rooms, June 9, 1840, though as applying to the separate pieces and not to the whole performance. The advertisement of the concert in question says that 'M. Liszt will give Recitals on the Pianoforte of the following pieces.' The name has since been adopted by Mr. Charles Halle and others.
The term Opera Recital is used for a concert in which the music of an opera is sung without costume or acting.
RECITATIVE (Ital. Recitativo; Germ. Recitativ, Fr. Récitatif; from the Latin recitare). A species of declamatory Music, extensively used in those portions of an Opera, an Oratorio, or a Cantata, in which the action of the Drama is too rapid, or the sentiment of the Poetry too changeful, to adapt itself to the studied rhythm of a regularly-constructed Aria.
The invention of Recitative marks a crisis in the History of Music, scarcely less important than that to which we owe the discovery of Harmony. Whether the strange conception in which it originated was first clothed in tangible form by Jacopo Peri, or Emilio del Cavaliere, is a question which has never been decided. There is, however, little doubt, that both these bold revolutionists assisted in working out the theory upon which that conception was based; for, both are known to have been members of that æsthetic brotherhood, which met in Florence during the later years of the 16th century, at the house of Giovanni Bardi, for the purpose of demonstrating the possibility of a modern revival of the Classic Drama, in its early purity; and it is certain that the discussions in which they then took part led, after a time, to the invention of the peculiar style of Music we are now considering. The question, therefore, narrows itself to one of priority of execution only. Now, the earliest specimens of true Recitative we possess are to be found in Peri's Opera, 'Euridice,' and Emilio's Oratorio, 'La Rappresentazione dell' Anima e del Corpo,' both printed in the year 1600. The Oratorio was first publicly performed in the February of that year, at Rome: the Opera, in December, at Florence. But Peri had previously written another Opera, 'Dafne,' in exactly the same style, and caused it to be privately performed, at the Palazzo Corsi, in Florence, in 1597. Emilio del Cavaliere, too, is known to have written at least three earlier pieces—'Il Satiro,' 'La Disperazione di Fileno,' and 'Il Giuoco della Cieca.' No trace of either of these can now be found: and, in our doubt as to whether they may not have contained true Recitatives, we can scarcely do otherwise than ascribe the invention to Peri, who certainly did use them in 'Dafne,' and whose style is, moreover, far more truly declamatory than the laboured and half rhythmic manner of his possible rival. [See Opera, vol. ii. 498–500; Oratorio, vol. ii. 534, 535.]
Thus first launched upon the world, for the purpose of giving a new impetus to the progress of Art, this particular Style of Composition has undergone less change, during the last 280 years, than any other. What Simple or Unaccompanied Recitative (Recitativo secco) is to-day, it was, in all essential particulars, in the time of 'Euridice.' Then, as now, it was supported by an unpretentious Thorough-Bass (Basso continuo), figured, in order that the necessary Chords might be filled in upon the Harpsichord, or Organ, without the addition of any kind of Symphony, or independent Accompaniment. Then, as now, its periods were moulded with reference to nothing more than the plain rhetorical delivery of the words to which they were set; melodious or rhythmic phrases being everywhere carefully avoided, as not only unnecessary, but absolutely detrimental to the desired effect so detrimental, that the difficulty of adapting good Recitative to Poetry written in short rhymed verses is almost insuperable, the jingle of the metre tending to crystallise itself in regular form with a persistency which is rarely overcome except by the greatest Masters. Hence it is, that the best Poetry for Recitative is Blank Verse: and hence it is, that the same Intervals, the same Progressions, and the same Cadences, have been used over and over again, by Composers, who, in other matters, have scarcely a trait in common. We shall best illustrate this by selecting a few set forms from the inexhaustible store at our command, and shewing how these have been used by some of the greatest writers of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries: premising that, in phrases ending with two or more reiterated notes, it has been long the custom to sing the first as an Appoggiatura, a note higher than the rest. We have shewn this in three cases, but the rule applies to many others.
Typical Forms.
Examples of their occurrence.
