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Declamation
Author(s): JED WENTZ
Source: Cambridge Opera Journal , MARCH 2013, Vol. 25, No. 1 (MARCH 2013), pp. 1-36
Published by: Cambridge University Press
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Abstract: The Houghton Library at Harvard University holds a copy of the 1685 livret for
Roland by Philippe Quinault and Jean-Baptiste Lully that has been marked up in three dif
ferent seventeenth-century hands. The meanings of these markings cannot be conclusively
deciphered until further corroborative sources come to light, but they seem to refer to
declaimed performances of Quinault's text. The purpose of the current article is to propose
possible interpretations of these annotations, guided by seventeenth-century theory of the
oratorical pitches (tons) and eighteenth-century links between the Academie royale de musique
and the Comedie franpaise.
In 1746 the Abbe de Condillac made the following reflections on the relationship
between French declamation, musical notation and the tragedie en musique\
Although our declamation cannot be notated, it seems to me that one might be able to
preserve it in some way. It would be sufficient if a composer had enough taste to observe,
in his melody, more or less the same proportions that the voice follows in declamation.
Those who had familiarised themselves with this melody could therein rediscover, by
ear, the declamation that had served as its model. Would not a man filled with the recita
tives of Lully declaim the tragedies of Quinault as Lully himself had declaimed them?
However, to make the thing easier, one would wish that the melody were extremely simple,
and that its vocal inflections were not distinguished more than was necessary to make them
perceptible. The declamation in Lully's recitatives would be even more recognisable if he
had put less music into them. One therefore has reason to believe that this would be a great
help for those who have a disposition for declamation.1
Condillac here not only implies that a general understanding of the relationship
between music and recitation would be of great use to those with an inclination
to declaim, but specifically states that an eighteenth-century orator could extract
Lully's own style of spoken declamation from the musical notation of operatic
recitatives. It is well known that Lully was supposed to have based his recitative
1 All translations are by the author. The original text is as follows: 'Quoique notre declamation ne
puisse pas se noter, il me semble qu'on pourroit en quelque sorte la fixer. II suffiroit qu'un
Musicien eut assez de gout pour observer, dans le chant, a-peu-pres les memes proportions que
la voix suit dans la declamation. Ceux qui se seroient rendus ce chant familier, pourroient, avec
de l'oreille, y retrouver la declamation qui en auroit ete le modele. Un homme rempli des
recitatifs de Lulli, ne declameroit-il pas les Tragedies de Quinault comme Lulli les eut declame
lui-meme? Pour rendre cependant la chose plus facile, il seroit a souhaiter que la melodie fut
extremement simple, & qu'on n'y distinguat les inflexions de la voix qu'autant qu'il seroit
necessaire pour les apprecier. La declamation se reconnoltroit encore plus aisement dans les
recitatifs de Lulli, s'il y avoit mis moins de musique. On a done lieu de croire que ce seroit la
un grand secours pour ceux qui auroient quelques dispositions a bien declamer.' L'Abbe de
Condillac, Hssai sur I'origine des connoissances humaines, tome second, nouvelle edition (Amsterdam,
1788), 77-8.
style on the declamation of the great French actress Champmesle, who was instructed
in the art by Jean Racine.2 Condillac's remarks, therefore, suggest the possibility
of recovering this underlying seventeenth-century theatrical declamatory style from
Lully's scores.
Support is lent to Condillac's claims by certain passages in the letters of
Voltaire, who was himself a successful playwright and therefore someone who
could be supposed thoroughly to understand the art of theatrical recitation. Even
as late as 1773 Voltaire felt that Lully remained the unrivalled master of French
declamation. Fie wrote to Chabanon on 1 February of that year, 'For me Lully
will always be the god, and the only god, of declamation'.3 Moreover, Voltaire
wrote that an orator could move his auditors by reciting Quinault's verses while
simplifying Lully's musical setting into inflected speech. He noted, in a letter dated
18 December 1767, that
Lully's declamation is such a perfect melopee that I declaim all of his recitative by following
his notes, but only softening the intonations; thus I have a very strong effect on the auditors,
and there is no one who is not moved.4
So it would seem that Condillac's theory was very close to Voltaire's practice;
by 'softening' Lully's intervals, Voltaire would have removed some of the 'melody'
that Condillac advocated against. Both of these eighteenth-century writers believed
that the tragedie en musique could serve as a basis for spoken performances. Could
the practice have been more general? A heavily annotated 1685 livret of Roland
held in the Harvard Theater Collection at the Houghton Library, Harvard, points
to the possibility that by the end of the seventeenth century Lully's compositional
style was already seen as a school for spoken declamation.5
2 See, for instance, Manuel Couvreur, Jean-Baptiste Ijdly: Musique et dramaturgic au service du Prince
(Bruxelles, 1992), 308. See also Lois Rosow, 'French Baroque Recitative as an Expression of
Tragic Declamation', tiarly Music, 2 (1983), 468—79 and Romain Roland, Musiciens d'autrefois
(Paris, 1908), 143-69. The close link between Lully's recitative and the declamatory practices
of the Comedie Franpaise was still something of a trope in the 1750s. During the Querelle des
boujfons, Rousseau's attack on Armide was rebuffed by a pamphlet claiming that three Parisian
stars, Dumesnil, Clairon and Gaussin had all, upon request, recited the text of the monologue
'Enfin il est en ma puissance' using the very same intonations that Lully himself had notated.
See [Pierre Esteve], Justification de la musique franfoise, contre la querelle qui lui a ete faite par un
allemand <& un allobroge (La Haye, 1754), 51.
3 'Lulli sera toujours pour moi le dieu et le seul dieu de la declamation'. L.N.J.J. Cayrol and A.
Franpois, eds., Ixttres inedites de Voltaire, tome second, (Paris, 1856), 305.
4 'La declamation de Lulli est une melopee si parfaite, que je declame tout son recitatif en suivant
ses notes et en adoucissant seulement les intonations; je fais alors un tres-grand effet sur les
auditeurs, et il n'y a personne qui ne soit emu'. [Voltaire], CEuvres completes de Voltaire., correspondance
generate (Paris, 1817), 170. The term melopee originally referred to the notated declamations of the
ancients, but later became associated with the inflections of contemporary French declamation,
both sung and spoken. It is in this latter sense that the word will be used here.
5 See Jean Baptiste Lully, Roland: tragedie en musique, Paris 1685, TS 8092.402 1690, Houghton
Library, Harvard University. The author is indebted to a number of people associated with
Houghton, especially Annette Fern, who knows the Binney Collection like the back of her
hand, and the staff of the reading room, all of whom have been very generous with their time
and expertise. Special thanks are due to Andrea Cawelti, of the John Milton and Ruth Neils
Ward Collection, whose advice has proven invaluable.
This article aims to introduce the reader to the livret, which seems to have escaped
scholarly attention until now; to describe its various annotations (focusing particularly
on the manuscript markings to Roland's monologues in Act IV), and to explore
more generally their links to spoken declamation. This exploration will consist of
two parts: the first, an examination of seventeenth-century treatises that describe
the use of the so-called tons or oratorical pitches; and the second, a presentation of
a selection of eighteenth-century sources that link actors from the Comedie francaise
to the Academie royale de musique.
The full title of the livret is Roland: tragedie en musique representee devant Sa Maj
Versailles, le huitieme ianvier 1685. It was published by Ballard in Paris in 168
is adorned with the well-known frontispiece, engraved by Juan Dolivar afte
Berain, showing the onset of Roland's madness at the end of Act IV scene 6.
livret has been preserved as part of a collection of 15 stage works by Quinau
Lully (including 12 tragedies en musique, a tragi-comedie, a ballet and a pastorale bero
bound together in a leather binding. The title 'Opera de Quinaut' [sic] appears
the book's spine.6
The livret of Roland is the only one in this collection with unusual annotat
these, however, are many and various.7 For instance, the verso of its fronti
displays script in three different hands (see Fig. 1). The uppermost text, writ
confident, somewhat sprawling letters in brown ink, is as follows: 'M. Danie
des Boucherres au soleil d'or [c]hez [u]n bonnetier proche le marche' (Mr. Dan
rue des Boucherres, in the soleil d'Or, at a bonnet-maker's house, near the mar
Given the placement of this annotation on the page, it would seem that 'M. D
was the first person to write in the livret.8
The second hand appears just below M. Daniel's address, where six lin
pastoral poetry have been copied out in very neat script. It is worth mention
that a further 17 lines of verse written in the same careful hand appear
margin of page 48. These latter, more copious verses form a parodie Bacchiqu
the duet air 'Vivez en paix' from Act IV scene 3 of Roland, and in the livret
appear in the margin next to the printed text of that air. Neither these verse
6 It should be mentioned, however, that Quinault was not the exclusive author of all of th
that are bound into the book: Le Triomphe de 1'amour was co-written with Benserade, while
Moliere and Pierre Corneille contributed to the 1671 version of Psiche.
7 The standard paraphes (calligraphic flourishes made to establish the authenticity of the print) and
stamps that appear on the other livrets in the book are not of interest here.
8 The identity of 'M. Daniel' has not yet been traced. The Flemish composer Daniel Danielis,
who is known to have been in France from at least 1683, seemed a likely candidate. However,
Catherine Cessac has kindly confirmed that Danielis' handwriting is not that of M. Daniel. It is
interesting to note that Jean Rousseau, on the title page of his Traite de la viole (1687), lists his
domicile as the 'rue des Boucheries, proche le Petit Marche, au Soleil d'Or, chez un Bonnetier,
Faux-bourg Saint Germain'. Rousseau was a maitre de musique as well as the author of a popular
singing method. The idea that the livret could have been linked in some way to his teaching
practice is tantalising, but, as yet, unsubstantiated.
Fig. 1: Annotations in three different hands, made to the verso of the frontispiece of
the livret. Courtesy of Houghton Library, Harvard University.
the six lines on the verso of the frontispiece are marked up in any way. It seems
likely that this hand was the second to write in the book.
The text of an air de cour by Madame de Sainctonge, entided 'C'en est fait', as
well as discontiguous groups of verses by Jean Racine taken from Lully's Idylle
sur la paix (1685), have been copied out in a third, slapdash hand that is bottom
most on the verso of the frontispiece. The position of these texts on the page
indicates that they were probably added last. They are remarkable for the horizontal,
rising and descending strokes that have been drawn in above the verses. Further
annotations of this nature were made to some of the printed lines of the livret: Act
I scene 2, Act IV scene 2 and Act IV scene 7 are remarkable for being similarly
marked up. It is these latter markings, made to Quinault's text, that form the main
subject of investigation in this article.
Roland had its premiere on 8 January 1685 in Versailles, and opened in Paris
two months later on 8 or 9 March.9 If M. Daniel (whose name and Paris address
are written along the top of the verso of the frontispiece) was the initial owner, it
seems plausible that he could have purchased the livret before attending a Paris
performance of that year. The text of 'C'en est fait', which appears, marked-up,
further down the page, was published, together with the music, in the Mercure
Galant in February 1685, where it was described as an 'Air Nouveau'.10 Further
more, Lully's Idylle sur la paix, similarly marked-up verses of which appear just
below 'C'en est fait', received its premiere on 16 July of the same year. This
means that all three of the texts that are marked up with lines and dashes - 'C'en
est fait', Idylle sur la paix and Roland — were published in 1685. It seems probable,
therefore, that all of the chirographic activity in the livret would have taken place
not long after the Paris premiere of Roland, when the texts of the livret, the Idylle
and 'C'en est fait', were still fresh.
Such a dating is further supported by an examination of the binding. It seems
clear that all of the annotations on the verso of the frontispiece were made before
the 15 Lully livrets were bound together into a book; at that time the livret for
Roland was cut down, and the tops of some of the letters of M. Daniel's name
9 See Buford Norman, Touched by the Graces: the Libretti of Philippe Quinault in the Context of French
Classicism (Birmingham, AL, 2001), 308.
10 Mercure Galant, fevrier 1685, 137-8. This poem also appeared, without music, in Le Galant
nouveliste (La Haye, 1693), 229; and in Poesies diverses de Madame de Sainctonge, seconde edition,
tome premier (Dijon, 1714), 88. However, there is a textual discrepancy between the version
in the Hvret and that in the Mercure Galant-. the second line of the latter is 'L'ingrat qui faisoit
mon martire', while the livret annotation gives 'L'ingrat qui causoit mon martire'. The two
printed versions of the poem also give 'causoit' rather than 'faisoit'. This textual discrepancy
suggests that more than one source for the poem was in public circulation at the time the livret
was marked up. To further complicate matters, Sainctonge's text was printed in the twentieth
century with quite different music by Edourd Moulle in Chansons tendres du 12me au 18me siecle
(Paris, 1910), 21-2. However, a comparison of the livret's annotations to the two musical
versions of this text - that of the Mercure Galant and that of Moulie - reveals that former, rather
than the latter, more closely conforms to the superscripted markings in the livret. For a discus
sion of the term air nouveau in the Mercure Galant see http://philidor.cmbv.fr/catalogue/intro
mercure_airs (accessed 2-10-2011). Many thanks to Rebekah Ahrendt for her help in tracing
this air.
and address were sheared off in the process.11 Moreover, the verses by Madame
de Sainctonge and Racine run too far into the gutter to have been copied after the
'Opera de Quinaut' was bound. Presuming that the book was put together shortly
after the publication of the latest of the 15 livrets (that of the 1690 revival of
Cadmus et Hermione), this would date the annotations to the very end of the seven
teenth century, a date not inconsistent with the style of the book's binding. Given
the strong circumstantial evidence in support of dating the annotations to some
where between 1685 and 1700, this article will proceed on the premise that all of
the markings in the livret date from this period.
The first line of 'C'en est fait', 'C'en est fait, la raison a chasse de mon coeur', will
serve as an introduction to the annotations as a whole. As mentioned above, the
text of this air de cour has been copied onto the verso of the frontispiece and
marked with shorter dashes and longer lines (see Fig. 2). When these annotations
are compared to the vocal line of the air, a remarkable correspondence is revealed
(see Ex. 1).
Ex. 1: The opening line of C'en est fait as published in the Mercure Galant, February
For instance, a line has been drawn in above the words 'C'en est', and th
words have been set to the same pitch, while the dash above 'fait' is lower
the line that preceded it: this corresponds well with the descent of a fifth in
melody. Conversely, the word 'la' and the first syllable of 'raison' share a
while the second syllable of 'raison' is marked by a higher dash: here the melo
rises by a fourth (at some later point, a longer line joining these three syllabl
together was created above the original shorter lines, as if to indicate a sl
some kind). The three short dashes above 'a chasse' convey the rise and fa
these syllables in the score. The word 'de' is unmarked in the livret. 'Mon coeu
on the other hand, is marked with one long line that droops slightly at the e
11 The parody text that was added to page 48 was also truncated during the binding of the b
indicating the descent of a half step in the music; the length of this drooping line
would very nicely reflect a tremblement appnye being made at this point.
The same neat relationship between musical intervals and the physical place
ment of the annotated lines on the page (both in relationship to the words and
to each other) is also evident in the annotations made to the text of Roland itself.
For example, Act IV scene 2 has a small number of annotations: only lines 2—5
and 7-9 of this scene have been marked up. Dashes — horizontal, rising and
descending — drawn in above the lines mark individual syllables. The placement
of these dashes, and their distance from the tops of the letters above which they
are written, again bears a remarkably consistent relationship to the rise and fall of
the intervals of Lully's score. Line 5, 'O Nuit, favorisez mes desires amoureux',
may serve as an example. Almost every syllable of this line is supplied with a
dash (see Fig. 3). High above 'O' is a short descending dash, pointing towards a
much lower horizontal one above 'Nuit'. Similarly, the first and last syllables of
'favorisez' show horizontal dashes at the same level as that on 'Nuit', while the
penultimate syllable, 'ri', is marked with one placed higher than those surrounding
it. A comparison with Lully's musical notation shows a relationship between the
placement of these dashes and the pitches to which the words have been set (see
Ex. 2).
f v if r t if
O Nuit! fa-vo-ri - sez mes de - sirs a-mou-reux
line, the question must be asked why the horizontal dashes are not used here, as
they are elsewhere in the line, if the intention is accurately to reflect Lully's score.
Is it possible that the annotations here indicate how a line was actually to be
sung, rather than Lully's notation of it? Looking again to the score, it is clear that
the two rising dashes could be intended to remind the singer to add ornaments
from below, for instance ports de voix. Similarly — in the case of 'C'en est fait' —
the long line above 'mon cceur' could have reflected the addition of an un-notated
appuje. Could the livret, then, be an aide-memoire marked up by a singer? It is
probable that many amateur musicians of the period would have had a tenuous
grasp of music theory and even musical notation. Singers in particular seem to
have been dependant on the music master in order to learn new songs, at least if
an English contemporary, Roger North, is to be believed. The following scornful
remark is directed at English ladies, but probably applied more generally to Euro
peans of both sexes:
Ladys hear a new song, and are impatient to learne it. A master is sent for, and sings it
as to a parrot, till at last with infinite difficulty the tune is gott, but with such infantine
imperfect, nay broken abominable, graces, in imitation of the good, that one would splitt
to hear it.12
In this light, it would be easy to see the livret as a simple memory aid, marked up
for an unskilled singer, with basic pitches and simple ornaments indicated by rising
and falling lines; but as attractive as this interpretation seems, it is problematic for a
number of reasons. Discrepancies between slanting annotations and Lully's precise
notation like those discussed above are simply too frequent always to relate to
ornamentation; and, more importantly, they very often occur in passages where
the addition of ornaments would be musically improbable at best.13 Furthermore,
Ballard's text cannot physically serve as an effective aide-memoire because the livret
as printed does not repeat text when Lully chooses to do so in his setting. This
makes it impossible for a singer to mark up passages in which repeated text is
set to differing pitch intervals. This can be illustrated by a passage from Act I
scene 2. Here Lully has Angelique repeat the lines 'Mais malgre tous mes soins
dans le trouble ou je suis / [J]e crain de m'oublier moy-mesme'.14 They are first
stated in A minor, then repeated, with a few significant intervallic and rhythmic
12 John Wilson, ed., Roger North on Music: Being a Selection from his Essays Written During the Years
c. 1695-1728 (London, 1959), 21.
13 It is important to note that the annotations contain several examples of vertical lines drawn
through the horizontal dashes in such a way as to resemble trill signs, and that these markings
sometimes correspond to trills in the score. See, for instance, the mark above the second syllable
of the word 'martire' in Figure 2. The score for this air{as published in the Mercure Galant)
shows a trill on the final syllable of this word: 're'). On the other hand, a similar mark resembling
a trill is visible in Figure 10 above the word 'parle'; yet a trill on this word seems highly unlikely.
This mark could perhaps indicate the doubling, for expressive effect, of the initial consonant 'p';
such doubling was a standard technique of French opera singers (see [Jean] Blanchet, L'Art, ou
lesprincipesphi/osophiques du chant (Paris, 1756), 53-63). However, while a doubling of the 'p' in
'parle' makes sense, the doubling of the't' in 'martire' in the air 'C'en est fait' seems less tenable.
14 [Quinault], Act I, scene 2, lines 14-15.
changes, a fourth lower in E minor (see Ex. 3). Though repeated in the score, the
words appear only once in the livret. The single annotation to this section, re
markably, does not make any attempt to indicate the intervals that differentiate
the two musical statements, but rather highlights words whose setting remains
basically the same in both versions, though of course transposed: 'dans le trouble'
(see Fig. 4). Surely this would be of little use to a singer trying to remember
pitches?
0 it
Jr ff -
Mais mal - g re to [us] mes soins dans le trouble ou je suis. Je crains. je crains de m'ou-bli
mm m
er moymes-me: Mais mal - gre t[ous] mes soins dans le trouble oil je suis. Je crains. je
s~t
mm
crains dc m'ou - bli - er moy mes me.
Ex. 3: Lully's setting of lines from Roland Act I, scene 2. The boxes encompass th
of the text that is annotated in the livret.
So, if the livret is not a singer's aide-memoire, what is it? To whom, oth
someone practicing declamation, would it have been useful to map out
Quinault's text, the rise and fall of Lully's vocal settings? Given the improbability
of the annotations being related solely to musical practice, and the enticing possi
bility, pointed to by Condillac and Voltaire, that Lully's scores could have served
as guides for spoken recitation, the rest of this article will explore the hypothesis
that the livret's annotations represent a contemporary attempt to distill an under
lying spoken declamation from Lully's music.
To return to the scenes of the livret examined above, the question arises: what
could the meaning of the horizontal and slanted dashes be if they do not represent
sung ornaments? Did orators use ornaments? The logical extension of the idea
that the horizontal dashes on the page reflect spoken pitch is that the slanting
dashes indicate rising or descending microtonal slides: spoken appuyes and ports de
voix.ls It was proposed above that ports de voix would have been appropriate to the
musical performance on the words 'desks' and 'amoureux'. Would spoken ports de
voix be similarly appropriate to a declamation of the same text? Searching the primary
literature for references to theatrical vocal slides is a frustrating exercise: the term
port de voix is almost exclusively defined in dictionaries as a purely musical term.
Tantalisingly, Furetiere's Dictionnaire universe! (1690) does offer the following in
defining 'voix': 'This actor has a fine port de voix, he raises, he lowers, he manages
his voice with propriety.'16 This, however, merely indicates changes in vocal pitch,
without specifically mentioning microtonal sliding.
One of the classic anecdotes of the seventeenth-century French stage, that of
Champmesle interpreting the role of Monime in Racine's Mithridate, suggests the
possibility that a gigantic slide was made, for dramatic effect, at a climactic moment
in the play. L'Abbe Dubos relates that Racine himself instructed Champmesle to
lower her tone to an extraordinary degree, so that:
she easily was able take a pitch one octave higher than that on which she had said these
words: Nous nous aimions, in order to pronounce Seigneur, vous change% de visage at the octave.
This port de voix, extraordinary in declamation, was an excellent means of pointing out
Monime's mental disorder at the moment she realises that her gullibility in believing
Mithridate, who only wanted to extract her secret from her, has thrown her and her lover
into extreme peril.17
15 It is interesting to note, in this context, that Mersenne described the musical port de voix in 1636
as a microtonal slide. See Frederick Neumann, Ornamentation in Baroque and Post-Baroque Music,
with a Special limphasis on J.S. Bach (Princeton, 1978), 52.
16 'Ce Comedien a un beau port de voix, il eleve, il baisse, il menage sa voix a propos.' [Antoine
Furetiere], Dictionnaire universe!, 2 vols. (Rotterdam, 1690), 'voix'.
17 'Afin qu'elle put prendre facilement un ton a l'octave au-dessus de celui sur lequel elle avoit dit
ces paroles: Nous nous aimions, pour prononcer a l'octave, Seigneur, vous change^ de visage. Ce port
de voix extraordinaire dans la declamation, etoit excellent pour marquer le desordre d'esprit
ou Monime doit etre dans l'instant qu'elle apperpoit que sa facilite a croire Mithridate, qui ne
cherchoit qu'a tirer son secret, vient de jetter, elle & son amant dans un peril extreme.' Abbe
Dubos, Reflexions critiques sur lapoesie et sur lapeinture, septieme edition, troisieme partie (Paris,
1770), 157-8. The work was first published in 1719.
If, however, she made the transition on the word 'Seigneur' itself, this would indeed
have entailed the actress making an unexpected octave slide, a microtonal, ascend
ing eclat de voix, to stunning effect (see Ex. 4).18
J J Jii 1
Nous nous ai - mi-ons... Sei - gneur, vous chan- gez de vi-sa-ge?
The dramatic context of the words 'desirs' and 'amoureux' from Act IV scene 2
of Roland (see fig. 3) is not nearly as overwrought as the Racinian example cited
above, and the gentler quality of the livref s annotated slides (suggested by the
variously angled dashes) suits the mood of Quinault's scene: Roland here hopes
to meet his love, and wanders, filled with amorous thoughts, alone in a shady
wood. His pronunciation would surely be as soft as the music that Lully had pro
vided for him. The sharp rise on the second syllable of 'desirs' fittingly suggests a
more energetic pronunciation than does the languorous, nearly horizontal dash
above the last syllable of 'amoureux'. Such variety of notation might indicate that
the orator here used slides in order to express the passions of the words. It seems,
then, that the manuscript dashes indicate places where vocal pitches for specific
words — and even for individual syllables — are being gleaned from Lully's score,
and that these pitches are sometimes reached by slides. How literally should the
idea of pitch be taken in this context? How close to singing was the declamation
of the annotator, or for that matter, of Condillac and Voltaire?
18 Voltaire, who felt that both Champmesle and her disciple Mile. Duclos 'sang', found this style
unworthy of imitation. He also heard in Champmesle's performance the influence of the air de
cour. He wrote of her delivery, in his Hpitre a Mile. Clairon-. 'Ses accens amoureux & ses sons
affetes, / Echo des fades airs que Lambert a notes'. It is interesting, given the annotations to
'C'en est fait' in the livret, to find the air de cour mentioned in relation to Champmesle's theatrical
declamation. See [Voltaire], Nouveaux meslanges philosophiques, historiqites, critiques, &c. <&c., troisieme
partie ([Geneva], 1765), 400.
19 'celuy qui spait chanter ait plus de facilite a remarquer & a pratiquer les interualles oratoires, que
celuy qui ne spait pas la Musique'. Marin Mersenne, Seconde partie de I'harmonie vniverselle, livre de
I'vtilite de I'harmonie, et des autres parties de mathematiques (Paris, 1637), 8.
20 Mersenne indicates that pronouncing the words Benedicam Dominum in one second gives an
indication of the maximum intelligible tempo for public speaking. See Mersenne, Seconde partie
de I'harmonie vniverselle, 7. Pierre-Alain Clerc calculates that Mersenne proposes from two to six
seconds per alexandrine, see Pierre-Alain Clerc, Le « debit» de la declamation an XVIIe siecle
(Geneva, 2004), 8. For a different kind of calculation of the speed of deliver)' on the French
stage see Sabine Chaouche, La Mise en scene du repertoire a la Comedie-Franfaise (1680—1815) (Paris,
in press), II, chap. 3. Although it is a much later source, it is interesting to note that Joshua
Steele's Prosodia Rationalis contains the following: 'For if a person pronounces from six to nine
syllables in a second of time, as many people do, an auditor must be extremely attentive to be
able to keep up with so rapid an utterance'. Steele follows this with 'good speakers do not
pronounce above three syllables in a second, and generally only two and a half, taking in the
necessary pauses'. See Joshua Steele, Prosodia rationalis: or, an essay towards establishing the melody and
measure of speech, to be expressed and perpetuated by peculiar symbols (London, 1779), 49.
21 'parce que plusiers donnent vn bon temps a leurs paroles, qui n'ont pas l'inflexion de la voix
pour faire passages necessaires de periode en periode, & qui ne prennent pas le meilleur ton de
leurs voix aux endroits ou elle doit estre plus forte & plus robuste. Or pour paruenir a cette
practique il faut apprendre vn sermon, ou partie d'iceluy, afin, de le reciter en presence d'vn
amy qui ait la liberte de faire prendre le propre ton a la voix, & de faire recommencer les
periodes & les mouuemens de la voix, iusques a ce qu'elle se soit accoustumee aux inflexions
necessaires pour exprimer toutes sortes de passions.' Mersenne, Seconde partie de I'harmonie
vniverselle, 7.
However, whatever the intervals used by the ancient orators, it is certain that the range of
a preacher is a full octave, and that the accent of anger can suddenly jump up an octave,
even though it is customary to stop at the fifth; but, all these intervals must be examined
before use, since that which is good for one voice is worthless for another.22
Mersenne here proposes a demarcated vocal range — the octave — for preachers,
but does not prescribe exact terminal pitches: each individual speaker must find
where his voice is 'strongest and most robust', and calculate his octave accord
ingly. Mersenne further suggests that the orator make surreptitious use of one of
a number of musical devices designed to help him find his pitches while speaking:
And once the preacher has distinguished the best pitch for his voice, and the intervals in
which he most successfully can express all kinds of passions and affections, it will be easy
for him to prepare a little stick of brass containing a monochord of either the wind or
string variety, by means of which he will be able to adjust his voice to all kinds of pitches,
and make most exactly whatever intervals he wishes, without the auditors being able to
apprehend this instrument.23
Not all churchmen would have agreed with Mersenne's precepts, however.
Mazarini's Practique povr bien prescher (1618), for instance, gives quite another point
of view, and roundly condemns
those who glory in observing certain pitches [tons] in speaking, to the extent that they
seem to be singing.... This has caused an ancient and excellent rhetorician to say, entirely
correcdy, that any other vice would be more tolerable in the orator than this one, which is
only suitable for the theatre and for plays.24
22 'Or quelques interualles qu'ayent fait les anciens Orateurs, il est certain que la voix d'vn Predi
cates a vne octaue entiere pour son estendue, & que l'accent de la cholere peut monter tout
d'vn coup d'vne octaue, quoy qu'elle ait coustume de se terminer au Diapente: Mais tous ces
interualles doiuent estre examinez auant que d'en vser, dautant que ce qui est bon pour vne
voix, ne vaut rien pour l'autre.' Mersenne, Seconde partie de I'hartnonie tiiverselle, 8.
23 'Et lors que le Predicateur aura remarque le meilleur ton de sa voix, & les interualles qui luy
reiississent le mieux pour exprimer toutes sortes de passions & d'affections, il luy sera facile de
se preparer vn petit baston creux ou il y aura vn monochorde a vent ou a chorde, par le moyen
duquel il ajustera sa voix a toutes sortes de tons, & fera tels interualles qu'il voudra fort exacte
ment, sans que nul des auditeurs puisse s'apperceuoir de cet instrument.' Mersenne, Seconde
partie de I'harmonie vniverselle, 8. This idea may have been inspired by Plutarch's account of Gaius
Gracchus and his pipe-playing slave, a story that appears often in rhetorical treatises of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. For a French translation of the period with interesting
commentary see [Plutarch], Les vie des hommes illustres de Plutarque, trans. Dacier, tome cinquieme
(Paris, 1734), 624.
24 'ceux qui font gloire d'obseruer certains tons en parla[n]t; si biens qu'ils semblent chanter ....
Ce qui faisoit dire a bon droict a vn ancien & excellent Rhetoricien, que tout autre vice estoit
plus tolerable en l'Orateur que cestui-cy [sic], qui n'estant propre qu'aux Theatres & aux
Comedies', Gulio Mazarini, Practiqvepovr bienprescher, trans. I. Baudoin (Paris, 1618), 257.
Such criticism, however, did not impede one of the most influential writers on
rhetoric, Michel le Faucheur, from advocating the use of oratorical tones.25 His
Traitte de 1'action de I'orateur (1657) gives detailed instructions to preachers on the
use of the voice. Le Faucheur's oratorical technique is based on a default setting
of the mean [mediocrite], or median, for the three basic vocal qualities of pitch,
volume and speed. This enabled the orator to vary his speech according to the
content and structure of his text without it becoming unpleasant or unintelligible,
even when going to expressive rhetorical extremes. The result was that, in terms
of pitches, the use of the outermost limits of the orator's vocal range were
discouraged:
... he [the orator] must maintain the mean \mediocrite\ because the extremities are faulty
\vicieuses\ and disagreeable. Therefore, in terms of elevation, he must never raise his voice
to the highest pitches that it can reach, nor must he ever lower it to the lowest pitches to
which it can descend.26
However, this vocal 'happy medium' still allowed the orator ample room to vary
the pitch of his voice, which was in no way meant to be monotonous:
1 must add that one must employ variety, because the mean of which I speak does not
consist of an indivisible point, but rather has a certain latitude, and certain degrees. For,
as to that which concerns the height or lowness of the voice, there are five or six tones
between the highest and the lowest. And thus, while the orator avoids the extremes that I
condemn, and keeps to a reasonable median, he still has enough space between the two to
vary his voice by making use of five or six tones, as he ought.27
25 For an overview of le Faucheur's work and significance see Lynee Lewis Gaillet, 'Michel le
Faucheur (1585-1657)' in Highteenth-centuty British and American Rhetorics and Rhetoricians: Critical
Studies and Sources, ed. Michael G. Moran (Westport, 1994), 70-74.
26 'qu'il y doit gatder la mediocrite, parce que les extremitez en sont vicieuses & desagreables. II
les doit done euiter, a l'egard de la hauteur, en n'esleuant iamais sa voix iusques aux plus hauts
tons ou elle peut monter, ni ne la raualant iamais iusques aux plus bas ou elle peut descendre.'
[Michel le Faucheur], Traitte de I'action de I'orateur ou de laprononciation et dugeste (Paris, 1657), 92-3.
For a modern edition of the Traitte with commentary see Sabine Chaouche, ed., Sept traites sur le
jeu du comedien et autres textes: de I'action oratoire a I'art dramatique (1657—1750) (Paris, 2001), 25-184.
The English word 'mediocrity' has been avoided here, because it is felt to be potentially con
fusing as a translation of the French 'mediocrite'. The French word indicates a middle ground
between extremes rather than a lack of quality. The Dictionnaire de I'academie francoise of 1762
defines mediocrite thus: 'On dit, IIfaut garder la mediocrite en toutes choses, pour dire, qu'il faut garder
en tout un juste milieu'.
27 'I'ay adjouste qu'il y doit apporter de la variete, parce que la mediocrite dont ie parle, ne
consiste pas en vn point indiuisible, mais qu'elle a vne certaine latitude, & certains degrez.
Car pour ce qui est de la hauteur ou de la bassesse de la voix, il y a cinq ou six tons entre les
plus hauts & les plus bas. Et ainsi, encore que l'Orateur euite ces tons extremes que ie con
damne, & qu'il se tienne dans vne mediocrite raisonnable, il ne laisse pas d'auoir assez d'espace
entre deux pour diuersifier sa voix, en dispensant ces cinq ou six tons comme il faut.' [Le
Faucheur], Traitte de I'action, 103.
the acceptable range. Either way, there was a wide enough compass of acceptable
tones for the orator to vary his pitches without compromising either his vocal
quality or intelligibility. That such vocal techniques might have been perceived —
for instance, by followers of Mazarini — to be theatrical does not appear to have
concerned le Faucheur, who, later in the Traitte de I'action de I'orateur, in the chapter
'On the variation of the voice according to the passions', recommended training
the voice in a theatrical style of declamation:
And, to forget nothing that can contribute to something as important, in the matter of
pronunciation, as the variation of the voice, I add that one of the most suitable methods
for acquiring the faculty for doing so properly, and in all kinds of subjects, is to read,
often and out loud, from comedies, tragedies, dialogues and other works by authors
whose style most closely approaches the theatrical.28
Even more precise information on the use of oratorical pitches can be found
in another seventeenth-century oratorical treatise: in Richesource's L'eloquence de
la chaire (1665), each individual tone was designated by a different solmisation
syllable. This enabled Richesource to actually map out the rise and fall of the
orator's voice over the course of a sermon, and allows a modern reconstruction
to be made using musical notation. Richesource, like le Faucheur before him,
advocates the use of a vocal mean [mediocrite]. He limits the compass of the voice
to five pitches, insisting that the preacher:
must study the mean and keep his voice in the middle, which is proper, since on the one
end it will not break and on the other, not be muffled. When he wants to excite his listeners,
he should raise it bit by bit, and by degree, up to a certain point without becoming grating,
and, when softening and mitigating the affections, lower it to a certain degree that puts it
in its stable range.
Finally it must be remarked that the preacher's voice must never normally rise higher than
the fifth, and never to the octave in reproaches, laments and not even in female rage, for
such screams are never used in the pulpit, but only in the theatre; it is sufficient that the
voice should spread itself out between the two extremities that cantors call 'ut' and 'sol'.29
28 'Et, pour ne rien oublier de tout ce qui peut contribuer a vne chose aussi importante, en matiere
de Prononciation, qu'est cette variation de la voix; I'ajouste, qu'vn des moyens les plus propres
pour acquerir la faculte de le faire bien a propos, en toutes sortes de sujets, est de lire souuent,
& tout-haut des Comedies, des Tragedies, des Dialogues, & d'autres Ouurages des Autheurs
dont Ie style approche le plus du Dramatique'. [Le Faucheur], Traitte de faction, 132.
29 'doit etudier la mediocrite & tenir sa voix dans un juste milieu, afin que d'un cote elle ne se
casse point & que de l'autre elle ne s'etouffe pas. II la doit elever peu a peu & par degrez jusqu'a
un certain point qui est au dessous de l'aigreur, quand il s'agit d'exciter les Auditeurs, & aussi
l'abaisser jusqu'a un certain degre qui la met[t]e dans sa consistence quand il faut adoucir les
affections & les mitiger. // Enfin il faut remarquer que la voix d'un Predicateur ne doit jamais
s'elever plus haut que la quinte, pour l'ordinaire & jamais a l'octave dans les reproches, les
pleintes & la rage du sexe meme, ces cris n'ont point d'usage dans la Chaire, mais sur le Theatre
seulement, il suffit qu'elle s'etende entre ces deux extremitez que les chantres appellent 1 ,Vt
& le Sol' Richesource, L'e/oquence de la chaire ou la rhetorique despredicateurs, seconde edition
(Paris, 1673), 351-2. For the translation of 'consistence' as 'middle range' see Richesource, 350,
where he seems to refer to a stable middle range for the voice. Furetiere's Dictionnaire universel
defines the word as 'Certain etat de perfection ou les choses qui peuvent croitre ou diminuer,
demeurent pendant quelque temps sans augmenter, ni decliner'. See Antoine Furetiere, Dictionnaire
universel, seconde edition (La Haye, 1702), 'consistence'.
The Ht, being the first pitch, is used in explications, expositions, hypotheses, etc., which
demand a manly, natural and steady voice. The re, added to the ut, elevates the vowels
at the end of incisions or hemistiches, and at pauses, which is the smallest inflection or
elevation of the voice. The mi, called the third [tierce] is for the sweet, gentle passions that
are raised in the body of the sermon; which is called the 'little pathos' [le petit pathetique].
The fa, which is the fourth [quarte\ is for strong emotions, when one must develop the
grandeur of the soul's feelings and the heart's emotions concerning some particular truth.
The sol, which is the fifth [quinte], only appears in the 'grand pathos' [le grand pathetique].30
Dinouart, following Richesource, relates the proper oratorical pitch to the emo
tional content of the text. Rational discourse, scriptural exegesis and the reduction
of the general to the particular [hjpothese\ occur on ut, with re used as an inflection
for the sake of variety and intelligibility: thus, unemotional text is pronounced on
the two most stable tones, where the voice is full, consistent and uninflected by
strong feeling ('manly, natural and steady'). In contrast, the higher pitches are well
suited to the expression of emotion: the mi is used for the gender emotions, the fa
for more violent ones, and the sol is reserved for the strongest passions, or 'grand
pathos'. Thus, the voice rises up the gamut as the emotional intensity of the text
increases.
30 'L'ut, comme le premier ton, est pour l'explication, l'exposition, les hypotheses, &c. qui
demandent une voix male, naturelle & consistante. Le re', ajoute a 1 'ut, eleve les voyelles a la
fin des incisions ou des hemistiches, & du repos qui est la plus petite inflexion ou elevation
de la voix. Le mi, nomme tierce, est pour les passions douces & paisibles qui s'excitent dans le
corps du Sermon; ce qu'on peut appeller le petit pathetique. Le fa, qui est la quarte, est pour les
grands movemens, quand il faut developper la grandeur des sentimens de 1'ame & des mouve
mens du cceur a l'egard de quelque verite. Le sol, qui est la quinte, ne paroit que dans le grand
pathetique.' Dinouart, L'eloquence du corps, ou I'action dupredicateur, seconde edition (Paris, 1761),
166—7. For a modern discussion of Richesource and Dinouart see Chaouche, Sept traites, 172.
31 'Toutes les syllabes doivent estre prononcees d'un ton ferme & male & d'une meme teneur ou
consistence de voix, comme sur 1' Vt qui est le premier ton; & les dernieres syllabes qui sont
Monde & Croix doivent estre prononcees d'un ton de re, c'est a dire d'un ton plus haut que les
syllabes precedentes dans le meme vers.' Richesource, L'eloquence de la chaire, 352.
/ fe— s
4*—*
s .—
-=^P=. N i—
Ex. 7: Two lines showing Richesource's use of'fa' and 'sol' to express one of the irascible
passions, presumably anger.
one can go to la, surpassing the sol in order to stave off monotony; but one must be con
fident of the force and the reach of one's voice; and especially when the subject can be
repeated or, even more beautifully, when the fecundity of the voice permits its doubling,
tripling and even quadrupling and quintupling [i.e. repeating the subject of the sentence
up to five times], each time pushing the voice but without elevating it, or at least just a
bit; as in La croix de ton Sauveur qui t'invite a la penitence; la Croix de ton Sauveur qui demande tes
larmes; la Croix de ton Sauveur, &c.. (The cross of your Saviour that invites you to penitence;
the Cross of your Saviour that demands your tears; the Cross of you Saviour, etc.)36
4 * - *J J j ^J J *
La [C]roix de ton Sau-veur qui t'in vi-te a pe-niten-ce;
$ J' - * J J j ^ J J ^ j
la Croix de ton Sau-veur qui de-man-de tes lar-mes;
4*J j
la Croix de ton Sau - veur
Ex. 8: Richesource suggests the orator go to 'sol' and even to 'la' in expressing th
Pathetique'.
36 'on peut aller jusqu'au la, afin d'encherir sur le sol contre la Monotonie; mais il faut
asseure de la force & de la portee de sa voix; & sur tout quand le sujet peut estre re
plus beau est quand la voix permet de doubler de tripler & meme quadrupler & quin
sa fecondite, en poussant la voix a chaque reprise, mais sans l'elever ou du moins bi
comme. Lm [CJroix de ton Sauveur qui t'invite a la penitance; la Croix de ton Sauveur qui dem
larmes; la Croix de ton Sauveur, <&c\ Richesource, L'eloquence de la chaire, 353-4.
Having reached this climax, the orator's voice begins to descend, first down
one tone to fa (with sol used for emphasis) at the text 'Mais helas, mabheureux!
au lieu de la porter tu cherches tes plaisirs' (But, alas, sinner! instead of carrying
it/You seek your pleasures) (see Ex. 9) and then, in order to express the orator's
contempt ('mepris'), the voice suddenly drops sharply to re (or, according to Riche
source, possibly even down to ut, if the orator's voice is reliable) at the words 'Tu
cherches tes plaisirs disons mieux' (see Ex. 10). This drop from fa to re or ut{and
thus out of the vocal range of the irascible passions into the cooler regions of dis
course) is justified by the affective theory of the day: contempt was thought to be
unmixed with anger.37
1=
Mais he - las, mal-heu-reux! au lieu de la por-ter
m
tu cher - ches tes plai-sirs di - sons mieux
Ex. 10: Two lines cited by Richesource where, for the sake of expression, a sudden drop
in the orator's voice and microtonal slide are required. Either 'ut' or 're' may be used as
the fundamental pitch; in this realization they are used in succession, for variety's sake.
This sudden drop in range also prepares the orator's voice for the coming line,
for by lowering his tone the orator gives himself sufficient vocal compass to make
an ornamental, micro tonal slide. This slide was used to highlight the presence of
the rhetorical figure paranomase, a kind of wordplay based on the similarity of
37 For instance, Cureau de la Chambre, in his Les characteres despassions noted that 'le Mespris n'est
rien que l'opinion que nous auons qu'vne chose est indigne de nostre estime & de nos soins, ne
la iugeant pas capable de faire ny bien ny maP. Cuteau de la Chambre, Les charaferes des passions,
volume II, second edition (Paris, 1660), 421.
sound between two words of different meaning. Thus, 'Tu cherches tes plaisirs
disons mieux' (You seek your pleasures, or better said) is followed by 'Tu charges
tes plaisirs avec empressement' (You take up your pleasures with ardour); 'charges'
ironically echoes 'cherches', and is, therefore, a paranomase (see Ex. 10). In order
to point up the relationship between 'cherches' and 'charges' for the listener,
Richesource prescribes lengthening the latter word and pronouncing it with a
sliding intonation:
And if the preacher wishes to vary the expression and performance of the correction and
the paronomase (or allusion and changing of certain letters in the words), he can say,
always in the same low, firm voice:
But the 'tu' must be on the pitch re and the 'a' in 'Charges' must be doubled, as if one
were saying 'Chaarges', so that the first 'a', joined to the 'ch' in 'char' is on the pitch fa, the
second 'a' on the pitch mi and the 'ge' on the pitch re, like two notes slurred together.38
Here the orator underscores the irony of his rebuke (that the sinful auditors not
only seek their pleasures, but take them up as readily as Christ took up his cross)
with an ornamental slide. The fact that the slide is given such prominent treat
ment here implies that similar microtonal ornaments are lacking elsewhere in the
sermon. If this is the case, then Richesource's performance would indeed have
come very close to chanting or singing: it is the microtonal character of speech
that differentiates it most sensibly from song.
Such use of oratorical pitches was not, as noted above, universally admired. A
piece published in the Nouvelles de la republique des lettres in August of 1708 makes
this very clear. It contains a list of common oratorical faults so obvious that they
could be recognised even by children; and prominent among them is the use of
oratorical tones:
There are some who base their vocal pitch on the eight musical tones, and after having
gone from the lowest ut to the highest, they descend again to the lowest and re-ascend
to the highest and so forth, successively, from the beginning to the end of their discourse.
Some don't take the full octave; all is reduced to the incessant repetition of ut, re, mi, fa, sol\
ut, re, mi, fa, sol. It's easy to make children sensible of these faults, by imitating them in their
presence and slightly exaggerating them, so that they distance themselves from them.39
38 'Et si le Predicateur veut varier l'expression & Taction par la correction & par la paronomase,
allusion ou jeu du changement de quelques letres [sic] dans les paroles, toujours du meme ton
de voix basse & ferme, il peut dire.
Tu cherches tes plaisirs dison mieux
Tu charges tes plaisirs avec empressement
Mais il faut que le tu soit sur le ton du re & que I'd de Charge, soit comme double, comme qui
disoit Chaarge, que le premier a joint au ch char soit sur le ton de fa, le second a sur le ton du
mi & le ge sur le ton du re\ comme deux notes liees ensemble.' Richesource, 353 [recte 355].
39 'Qu'il y en a qui reglent le ton de leur voix sur les huit tons de Musique, & qui apres etre venus
depuis 1 'ut le plus bas, jusques au plus haut, descendent au plus bas & remontent au plus haut, &
This commentary clearly shows that in the early eighteenth century there were still
two schools of thought as to an orator's vocal compass, with some speakers limit
ing themselves to the interval of a fifth, while others used the full octave.40 Of the
two, this critic seems to find the smaller range the more unbearable, due to the
greater monotony of its repeated rise and fall.
There is evidence for the use of oratorical pitches or tons in the livret annotation
to Roland's Act IV scene 2 monologue. Before discussing them, however, it
will be useful to establish whether any other stylistic similarities exist between
Richesource's declamatory style and that of either the score of Roland or th
livret. To begin with the score of Roland, a comparison between the notated exam
ples from Richesource's L'eloquence and Lully's recitative shows gready differing
approaches to declamation: the preacher's uniform intonations, in which t
majority of the syllables of a given line are spoken on one pitch, with only the
upper adjacent tone used to avoid monotony or to add emphasis, are very fa
removed from the richly varied melopee of Lully's setting. Because the annotation
to the livret generally seem to follow Lully's intervals, the same discrepancy can
be seen between Richesource (who, for instance, only once specifies the use of a
descending slide) and the many rising and descending dashes of the livret. These
differing styles should not be surprising: Lully, after all, was supposed to ha
based his recitative on Champmesle's performance of Racine, not on the delivery
of a sermon.
However, the use of pitches, or the tons, to express the nature and intensity of
the passions (concupiscible or irascible) seems to be the same in the annotations
to the livret and in Richesource's detailed prescriptions, though the operatic text
was delivered with far greater variety of inflection. For instance, lines 8 and 9 of
Act IV scene 2 are part of a larger apostrophe addressed to Night (starting in line
5). The two lines in question are: '[J]e ne troubleray plus par mes cris douloureux/
Vostre tranquillite profonde' (I will no longer trouble, with my dolorous cries/
Your profound tranquility). These verses are not marked with dashes of any kind
in the livret. However, there are two significant annotations, one at the end of line
8 and one to the beginning of line 9 (see Fig. 5). The former is illegible; its possible
significance will be discussed in due course. The latter is clearly the solmisation
syllable ut. The obvious explanation for the placement of this syllable - that a
singer added it in order to find his pitch while singing - is untenable for a number
of reasons. First, whether the system used here was that of hexachords or the
so-called methode du si, ut would not be the proper syllable to use.41 Second, even
if some explanation for using ut could be found, for instance some obscure or
perhaps entirely personal system of solmisation, there is no reason for this inter
val, of all the intervals of this monologue, to be singled out for annotation: it
simply is not difficult for the singer to find his pitch at this place in the score
(see Ex. 11).
b |fif r p p
Je ne trou-ble-ray pl[us] par mes cris dou-Iou-reux Vos-tre tra[n]-qui-li-te pro-fon-de.
Ex. 11: A line from the score of Roland, with 'Vt' indicated at the same point as in the
livret.
41 For a thorough exploration, see Nicolas Meeus, et al., 'La "gamme double Franfaise" et la
methode du si', Musurgia, vol. VI, no. 3/4, dossier d'analyse (1999), 29-44.
to a smooth rising line quite unlike the jagged intervallic setting of the beginning
of the Act IV scene 2 monologue 'Je suis trahi', where Roland's emotions begin to
overpower his reason, heralding his imminent mental breakdown. Therefore,
though Quinault's verse here speaks of 'cries', neither Lully nor the orator would
have wanted Roland to cry out like someone in pain.
So, what oratorical pitch should the annotator have chosen, irascible fa (empha
sising the lover's frustration) or concupiscible mi (emphasising his amorous yearn
ing)? The illegible marking at the end of the line seems to indicate something of a
struggle on the annotator's part, as several layers of writing appear on top of each
other. Frustratingly, this mark can probably never be deciphered with certainty: at
first glance it resembles the letters 'nd', an annotation without any obvious signifi
cance (see Fig. 6).
fit'
Fig. 6: A remarkable annotation to Act IV scene 2 of Roland.
The association of dots with pitch levels on which the above hypothesis is
based is not as fanciful as it at first may seem, for the annotator made ample use
of dots in the livret. These markings cannot be explained in musical terms, but do
seem to make sense when compared to the emotional intensity of the text that
they gloss. This relationship can most clearly be seen in Act IV scene 7. This
scene is entirely taken up by Roland's descent into madness, the text punctuated
by acts of physical violence and ending in an insane vision of a demon from Hell.
The various stage business causes the text of the monologue to fall into neat
sections.
The first section comprises the first nine lines of the scene. In them Roland ex
presses his surprise at being betrayed by Angelique and his sorrow at the destruc
tion of his own reputation (gloire) for the sake of a treacherous love. He is flooded
42 The author wishes to thank Lois Rosow for casting her experienced eye over an admittedly
ambiguous annotation.
with an emotion that finally breaks out into violence: he begins to dismantle the
set around him. Three dots, in a rising line, have been added to the margin after
the final line of this section (see Fig. 7).
IE Juis trahi!
O fiel! je fuisCiel!
trahiqui
par I'auroit
I' In gratepu
'Be croire
ante I
Pour qui I'aAmour ma fait frahir magloire.
O doux efyoir dont fTftois 'enchanTe 3
Dans 'quel Abifme affretfximas-tu precipite I
Tefmoins d'une odieufe flame
Vous aveZj trop blejfe' mesjeux.
Que tout rejfente dans, ces lieux
Vhorreur qui regne dans mon ame. /
Fig. 7: Annotations to Act IV scene 7 of Roland. Note the three rising dots at the end of
the last line.
This could indicate that Roland's voice, having risen through the expression of the
concupiscible passions of love, hate and sorrow associated with mi, had arrived at
an irascible anger, associated with fa,43 Then, in a rage, he proceeds to tear up
trees and throw rocks on stage.
The following section of the monologue is short, only four lines long, and in it
Roland expresses his (irascible) despair (see Fig. 8). The annotator seems to indi
cate a lower pitch than fa for most of the words 'dans la Nuit du Tombeau!' by
drawing dashes through the words themselves, with the exception of 'la' and
'Tombeau'. The use of dashes, rather than dots, could indicate that while the
basic intonation and intensity associated with fa was maintained, the orator's
melopee dipped down briefly to 'paint' the metaphorical image of a gloomy tomb.
It should further be noted that the marking above 'la' is particularly remarkable
because it does not correspond to Lully's setting (see Ex. 12). The end of this
quatrain is annotated with four rising dots, indicating that fa has been fully
reached and that the orator is on his way to sol, which was, according to Dinouart,
43 Cureau de la Chambre believed horreur was a kind of fear, and therefore an irascible passion.
See [Cureau] de la Chambre, Les characteres despassions, vol. Ill (Paris, 1659), 75-6.
associated with grand monvemens. Roland here casts aside his armour, and com
pletely loses both his self-control and his mind. However, the next line shows a
radical shift of vocal direction within the hero's mounting fury, for up until now
the voice has been steadily rising in pitch.
In the final quatrain, Roland interrogates the Fury,44 from which he learns his
fate: '[J]e doy montrer un exemple terrible/Des tourments d'un funeste amour.'
(I must provide a terrifying example/Of the torments of a fatal love.) (see Fig.
10). The penultimate line is marked at the end with five rising dots, indicating
that the final line be declaimed above sol, on the extraordinary pitches reserved
for the display of great emotion. The dot above the word '[J]e' indicates that the
orator's voice sank to ut in order to rise at least to /a, if not higher, on the word
'terrible'. This would have been close to the terrifying effect of Champmesle's
'Seigneur, vous changez de visage'. It seems, therefore, that the annotator used
dots, as well as the solmisation syllable ut, to indicate oratorical pitch in the livret,45
This further supports the idea that the annotations form some kind of 'school of
declamation', or orator's workbook, inspired by Lully's score.
44 The appearance of the arabic numeral 6 before the line 'Que pretends-tu? parle .... o suplice
horrible!' (What do you propose? Speak oh Horrible torture!) is unique in the livret. It
cannot refer to the musical setting, for Lully here goes into triple simple metre. It rather seems
to refer to counting syllables, and probably is related to the unusually long pause at the caesura.
45 It should be mentioned that there are other places in the livret — in Act I scene 2 and on the
verso of the frontispiece — where similar dots are in evidence, and their interpretation as
indicators of tons can be similarly justified.
The eighteenth-centur
Numerous musicologists have
goals at the Paris opera from
tive bias justifies an examinati
the eighteenth-century discou
it will be proposed that a recons
of eighteenth-century sources
practice for ancien regime op
placing the annotations in a b
practical application, an expl
will follow here.
When L'Abbe Dubos, in his Reflexions critiques sur lapoesie et sur lapeinture, related
the anecdote about Champmesle's use of the octave in Racine's Mithridate, he did
so as part of a larger exposition on the singing nature of the declamation of the
46 See, for instance, the following article by Charles Dill, who refers to work by Lois Rosow and
Antonia Banducci, among others: Charles Dill, 'Eighteenth-Century Models of French Recita
tive', Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 120/2 (1995), 232—50.
Dubos praised his countrymen's superiority over their neighbours as creators and
performers of tragic drama. According to him, only the French, with their elevated
declamation, could suitably express the dignity of tragic verse:
As I have already said, it is well accepted in Europe that the French, who for a hundred
years have composed the best dramas that appear today, also recite tragedies best, and
know how to put them on with the greatest decorum [de'cence]. In Italy the actors recite
tragedy in the same tone and with the same gestures that they use for comedy. There the
buskin is hardly different from the sock. When the Italian actors wish to animate them
selves in passages of pathos, they immediately exaggerate. The hero becomes a Capitano,48
Dubos admitted that the French style, 'more elevated, graver, and more sustained'
than that of conversation, came close to singing, and he claimed that even the Italians
believed it to resemble the 'singing' recitation of the ancients:
The Italians, who treat us justly without too much repugnance when discussing those arts
and talents at which they do not pride themselves in excelling, say that our tragic declama
tion gives them an idea of the lost melody, or theatrical declamation, of the ancients.49
Dubos had already argued elsewhere in his Reflexions that the ancients had
notated their recitations; it was therefore only natural for him, having established
a link between French and Antique theatrical practices, to address the idea of
notating French declamations. The ancients, Dubos believed, notated their 'song'
by means of their accent marks.50 This, indeed, seems to be the system used in
the livret of Roland, where the accent aigu and accent grave became rising and falling
dashes that broadly mapped out Lully's intervals above Quinault's words.51 Dubos,
47 'Les Franpois ne s'en tiennent pas aux habits pour donner aux Acteurs de la Tragedie la
noblesse & la dignite qui leur conviennent. Nous voulons encore que ces Acteurs parlent d'un
ton de voix plus eleve, plus grave & plus soutenu que celui sur lequel on parle dans les conver
sations ordinaires.' Dubos, Reflexions critiques sur /apoesie, premiere partie, 439-40.
48 'II est assez etabli en Europe, comme je l'ai deja dit, que les Franpois, qui depuis cent ans com
posent les meilleures pieces Dramatiques qui paroissent aujourd'hui, sont aussi ceux qui recitent
le mieux les Tragedies, & qui spavent les representer avec le plus de decence. En Italie les
Acteurs recitent la Tragedie du meme ton & avec les memes gestes qu'ils recitent la Comedie.
Le Cothurne n'y est preque pas different du Socque. Des que les Acteurs Italiens veulent s'animer
dans les endroits pathetiques, ils sont outrez aussitot. Le Heros devient un Capitan.' Dubos,
Reflexions critiques sur la poesie, premiere partie, 442.
49 'Les Italiens qui nous rendent justice sans trop de repugnance quand il s'agit des Arts & des
talens, ou ils ne se piquent pas d'exceller, disent que notre declamation tragique leur donne
une idee du chant ou de la declamation theatrale des anciens que nous avons perdue.' Dubos,
Reflexions critiques sur la poesie, premiere partie, 441.
50 For a complete discussion see Dubos, Reflexions critiques sur la poesie, troisieme partie, section IV,
58-90.
51 For a discussion of the rising and falling pitch levels associated with these accents see [Jean
Leonor Le Gallois, sieur de Grimarest], Traite du recitatif (Paris, 1707), 6—7.
however, felt that this method would be inadequate to the task of properly record
ing the orator's declamation. Instead, he recommended a notational system based
on existing musical symbols:
I asked several musicians if it would be difficult to invent some symbols with which one
could notate the declamation in use on our stage, for we don't have enough accent marks
to be able to notate it as did the ancients. These musicians replied that the thing was
possible, and even that one could notate declamation using our musical scale, as long as
one gave to the notes but half of their normal intonation. For example, notes that have a
semi-tone's intonation in music would only have a quarter-tone in declamation. Thus one
could notate the smallest descent and the smallest elevation of the voice that is perceptible,
at least to our ears.52
Voltaire and Condillac, who both knew Dubos' work well, could easily have
taken the idea of declaiming Lully's recitative with 'softened' intervals from this
passage. What neither Voltaire nor Condillac specifically addressed, however, was
how to handle Lully's notated rhythms. Spoken recitation had to take syllable
length into account, but what to do when the rhythms were already notated by
the composer?53 Here Dubos' remarks can be of service:
I was also told that it would be possible, in declamation, to give the notes only half their
ordinary value. One would only give a minim the value of a crotchet, to the crotchet the
value of a quaver; and one would value the other notes according to this proportion, just
as one would do with the intonation.54
Dubos' instructions would effectively double the speed at which the verses
would be spoken, in comparison to how they would be sung. This suggestion,
along with the remarks on speed of delivery in Mersenne's Seconde partie de I'harmonie
52 'J'ai demande a plusiers Musiciens, s'il seroit bien difficile d'inventer des caracteres avec lesquels
on put ecrire en notes la declamation en usage sur notre theatre. Nous n'avons point assez
d'accens pour l'ecrire en notes avec les accens, ainsi que les Anciens l'ecrivoient. Ces Musiciens
m'ont repondu que la chose etoit possible, & meme qu'on pouvoit ecrire la declamation en
notes, en se servant de la gamme de notre musique, pourvu qu'on ne donnat aux notes que
la moitie de l'intonation ordinaire. Par example, les notes qui ont un semiton d'intonation en
musique, n'auroient qu'un quart de ton d'intonation dans la declamation. Ainsi on noteroit les
moidres abaissemens & les moindres elevations de voix qui soient bien sensibles, du moins a
nos oreilles.' Dubos, Reflexions critiques sur la poesie, troisieme partie, 163-4.
53 For an account of syllable lengths see [Grimarest], Traite du recitatif, 25-43. The fact that
Grimarest mentions the relationship between text and music in Lully's operas makes his treatise
particularly interesting in the context of the livret. Grimarest divides French syllables into four
different catagories according to their length. It is, however, important to keep in mind that he
notes: 'Ce n'est pas une chose aisee que de ranger nos silabes sous ces quatre intervales; non
seulement parce que'ils sont un peu arbitraires; mais encore parce que sur ces sortes de matieres
personne ne veut jamais convenir.' (p. 27).
54 'Mais on m'a dit aussi qu'on pourroit, dans la declamation, ne donner aux notes que la moitie de
leur valeur ordinaire. On n'y donneroit a une blanche que la valuer d'une noire; a une noire, la
valeur d'une croche, & on evalueroit les autres notes suivant cette proportion-la, ainsi qu'on le
feroit dans l'intonation.' Dubos, Reflexions critiques sur la poesie, troisieme partie, 164.
vniverselle, offers concrete evidence that an exaggeratedly slow and stately style of
delivery was unfashionable among ancien regime orators and actors.55
It seems likely that declamatenrs using musical notation as a guide would not only
have diminished the note values, however, but would have adjusted them as well:
if Condillac and Voltaire performed microtones where Lully wrote diatonic notes,
then perhaps their rhythms too would have been subtly adapted in order more
closely to approach those of spoken language. Grimarest, in his Traite du recitatif
(1707), had already warned singers that they had to be mindful of the need to
treat notated rhythms flexibly when performing Lully:
As I have already remarked, because the composer has often been constrained by the
rules of his art to disturb the quantity of the syllables, it is up to the clever actor to redress
the fault by making those syllables long that ought to be, and making the short syllables
short, without paying attention to the length or shortness of the notes to which they have
been set. For example, in Zangaride's [sic] scene in Atys, if one were to sing the first two
syllables of <& [et] vous me Iaissere^ mourir according to the notation, the <& would be much
longer than vous, which would break the most common rules of quantity, [see Ex. 14]
Therefore the singer takes from the first note and gives to the second, in order to make
his manner of expression more correct.56
S k r
(rs ^ J J h k fc k ted
V - ^ J! 4
Et vous me lais - se - rez mou - rir.
Ex. 14: Grimarest cites this line from Act I scene 6 of Atys as an example of a mi
Lully's notation that must be corrected in performance.
Surely then, if singers were advised to take rhythmic liberties with the sc
order to properly represent the syllable lengths, orators would have been as
do so when extracting the underlying melopee from Lully's recitatives?57
55 This would make sense, for even in daily conversation Grimarest found a pretentious
conscious lenteur unbearable: 'la prononciation posee est plus noble, plus propre a la lan
franpoise, que celle qui est precipitee. Ce n'est pas pour cela que j'approuve cette lenteu
affectee de quelques Courtisans, qui pour vouloir donner autant de hauteur a leur ton,
leurs manieres, croient pouvoir exprimer la superiorite de leur naissance par la longueur
leurs paroles, qu'ils trainent a un tel exces, qi'ils ennuient, & bien souvent revoltent ceu
les ecoutent'. [Grimarest], Traite du recitatij.j 42—3. For more information on tempo in sp
see footnote 20 of this article.
56 'Le Compositeur, commme je l'ai deja remarque, etant souvent contraint par les regies de son
art, de deranger la quantite des silabes, c'est a un habile Acteur a suppleer a ce defaut, en fesant
longues les silabes qui doivent l'etre, & breves, celles qui sont breves, sans faire atention a la
longueur, ou a la brievete de la note, a laquelle elles sont assujetties. Par exemple, dans la scene
de Zangaride dans Atys, si Ton chantoit & vous me laissere% mourir, suivant la note des deux
premieres silabes, <& seroit beaucoup plus long que vous; ce qui seroit contre les regies les plus
communes de la quantite. Ainsi celui qui chante prend de la note de la premiere silabe pour
mettre sur la seconde, afin de donner plus de justesse a son expression'. [Grimarest], Traite du
recitatij, 218-19.
57 Dubos, however, might not have agreed. At any rate, he remarked in the Reflexions that audience
members complained that the operas of Lully now lasted much longer than they had under the
baton of the composer himself, even though many repeats were omitted. According to Dubos,
footnote continued on next page
some attributed this change in the length of the performance to the liberties that singers took
with 'le rithme de Lulli'. See Dubos, Reflexions critiques sur lapoesie, troisieme partie, 343. It seems
probable that this liberty was, in reality, a result of tempo choices, rather than the subtle
rhythmic alterations proposed by Grimarest.
58 'Mile. Duclos, de sa cote, introduisoit dans la Declamation une espece de Musique & de Chant,
qui en faisoit un language a part, & en detruitsoit tout le charme. Elle declamoit par octave, &
Ton auroit pu noter ses inflexions.' See Dorat, La declamation theatrale, quatrieme edition (Paris,
1761), 18-19. Also see M. Nagler, A source book in theatrical history (New York, 1959), 293-6.
59 '11 lui faisoit d'abord comprendre les vers qu'elle avoit a dire, lui montroit les gestes, & lui
dictoit les tons, que meme il notoit.' Louis Racine, cited in Jacques George de Chauffepie,
Nouveau dictionnaire historique et critique (Amsterdam, 1756), 50.
appears not only to have dictated the meaning of his verses to the actress, but
also to have prescribed and notated the appropriate oratorical pitches. However,
Racine's son insisted that Champmesle's style became corrupted and ossified after
his father's demise: an ageing Champmesle, incapable of finding the 'tons' without
his father's guidance, passed her defective and inflated vocal style on to Duclos.
Of course, by blaming the actresses, he absolved his father of all responsibility for
the style:
Those who imagine that he [Jean Racine] introduced an inflated and singing declamatory
style to the stage are, I believe, in error. They base their judgements on Duclos, who was a
pupil of Champmesle, and they don't take into account that Champmesle was no longer
the same once she was deprived of her master, and that, growing older, she forced her
voice with great cries [grands eclats de voix], giving actors a false taste.60
If Duclos took over a singing style from Champmesle, she seems to have passed
it on to Mile. Clairon, of whom Colle wrote in 1750, 'her declamation — swollen,
singing and filled with sighs - is that of old Duclos, and seems unbearable to
me'.61 Clairon began the successful phase of her Paris career as understudy to
Mile. Lemaure at the Opera. Clairon insisted that her success there said more
about the incompetence of her colleagues than her own vocal talents. Although a
number of factors contributed to her leaving that stage for the Comedie franpaise
in 1743, the most interesting for the current discussion is her frustration at not
being allowed to create her own melopee: 'I found so litde merit in only following
the modulations of the composer'.62
Once established at the Comedie franpaise, Clairon's own melopee retained the
'singing' style associated with Duclos until sometime around 1752, when, accord
ing to Marmontel, her recitation became more natural.63 Yet even this new,
natural technique invited notation. None other than Chabanon, who corre
sponded with Voltaire about reciting Lully, promised, in his Eloge de Rameau
(1764), to publish an operatic monologue based on Clairon's declamation.64 Un
fortunately, he seems never to have done so, but Gretry did notate her inflections.
According to his Memoires [1797], Gretry went to see Mile. Clairon, together with
Marmontel, while working on his opera Silvain. During their visit, the actress
60 'Ceux qui s'imaginent que la declamation qu'il avoit introduit sur le Theatre, etoit enflee &
chantante, sont je crois dans l'erreur. lis en jugent par la Duclos, eleve de la Chammelay, & ne
font pas attention que la Chammelay, quand elle eut perdu son maitre, ne fut plus la meme, &
que venue sur l'age, elle poussoit de grands eclats de voix, qui donnerent un faux gout aux
Comediens'. Louis Racine, cited in Chauffepie, Nouveau Dictionnaire, 50. For the relationship
between Champmesle's declamation and punctuation see Sabine Chaouche, L'art du comedien,
declamation etjeu scenique en France a l'age classique (1629—1680) (Paris, 2001), 315—18.
61 'sa declamation ampoulee, chantee, et remplie de gemissements, est celle de la vieille Duclos,
et me paroit insoutenable'. See Charles CoWk, Journal et memoires de Charles Colle, ed. Honore
Bonhomme, tome premier (Paris, 1868), 142.
62 'je trouvai si peu de merite a ne suivre que les modulations du musicien'. See [Claire-Josephe
Leris], Memoires d'Hypolitte Clairon et reflexions sur la declamation theatrale, seconde edition (Paris,
An VII [1799]), 50.
63 See [Jean-Franpois] Marmontel, Memoires d'unpere (Paris, 1805) tome second, 39-44.
64 See [Michel-Paul-Guy de] Chabanon, Eloge de Rameau (Paris, 1764), 34.
declaimed some lines from Marmontel's libretto. Gretry notated the resulting
melopee, incorporating 'her intonations, her intervals, her accents' into his score.65
What is of greatest interest here is not that an overly song-like declamation was
considered 'unnatural' by critics ('unnatural' being too imprecise a pejorative to be
of use to scholars working at a distance of hundreds of years), but that all three of
these famous actresses from the Comedie franfaise were associated with notation:
Racine notated the pitches for Champmesle's declamations, and Lully in his turn
notated them in his recitative; Duclos' use of the octave was so obvious that
it could have been notated; and Gretry actually did notate fragments Clairon's
declamation and incorporated them into his music. In fact, it seems almost as
if the close relationship between a musical spoken declamation and declamatory
operatic singing had become something of a cliche in eighteenth-century France;
and indeed there is concrete evidence from late in the century of strong links
between spoken and sung theatrical performances.
The Ecole royal de chant et declamation was founded in 1784, nearly one hundred
years after the premiere of Roland.66 The intention was to create an establishment
'in the style of the Italian conservatories, where one would train performers not
only for the Opera, but for the musique de Versailles'.67 Although every attempt
was made to keep the project as inexpensive as possible, it was considered highly
important, being 'the only means of preserving an entertainment so essential to
Paris, and so useful to the arts, to commerce, and even to the finances of His
Majesty due to the custom of foreigners attracted to and kept in Paris for a longer
period by the opera'.68
Amongst the faculty teaching at the school (mainly musicians, but there was
also a dancing master and a fencing master) were two literary figures: one to teach
grammar and literature ('#» Maitre de Grammaire et de Fable'), the other a ''maitre de
Declamation'The former position was held by a certain Rossel, 'who for several
years has taught humanities and rhetoric, a knowledgeable and honest man'; the
latter by none other than Francois-Rene Mole, star actor of the Comedie francaise.69
65 See [Andre-Ernest-Modeste] Gretrv, Memoires ou essais sur la musique, tome premier (Paris, An V
[1797]), 201.
66 For a history of the foundation of the school see Solveig Serre, L'opera de Paris 1749—1790
(CNRS Editions, 2011), 118-21.
67 'dans le gout des conservatoires d'ltalie, ou Ton eleva des sujets, non seulement pour l'Opera,
mais meme pour la musique de Versailles'. See 'Projet de lettre a M. le Controlleur General',
Archives Nationales de France, O'l 618, no. 43.
68 Tunique moyen de conserver un spectacle si essentiel dans Paris, et si utile aux arts, au com
merce, et meme aux Finances de Sa Majeste, par les consommations des etrangers que l'Opera
attire et fixe plus longtems dans la capitale'. 'Projet de lettre', Archives Nationales de France,
O'l 618, no. 43.
69 'qui a professe plusieurs annees les humanites et la rhetorique, homme spavan et honnete'; the
document notes of Mole's appointment: 'choix qui sera probablement applaudi'. See 'Projet
pour l'Etablissement des differentes personnes attachees a l'Ecole dont les fonctions seront plus
detaillees dans le Reglement', Art. 9. Archives Nationales de France, O'l 618, no. 63. Indeed,
the choice was applauded. See [Michel-Paul-Guy de] Chabanon, De la musique consideree en elle
meme et dans ses rapports avex la parole, les langues, la poesie et le theatre (Paris, 1785), 338. For a
modern transcription of the archival document see Constant Pierre, Le conservatoire national de
musique et de declamation (1900; rpt. Paris, 2002), 8.
Their shared duties were to be carried out from three o'clock to eight, on every
day that an opera was performed; this was because the singing teachers, who also
taught in the afternoons, were required to be at the Academie royale de musique
on performance days. Rossel and Mole were expected to teach the students:
to read verses, to pronounce exactly, to articulate, to properly understand and conceive
what they read or pronounce, to declaim, to make proper and graceful gestures &c. They
will make them learn operas by heart, which they will make them declaim either entirely,
or by role, separately and as an ensemble, in order thereafter to rehearse them on the
school's stage in the presence of people who want to come and hear them in order to
accustom them to appearing in public.70
Thus, the students had to learn the vocal techniques associated with reading
aloud and theatrical declamation.71 Although the passage is ambiguous, it seems
they had to declaim not only their own parts, but entire operas. This is significant,
given that various roles were marked up by the same hand in the livret of Roland-.
perhaps it was considered worthwhile, at least at the end of the eighteenth century,
for singers to be able to recite all of the roles in a given work? The students at the
Ecole de chant et declamation also formed ensembles and declaimed entire operas
on a stage, before an audience. All of this points towards an extremely close con
nection between spoken and sung theatrical traditions in the performance of French
opera at this period.
Mole's instruction was not confined to the students at the school, but extended
to some of the performers at the Academie royale de musique:
The declamation master will go in the morning to the actors and actresses understudying
the operas being performed or prepared, in order to teach, to those who wish, the spirit
and nuances of their roles and to make them declaim them without music; and in addition
he can attend the general rehearsals in order to fix, in accord with the author and the lead
ing singers, the entrances and exits of the actors, as well as their positions on stage [Tes
positions Theatrales'] and to give advice about particular scenes.72
Mole seems to have enjoyed a sliding scale of authority depending on the status
of the actor: students had no choice but to recite; understudies could, if they
70 'd'apprendre aux eleves a lire les vers, a prononcer exactement, a bien articuler a entendre et
bien concevoir ce qu'ils liront ou prononceront, a declamer, a faire des gestes justes et arrondis
&c.; ils leurs feront apprendre par coeur des opera qu'on leur fera Declamer soit en entier, soit
par roles diferens separement et ensemble, ensuite on les leur fera repeter sur le Theatre de
l'ecole en presence des personnes qui voudront venir les entendre afin de les accoutumer a
paroitre en public.' 'Projet de depense annuelle, pour l'ecole de musique', Devoirs et fonctions
du directeur general et des maitres, Art. 5. Archives Nationales de France, O'l 618, no. 48. See
also Pierre, Le conservatoire national de musique, 2-4.
71 These were different techniques. See Grimerest, Traite du recitatif, chapters 4 and 7.
72 Le Maitre de declamation ira le matin chez les acteurs et actrices charges des roles en double ou
en triple dans les opera [sic] qu'on joiiera ou qui seront a l'etude pour bien faire connoitre, a
ceux qui le desireront, l'esprit et les nuances leurs Rolles et les d'eux faire declamer sans
musique; il pourra en outre se trouver aux grandes repetitions general pour fixer d'accord avec
les Auteurs et les premiers Sujets, les entrees et les sorties des acteurs, ainsi que les positions
Theatrales, et donner ['intelligence des Scenes particulieres.' 'Projet de depense annuelle, pour
l'ecole de musique', Devoirs et fonctions du directeur general et des maitres, Art. 5. Archives
Nationales de France, O'l 618, no. 48. See also Pierre, I^e conservatoire national de musique, 2-4.
wished, refuse; the stars at the Opera, however, did not have declamation lessons
with Mole at all, but merely discussed matters of staging with him. Yet, questions
of status aside, it was clearly felt that repeatedly declaiming operatic roles was ex
tremely important to the finished sung performance. Thus, long after the demise
of Lully's tragedie en musique at the Opera, spoken declamation was still considered
a basic technique for singers learning their parts. Could the livret of Roland have
served a similar purpose, one hundred years earlier?
* * *