Dear Vocalisters:
Just a general comment regarding ornamentation of Mozart arias and
changes that have and have not been afforded these arias.
When I was in undergraduate college the new set of performance
practices regarding Mozart were beginning to be seen. The basic rule
was: Ornament Mozart at your own risk. When he wanted ornamentation
he wrote it in. He wrote letters to his father complaining about the
ornamentation of his arias by singers of his day.
This edict came about as the result of musicological research into
Mozart's arias and the history of such ornamentation in his works
since his time. When checking his original scores it became obvious
that he wrote a small number of ornaments into certain of his arias
and not at all in the greater body of his vocal works. This
research, together with his letters of ornamentation complaint to his
father seemed to dictate that it would be best to NOT ornament
Mozart. And this point of view spread slowly and, within a few
years, quite completely.
In the early 1970's a graduate student, I believe at North Texas
State University (now the University of North Texas) did a bit more
extensive research and discovered that in each aria in which Mozart
provided the ornamentation, the arias were first sung by a performer
that was not trained in opera performances but rather in another form
of popular singing performance such as Singspiel. Mozart ornamented
these arias because the performer did not know how to ornament them
in the correct style. Given this information the grad student went
back to Mozart's letters to his father a realized that the young
composer was complaining about how much ornamentation was being done,
that is the amount of ornamentation, not whether or not to ornament.
This led to a better examination of the ornamentation practices of
Mozart's day and, of course, it was a period of great excesses in
ornamentation.
Given the abov, the present attitude is that ornamentation of Mozart
arias is acceptable but within the confines of an understanding of
the style and the usual caveats of good taste. However, it is still
not uncommon to find teachers and conductors who have a zero
tolerance level of ornamentation in Mozart's works. It is a point of
view that can hardly be justified or at least justified only as much
as the idea of excessive ornamentation. Common sense should rule.
I cannot imagine a well sung Mozart aria without substantial, but
tasteful, use of upper neighbors to emphasize key words and phrase
endings, for example.
But, mine is only a point of view. I like to think it is an informed one.
--
Lloyd W. Hanson, DMA
Professor of Voice, Pedagogy
School of Performing Arts
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, AZ 86011
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