About the human voice, the difference between speaking and singing, speech melody and the Speech to Song Illusion, the strengths and weaknesses of operatic recitative, and emotion as a justification for the absurdity of singing by way of speaking.
00:00 Intro
00:36 The versatile voice
05:40 Speech melody: tones and glides
10:00 Calling out
11:38 The Speech to Song Illusion
16:21 Declamation, recitation, recitative
20:46 Absurd conventions
26:05 Singing as a natural language
Music and sound excerpts:
01:32, 04:50 Luciano Berio. Sequenza III. Tony Arnold (2006) Naxos 8.557661-63
02:47, 08:10 Francis Poulenc. La voix humaine. Denise Duval (1959) Warner Classics 0190295738105
03:31 Lemur calls https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d3vFI5UpIc
08:41, 19:40 Frédéric Chopin. Prélude op. 28 nr. 4 in e*
12:14, 12:38 Diana Deutsch, The sounds as they appear to you… https://deutsch.ucsd.edu/psychology/pages.php?i=212
15:30 Lodewijk Muns, Impromptu on ‘sometimes behave so strangely’
17:16 Jacopo Peri. L’Euridice. Françoise Masset, Les Arts Baroques, Mireille Podeur (1993) Maguelone MAG 358.415
21:45 W.A. Mozart. Cosí fan tutte: Soave sia il vento (No. 10). Bernarda Fink, Véronique Gens, Pietro Spagnoli, Concerto Köln, René Jacobs. Harmonia Mundi HMC95 1663/5 (1999)
*Lodewijk Muns, piano
Selected references for episodes 24 and 25:
On the Speech to Song Illusion, see Lodewijk Muns, Speech melody and the Speech-to-Song Illusion
Abbate, C. Unsung Voices: Opera and Musical Narrative in the Nineteenth Century. Princeton N.J. 1991.
Barker, A. Greek Musical Writings Vol. 2, Harmonic and Acoustic Theory. Cambridge 1989.
Cone, E.T. Music, a View from Delft : Selected Essays. Chicago 1989.
Diderot, D., and J.B. Le Rond d’Alembert, eds. Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, ses arts et des métiers. Paris 1751-1780.
Diderot, D., and J.B. Le Rond d’Alembert, and J.B.R. Robinet, eds. Supplément à l’Encyclopédie. Amsterdam 1776.
Felsenstein, W., and J. Herz. Musiktheater: Beiträge zur Methodik und zu Inszenierungskonzeptionen. Leipzig 1976.
Marx, A.B. Gluck und die Oper. Berlin: Janke, 1863.
Rameau, J.Ph. Observations sur notre instinct pour la musique, et sur son principe […]. Paris: Prault, 1754.
Rochlitz, J.F. Blicke in das Gebiet der Künste und der praktischen Philosophie. Gotha 1796.
Rousseau, J.J. Lettre sur la musique françoise. [s.l., s.n.] 1753.
Wagner, R. Werke, Schriften und Briefe. Berlin 2004 (Digitale Bibliothek).
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