Reeds (part I)

It is now time to return to the early seventeenth century and pick up the story of the reeds. The late Renaissance is often characterized by the variety of its reed instruments, a variety made evident in Syntagma II of Praetorius. Of course, the full panoply of instruments was not available in all geographic areas or to those in all social strata. As students of performance practice, it should be our focus to determine the limitations of the use of these instruments as well as their possibilities. Fortunately, there have been some excellent modern studies that have addressed these issues in detail, combining archival and iconographic information with that provided by the treatises and the existing instruments themselves.

Developments of the Late Seventeenth Century (part II)

Also surviving the Interregnum in England was the name “recorder,” even though the new form of the instrument was greeted by some as a newcomer and not as part of a continuing tradition. For instance, John Hudgebut, in his preface to A Vade Mecum (the first tutor for the Baroque-style recorder, published in 1679), says, “though the Flagilet like Esau hath got the start, as being of a more Antient Standing, The Rechorder like Jakob hath got the Birthright.” Soon the name “recorder” begins to disappear, being replaced by flute douce, flute a bec, or simply “flute” — the name it would carry through most of the eighteenth century. Thus, in the few years between the working careers of Matthew Locke (one of the last, it would appear, to use the Renaissance-style flute consort and Purcell, the word “flute” had taken on an entirely new meaning. It is quite certain that for Purcell, “flute” meant recorder; he did not know (or in any case employ) the transverse flute at all.63 In its limited seventeenth-century appearance in England (notably—perhaps exclusively — in James Talbot’s notes on instruments, ca. 1695), the latter is called by its French name flute d’Allemagne, suggesting that it was not quite yet a naturalized citizen.

Developments of the Late Seventeenth Century (part I)

At some as yet undetermined point after Mersenne’s writing, the recorder and flute underwent the radical alterations that produced the forms we now call “Baroque.”

Both were given three joints: a cylindrical head, a tapering body, and a foot (tapering on the recorder, generally cylindrical on the flute). The flute was given a closedstanding key for D♯/E♭ (a difficult half-hole fingering on the keyless Renaissance flute), and both instruments were graced with ornate exterior turnery. Along with these changes in morphology came changes in pitch, nomenclature, and intervals between sizes—changes that represented especially radical departures for the family of recorders. (It is meaningless, in fact, to speak of a “family” of flutes in this period, since most of the evidence—sparse at best—concerns one size, the one we would now call the “concert flute,” or simply “flute.”) As mentioned above, the Renaissance habit of separating family members by fifths was given up in favor of alternating fourths and fifths (as with most modern orchestral woodwind families); the result is the “C and F” alignment of recorders with which we are still familiar. In France itself—still thought to be the origin of the new designs—the pitch standard to which recorders and flutes were now made was very low (a' = 392 to 405 or so, judging by extant examples). Such a low pitch was already quite normal for Renaissance flutes, as we have seen, but it was unusual for recorders. The change in both nominal pitch and pitch standard had a particularly drastic effect on the alto recorder, now the dominant solo member of the family. The real pitch difference between an old alt in g' at high Venetian pitch (a' = 460 or so) and an alto in f' at a' = 392 is a fourth; the new instrument is actually closer in pitch to the old tenor.

Late-Renaissance Winds (part III)

Recorders and Flutes (II)

Mersenne’s set of recorders is—on the surface, at least—not all that different from Praetorius’s. Unlike Praetorius, however, he divides them into two groups, a petit jeu and a grand jeu, which, he says, can be “tuned” (i.e., played) together, just as are the small and large stops (jeux) of the organ. The petit jeu consists, he tells us, of three sizes, separated by fifths: dessus, taille (which also serves for the haute-contre), and basse. This information is thus in accord with standard Renaissance practice, as explained (for example) by Philibert Jambe de Fer almost a century earlier. Mersenne gives no specific pitches for any of his recorders; we can only assume a continuance of the traditional f, c', and g' (sounding) pitches for the instruments of the petit jeu. The problem comes when we consider their physical measurements. His length for the basse (two and three-quarters pieds, or about 893 mm) is reasonable enough, being in the neighborhood of the length of Praetorius’s bassett. (Unfortunately, Mersenne fails to clarify whether his measurements are of total lengths or
sounding lengths, making exact comparisons impossible.) But his taille measurement of one pied five pouces (460 mm) is far too short; it is midway between what we should expect for taille and dessus proportioned to such a basse. However, the worst is yet to come; he claims that the dessus is but eleven lignes (less than an inch!) in length. This is of course ridiculous, but even at eleven pouces (298 mm) it is too short to stand at a ninth above the basse. It is close, however, to the length of Praetorius’s discant in c'', suggesting that there was (unbeknownst to Mersenne) a fourth size of recorder in the petit jeu in France—not surprising, given developments elsewhere.

Late-Renaissance Winds (part II)

Recorders and Flutes (I)

Praetorius begins his discussion of woodwinds with the recorder. By his time, the original set of three sizes (ones we would now call alto, tenor, and bass) had expanded considerably; he lists eight sizes: klein Flötlein or exilent in (seven-fingers) g'', discant in d'', discant in c'', alt in g', tenor in c', bassett in f, bass in B♭, and grossbass in F. Such a complete set — presumably with some duplications of certain sizes, following his earlier recommendations — was available from Venice for about 80 Thalers, he says, and indeed those illustrated resemble surviving examples of Venetian manufacture. These are characterized by a plain, robust, one-piece construction, a comparatively wide bore, and a voicing that favors the low register; sizes larger than a tenor are fitted with a key (for the bottom note), which is covered by a protective barrel or “fontanelle.” The majority of surviving examples have what has been called a “choke” bore: the top end is basically cylindrical but begins to contract near the upper fingerholes and then widens out again at the bottom. The contraction itself is what makes the larger recorders feasible, for without it, the fingerholes have to be impractically large and finger stretches become impossible.

It is the expanding “foot” section that distinguishes this bore profile from that of the Baroque and modern recorder, whose foot-joint bore continues instead to contract. This terminal contraction is responsible for the success of the Baroque highnote fingerings, which generally do not work on Renaissance-style recorders (except on some of the smaller ones, provided they have comparatively large fingerholes; see, for instance, the modern instruments based on the late seventeenth-century “transitional” set by Hieronymus Franziskus Kynseker of Nuremberg). In fact, Praetorius mentions that the larger recorders—those with keys, it would seem from the chart of ranges — are ordinarily limited in range to a thirteenth, while the smaller ones can generally reach a fourteenth; certain extraordinary players, however, can force another four to seven tones beyond the standard range. (Has he been reading Sylvestro Ganassi about this?)

Late-Renaissance Winds (part I)

The Sources

We owe much of what we know about instruments of the early seventeenth century — and, indeed, about Renaissance instruments in general—to two remarkable writers, Michael Praetorius and Marin Mersenne. Each produced a comprehensive treatise on musical theory and practice: Praetorius, Syntagma Musicum (in three volumes, 1614–204), and Mersenne, Harmonie universelle (1636–375). The two authors are often lumped together, but despite their shared thoroughness they could hardly be more different in style and approach. Praetorius—Lutheran composer, organist, and Kapellmeister—is always the more pragmatic; Mersenne—Jesuit priest, mathematician, philosopher, and scientist—the more speculative. Praetorius’s information appears to flow from his own practical experience, while Mersenne’s often seems a secondhand acquisition (which he does not always understand in depth). Rare is the page in Mersenne’s instrument descriptions without some inexplicable ambiguity or frustrating lack of clarity. (Not that Praetorius himself is without errors or inconsistencies, but his usually have some simple explanation.) Mersenne treats verbally of matters (such as instrument dimensions) that Praetorius entrusts to the carefully drafted plates of the Theatrum instrumentorum (the appendix to Syntagma II) to communicate; such verbal descriptions are naturally prone to error. Perhaps it should be mentioned in Mersenne’s defense, however, that his text simply has more information about instruments than Praetorius’s (including fingering charts and musical examples), providing more places for things to go wrong.

Woodwinds

Of all the centuries in the recorded history of Western music, the seventeenth witnessed the most thoroughgoing and decisive changes in the nature of woodwind instruments. While the sixteenth century had produced some remarkable developments, resulting in the rich and varied instrumentarium of the late Renaissance, these can be viewed as essentially evolutionary in spirit; they consisted of expansions of existing families and the invention of complementary types intended to serve with them and round out the palette of instrumental colors. The developments of the mid- to late seventeenth century were, by comparison, nothing short of revolutionary, consisting of complete remodelings of a limited number of Renaissance winds — flute, recorder, shawm, and curtal—to produce radically new types that ultimately eclipsed their progenitors (not to mention their few remaining rivals, such as the cornett). The affinity between these new forms (Baroque flute, oboe, and bassoon, in particular, the recorder representing something of a special case) and our own seems clear; we recognize them more as youthful versions than as ancestors of our modern designs despite the tremendous technological gulf between them.

Choral Music in Italy and the Germanic Lands (part IV)

Intonation is one of the most critical aspects of this style; florid lines require harmonic clarity which only good intonation can give. Nevertheless, intonation and tuning would themselves have varied with the performance context. When singers were unaccompanied, they would likely have sung simultaneous octaves, fifths, and thirds as close to pure as possible. But when they performed with instruments, we must assume that they adopted the instruments’ tuning. This is of particular concern with regard to the fretted strings and keyboard instruments, especially the organ, on continuo parts. Fretted strings such as lutes and viols can make some concessions to just intonation through the use of double fretting or variable finger placement and pressure at the frets, but keyboard instruments are completely inflexible, and any instruments or voices performing with them must match their pitches.

In the early seventeenth century, matching keyboard pitches often meant performing in quarter-comma meantone, which provides perfectly lovely pure thirds as long as one keeps to the right keys. By the time of Buxtehude, however, the use of a wide variety of well-tempered tunings were coming into vogue in Germany, especially the temperaments of Andreas Werckmeister. The greater chromatic flexibility permitted by these temperaments was balanced by the fact that more chords were slightly out of tune, although not as badly as the wolf chords of the meantone system.

Choral Music in Italy and the Germanic Lands (part III)

Performance practices such as those mentioned above are discussed mainly for large-scale works. Small-scale works, like sacred concertos and secular madrigals, lieder, and the like, would seem to require only one singer to a part, especially in light of the choir of favoriti as the most universal ensemble, even in larger works. The use of solo ensembles was probably standard as late as the madrigals of Alessandro Scarlatti. Solo performance is certainly indicated where a singer represents a particular character, for example, a shepherd in a pastoral drama or one of the characters in a biblical representation, like Schütz’s Christmas Story or the cantatas performed for papal Christmas entertainments, in which closing choruses were probably sung by the collected characters, as in opera seria.

Even beyond such clearly dramatic works, the quest for a historical performance practice should also take into consideration other possible liturgical or dramatic contexts. In Catholic sacred works, this includes the place of Gregorian chant, or organ versets in appropriate alternation with liturgical polyphony. In Lutheran works, it suggests the alternation of chorale verses between organ and choir, and perhaps with a large congregation singing the tune monophonically. In some cases, reconstruction of an entire liturgical service or secular festival offers a thrilling performance montage. Research can uncover equivalent contexts for secular works, as well, for interpolation of musical numbers in dramas as intermedii, set pieces, or melodramas. Such an expanded performance context can be further enriched by architectural investigation in order to locate musical forces as they might have been in a period performance for the best aural effect.

Choral Music in Italy and the Germanic Lands (part II)

This distinction also obtained in Germany. Praetorius (1619) said that the numbers following the title of a piece indicate the most essential voices first (favoriti) and that the remaining numbers indicate ripieno choirs, which can be omitted. He also described a wide variety of alternative performance arrangements.18 Aside from his own works, music like his most opulent prescriptions was also heard at the cathedral of Salzburg and the Habsburg court. At the former, the episcopal court supported over forty singers and thirty to forty musicians, who performed concerted music with as many as ten different spatially separated groups or as many as thirty-two separate parts. The imperial court’s musical establishment was of comparable size and supported performance of the grandest post-Venetian works, as well as more intimate motets and Masses in the stile antico. Such grand works cannot be discussed individually, but their rich textural variety displayed the usual contrast between favoriti and ripieno, with rich flourishes of contrasting vocal and instrumental timbres in every choir. Nevertheless, in the Germanic countries, as in Italy, such grandiosity represents only the most elaborate manifestation of a part-singing performance tradition that, in a simpler medium, was widespread in households, cities, and churches.

Choral Music in Italy and the Germanic Lands (part I)

Music was constantly changing in the seventeenth century. Yet even those who acknowledge this evolutionary condition often overlook the sources and inspirations for Baroque musical style. There is little that is unprecedented: practically every feature of the style evolved directly from some sixteenth-century musical practice. The stile antico did not expire operatically with the development of monody, continuo playing, and the highly figured Baroque style; rather, all lived on side by side, and composers of the seventeenth century, Claudio Monteverdi, Heinrich Schütz, and others, wrote music in both styles with equal fluency.1 The opposition of the two styles in larger works enriched the new aesthetic of contrasting affects, and these contrasts contributed further stylistic freedom to already well-defined national and regional styles. Baroque innovations particularly reinforced traditional bonds of musical influence between Italy and Germany.

Geographical proximity, ancient political ties, and continuing intellectual exchange had always bestowed common features upon music in Italy and the German-speaking countries. In the seventeenth century, expanding cities, exhibitionistic churches, profligate nobility, and burgeoning numbers of middle-class amateurs supported a rich profusion of new musical styles in both sacred and secular music. The stabilization of Protestantism in the north added further diversity. These groups demanded a rich menu of vocal ensemble works to display their standing. Such works ranged from large-scale festival works for major churches and the ruling class to smaller works for private gatherings, school choirs, and the day-to-day celebrations of city churches throughout Italy and the north. The rich variety of genres and styles obliges a modern performer to investigate a work’s musical construction in its original context.

Disposition, or the Execution of Rapid Passagework

Bacilly says that the art of good singing depends on three gifts of nature, each distinct from the others: the voice, the disposition, and the ear or the intelligence. Presentday teachers will readily recognize the first and third of these gifts, and they might assume that the second refers to the singer’s emotional health. But that is not what Bacilly had in mind, nor did Galliard, when he counseled the would-be teacher to listen “with a disinterested Ear, whether the Person desirous to learn hath a Voice, and a Disposition.”

Dispositione di voce in fact refers quite specifically to a particular method of performing rapid passagework, and despite Bacilly’s opinion that it is a gift of nature, earlier writers on vocal technique describe it as a skill that can be learned. It is a skill that choral singers and solo singers alike need to master; and because the technique used in the seventeenth century differs from that taught today, a few references to this topic follow. Galiver (“Cantare”) explored late sixteenth-century descriptions of modo di cantare con la gorga (the method of singing with the throat). Robert Greenlee (“Dispositione”) gathered descriptive references from nearly a dozen writers, from Maffei (1562) to Mersenne (1636), indicating that buona dispositione refers to the proficient use of some kind of throat articulation to produce extremely rapid diminutions or passaggi without any sacrifice of pitch accuracy.

Ornamentation in Baroque singing

Ornamentation has two functions in Baroque singing: to enhance the affect of the text, and to display the accomplishments—the good taste and the virtuosity — of the singer. Bacilly, Playford, and Galliard all devote considerable attention to ornamentation. The myriad embellishments (Bacilly spends nearly eighteen pages on ports de voix alone) and the conflicting nomenclature in different traditions can be overwhelming at first; it is a good idea to use ornaments sparingly until you have spent some time familiarizing yourself with the examples and practicing them. Ornaments should be used in ensemble singing, especially in an opera scene or dialogue where distinct characters join in song. But if your singers do not yet have the technique — if they cannot handily deliver an extended trill or rapid diminutions—do not require it. The result will be the opposite of stylish Baroque ornamentation, labored instead of apparently effortless, planned instead of extemporized, worrisome instead of joyful.

In time, with good models to emulate (recordings, if not you yourself), those singers with an improvisatory bent will emerge as leaders in the game and others will be emboldened to follow them.

Where there are several singers on the same part, added embellishment is rarely appropriate — excepting routine cadential ornaments that lend themselves to group execution (appoggiaturas, for example, are easier than trills to coordinate). Galliard goes so far as to say, “All Compositions for more than one Voice ought to be sung strictly as they are written; nor do they require any other Art but a noble Simplicity.”

Importance of Text

Good singing is also an artistic pursuit. The technical skills of the singer need to be brought to bear on the expression of the text (“the soul of the vocal art”) in ways that complement and enhance the mere notes on the page.

Vocal and choral music in the seventeenth century are text centered. This may seem obvious, but it bears repeating. The ensemble director should understand the literal meaning of every word of text in the program, as well as any metaphoric or symbolic baggage carried by the text. The singers should learn the meaning of every word they are singing from the very start. The director should know the correct pronunciation of every word, so that rehearsal time is not wasted. And he or she should provide the audience with both the original text and the translation in parallel.

Beyond good pronunciation, all subtleties of expressive singing—dynamic contrast, phrasing, variety of articulation, added embellishment—should be rooted in the performers’ comprehension of the text. Thomas Morley grumbled that “Most of our churchmen, so they can cry louder in the choir than their fellows, care for no more; whereas by the contrary they ought to study how to vowel and sing clean, expressing their words with devotion and passion.”

Healthy Singing

Good singing is an athletic pursuit. Just as with sports, aerobics, or jogging, the muscles that support the activity need to be methodically conditioned; once good condition is reached, it needs to be maintained. Then as now, the fit or well-conditioned singer can control pitch, manage the breath on long phrases, support a diminuendo as well as a crescendo, control vibrato, deliver rapid passagework articulately — in short, can handle the purely technical skills that Baroque music demands.

Bacilly, Playford, and Galliard all agree on the fundamentals: good posture, good breathing, and plenty of hours of practice, beginning with simple exercises and progressing to more challenging ones. You, as the director of a choir or vocal ensemble, need to know enough about vocal fitness to spot unhealthy singing and suggest ways to correct it, as well as to teach the fundamentals of good singing right along with the notes and the pronunciation. The best way to learn about good singing is to study with a good teacher. The collegium director who comes to his or her position from an instrumental background should take very seriously the obligation to handle young singers’ voices intelligently. Often you only need one or two lessons yourself from a sympathetic colleague to get you started on a visceral — as opposed to a merely aural — understanding of good singing. Or you might have a “guest coach” for one or two rehearsals with your singers, concentrating on basic technique, with you singing right along with your students.

Principal Seventeenth-Century English and French Singing Treatises

Bénigne de Bacilly’s Remarques curieuses sur l’art de bien chanter (1668) provides a window on singing and vocal pedagogy in seventeenth-century France. Though the author’s expressed main purpose was to deal with the esoterica of applying quantitative rhythm to French poetry, over half the book is devoted to general principles of good singing.

John Playford’s An Introduction to the Skill of Musick contains, in editions of 1664 and later, a “Brief Discourse of the Italian Manner of Singing,” much of it lifted from Giulio Caccini’s Le nuove musiche (1602). Playford’s handbook went through nineteen editions, many thoroughly revised, spanning the years 1654 to 1730, so we may surmise that Caccini’s advice on singing — attributed by Playford to “an English Gentleman who had lived long in Italy” — remained pertinent as the decades and the editions passed.

Pier Francesco Tosi’s Opinioni de’ cantori (1723) distilled a lifetime of experience as a successful professional singer and teacher. It was translated into several languages; the English translation, John Galliard’s Observations on the Florid Song (1743), adds explanatory annotations and examples. Though Galliard was German, both his translation and his footnotes are in clearer English than Playford’s.

Ensemble Size and Vocal Types in France

The king’s musicians consisted of three distinct entities. The Musique de la Chambre was made up of soloists: singers, lutenists, and players of other soft instruments, responsible for music for the entertainment of the court. The famous 24 Violons du Roi evolved from the Chambre but became virtually autonomous because of their prestige.

The Musique de la Grande Écurie employed players of sackbuts, oboes, cornetts, fifes, drums, and trumpets, who provided music for the battlefield, the hunt, and the public processional. In 1645 the Musique de la Chapelle Royale consisted of a maître (an honorary appointment given to a highly placed ecclesiastic rather than a musician), two sous-maîtres (one was Compositeur de la Chapelle, responsible for training the choir as well as choosing and composing music for the king’s Mass), two cornettists, twenty-six singers, eight chaplains, four clerks, and two grammar instructors for the children. In 1682 a new royal chapel was inaugurated at Versailles; by 1708 it listed ninety singers: eleven sopranos, eighteen haute-contres, twenty-three tenors, twenty-four baritones, and fourteen basses. In grands motets the normal texture was five voices, the added part usually a baritone, hence the large number of low voices. There was a mixed ensemble of instrumentalists attached to the chapel, including strings, woodwinds (including a bass cromorne), and a theorbo.

Ensemble Size and Vocal Types in England

Cathedral and chapel choirs in England used men and boys only. The English Chapel Royal of the earlier Stuart period typically included approximately twelve boys and twenty men, augmented by a variable number of unpaid “extraordinary” members. For quotidian purposes they sang in smaller numbers on a rotating basis, accompanied by a wind consort (cornetts and sackbuts) and organ. In the period immediately following the Restoration, cornetts substituted for boy trebles: “Above a Year after the Opening of His Majesties Chappel, the Orderers of the Musick there, were necessitated to supply the superiour Parts of their Musick with Cornets and Mens feigned Voices, there being not one Lad, for all that time, capable of singing his Part readily.”

The countertenor (male alto) enjoyed a great vogue in secular as well as sacred music in the later seventeenth century, and its role as the uppermost voice type of a male trio or chorus survived until the nineteenth century in innumerable anthems and glees. However, there can be no justification for trying to make women sound like boys or falsettists, in the name of historically informed performance. A lean choral tone with a minimum of vibrato and meticulous attention to intonation will serve the music admirably and has excellent precedent in the work of such historically oriented ensembles as Les Arts Florissants and the Tallis Scholars, where women sing soprano and both men and women sing alto.

Choral Music in France and England

The primary focus of this topic is the performance of sung ensemble music, that is, music with several texted parts. Today the term “choral music” commonly implies that there is more than one performer on each part, while “ensemble music” commonly implies only one performer to a part. However, as we shall see, music of
the seventeenth century that we customarily consider choral—polyphonic Masses, motets, anthems, and the like—was very often performed as ensemble music. France and England are grouped together in this chapter, partly for convenience, and partly because there are similarities in the uses to which choral music was put, and indeed in the kinds of choral music preferred, despite the obvious difference that one was a Catholic country and the other Protestant.

Choirs or choruses were to be found in churches, opera houses, and public theaters — places where both the sheer size of the venue and the desire for impressive pageantry mandated larger numbers of singers. On both sides of the Channel (or La Manche), the most up-to-date, stylish music made dramatic use of the contrasting sounds of choral singing, solo singing, and obbligato instruments.

The Appearance of the Singer and the Bocca Ridente

Tosi’s directions regarding the singer’s presence continue and refine the tradition expressed earlier in the seventeenth century by Italian writers and commentators on the subject. These include Francesco Durante, Marco da Gagliano, Girolamo Diruta, Pietro Cerone, Orazio Scaletta, Giovanni Battista Doni, and Ignazio Donati, whose caveats were directed largely against bodily and facial contortions and mannerisms that would detract from the singing. Tosi advocates a noble bearing (graceful posture) and an agreeable appearance; he insists on the standing position because it permits a freer use of the voice; further, he warns against bodily contortions and facial grimaces, which may be eliminated, he says, by periodic practice in front of a mirror. He recommends that if the sense of the words permit, the mouth should incline “more toward the sweetness of a smile than toward grave seriousness.” In short Tosi recommends the bocca ridente, which requires not only a “smiling mouth,” but also a positioning of the vocal apparatus critical to the bel canto style.

The Bel Canto Singing Style (IV)

Vibrato

There are several mechanisms in the human voice for producing vibrato. One of these occurs in the same manner as the trill, that is, by the up-and-down movement of the larynx in a manner less exaggerated than the trill. Vibrato was considered an inseparable feature of the human voice in the seventeenth century. It is very difficult, for example, for a singer to execute a messa di voce or crescendo totally without vibrato. An important clue regarding this phenomenon is the vox humana stop in Spanish and Italian organs, which was always a trembling stop, as early as the 1500s. Yet this does not necessarily mean that vibrato was constant. In the twentieth century a concept of singing as a string of “beautiful pearls” developed. This is very different from the seventeenth-century aesthetic, in which the finest singers could alter their technique and their sound in order to adapt to the musical or dramatic context.

Singers today modify their technique so that the placement, color, and timbre of a note matches exactly the note before and after it, the textual or dramatic context notwithstanding. There are certain situations in which a seventeenth-century singer would have sung without vibrato—perhaps on a dissonance, a leading tone, in a
messa di voce crescente (a glissando within a half step), or on a particularly expressive interval such as a tritone. While consistent vibrato can homogenize the sound on all notes of the singers range, it does not allow for a demonstration of harmonic intelligence and expressivity that a seventeenth-century singer would have demanded. The disposizione della voce—the ability to sing fast notes in a glottal fashion—was a highly admired and necessary skill for the professional singer. This light, almost giggling technique, audible in the more intimate performing spaces of the seventeenth century, surely contributed to a softer volume and to a faster vibrato, since coloratura speed and vibrato speed are interrelated.

The Bel Canto Singing Style (III)

The Appoggiatura

Tosi devotes an entire chapter to the appoggiatura and recommends practicing this ornament in scalar passages, with an appoggiatura on each step of the scale. Agricola, strongly favoring on-beat execution of the appoggiatura, is careful to stress that the location of the syllable or word of the text underlay should occur on the appoggiatura itself rather than on the main note under which it is habitually written: “when a syllable falls on a main note, which itself is notated with an appoggiatura or any other ornament, then it [the syllable] must be pronounced on the appoggiatura.” Agricola’s rule referring to the on-beat performance of the appoggiatura must be understood in the context of earlier Baroque practice, in which the phrase anticipatione della syllaba referred to a situation in which an appoggiatura or a onenote grace similar to it actually preceded the beat and bore the syllable.

The Bel Canto Singing Style (II)

Diction

Tosi has a great deal to say about diction, and much of it pertains to the singing of divisions:

Every teacher knows that the divisions sound unpleasant on the third and the fifth vowels (the i or the u).10 But not everyone knows that, in good schools, they are not permitted even on the e and o if these two  vowels are pronounced closed. . . Even more ridiculous is when a singer articulates too loudly and with such forceful aspiration that, for example, when we should hear a division on the a, he seems to be saying ga ga ga. This applies also to the other vowels.

Some earlier Italian writers, such as Camillo Maffei, said that the u vowel sounded like howling, especially since the Italian word for howling is ululando. The i was rejected because it was thought to produce the sounds made by small animals. Agricola is critical of basses who, when singing divisions, “put an h in front of every note, which they then aspirate with such force that, besides producing an unpleasant sound, it causes them unnecessarily to expend so much air that they are forced to breathe almost every half measure.

The Bel Canto Singing Style (I)

Of the various national styles of singing in the Baroque era, the Italian style was the mainstream. There has been a more or less unbroken tradition of bel canto singing ever since Giulio Caccini wrote about it in his Le nuove musiche (1602). The classical bel canto style crystallized in the late seventeenth century, when musical considerations triumphed over the text-dominated style of the early part of the century. By that time Italian opera had become something of a commodity, and Italian signers were in demand throughout Europe. Unfortunately, for about the last three quarters of the century there are essentially no Italian treatises on singing. There are, to be sure, numerous treatises from German writers of this period, but while they were enthusiastic admirers of the Italian style, few of them had direct association with bel canto singers. Pier Francesco Tosi, a castrato singer and actor of some note, was, however, thoroughly conversant with the bel canto style. His Opinioni de’ cantori antichi, e moderni was published in 1723, chronologically beyond the limits of this guide, but by that time Tosi was well into his seventies. His ideas about singing were formed during the closing decades of the seventeenth century, when he was at the height of his career. Moreover, the title of the book clearly indicates Tosi’s awareness of the “ancient”—by which he means the style of his own heyday as a singer—and the “modern” styles of singing, and it is clearly the former that he prefers. Tosi’s treatise was translated into English by J. E. Galliard (1743) and into German by J. F. Agricola (1757). The latter’s copious annotations are often quite illuminating, even for seventeenth-century practice, in spite of their late date.

National Singing Styles - Spain

Spanish contributions to musical developments in Italy were significant: the Spanish may have given Italy the castrato voice. Many elements from Spanish spoken theater (such as buffo parts, the character of the servant-confidant, and the mixture of different elements of social class) were incorporated into Italian opera. While these elements sparked many musical developments in Italy, they did not lead to the same degree of innovation in Spain, where the Baroque arrived much later than elsewhere in Europe. The court of Philip IV was conservative, the musical life of the chapel heavily steeped in the Renaissance Flemish tradition. Foreign influences on Spanish musical life in the second half of the century were also limited, though this was not
for lack of exposure.

The principal treatise we have for Spanish singing is Domenico Pietro Cerone’s El melopeo, published in Naples in 1613 and written in Spanish (not Cerone’s native language), possibly in order to curry favor with Philip III and the Spanish viceroy in Naples. A very conservative work, El melopeo nonetheless exerted a profound influence in Spain that lasted into the late eighteenth century. An enormous volume, it is the earliest music treatise still surviving that was brought to the New World.

Book VIII of El melopeo deals with glosas, which we might call in English “running divisions,” and with garganta technique, the throat articulation technique that singers used to execute them. One can view this section as Cerone’s diminution manual in the sixteenth-century tradition of Diego Ortiz, and of Tómas de Santa Maria, from whom Cerone borrowed some examples.

National Singing Styles - England (II)

Butler’s description of the countertenor voice also is puzzling: “The Countertenor or Contratenor, is so called, becaus it answeret the Tenor; thowgh commonly in higher keyz: and therefore is fittest for a man of a sweete shril voice.” What Butler meant by “shril” is unclear; it may simply be an indication of falsetto. Edward Huws Jones has argued that the English countertenor voice is equivalent to the modern tenor, the English “tenor” to the modern baritone.99 René Jacobs regards the low Purcellian countertenor and the French haute-contre as having “very much in common.” By the time of Purcell, the countertenor voice used both natural and falsetto registers.

John Playford’s translation of Caccini’s preface to Le nuove musiche (1602) was not published until the 1664 edition of A Breefe Introduction. Playford’s glosses on Caccini are of considerable interest, particularly with respect to the trillo. Playford indicated that one can approximate the sound of the trillo by shaking the finger upon the throat, and also that it could be done by imitating the “breaking of a sound in the throat which men use when they lure their hawks.”

National Singing Styles - England (I)

We have few English sources on singing from the seventeenth century, though there is a considerable body of material on oratory, rhetoric, and acting. The evolution from the lute songs of John Dowland to the continuo songs of the Lawes family (Henry and William) to the late songs of Henry Purcell shows remarkable developments in both declamatory style and vocal technique. Part of this evolution, of course, involved a synthesis of an indigenous English style with Italian and, to a lesser extent, French influences, in addition to the gradual development of professional singing. The migration of Italian music and musicians to England in the early decades of the century involved the madrigal more than monody.

Before about 1625, English solo singing largely perpetuated sixteenth-century practice. Only two court musicians arrived from Italy in the years between 1603 and 1618. A very few English musicians, notably Dowland, Nicholas Lanier, and possibly John Coprario, traveled to Italy. Robert Dowland published a lute-song version of Caccini’s “Amarilli, mia bella” in 1610, and other versions of this song (some quite florid) were circulated in manuscripts, but relatively few Italian monodies were exported to England.

National Singing Styles - Germany (II)

Praetorius, Wolfgang Caspar Printz, and Falck all used the term zittern in connection with what we would call a trill today, but which they called tremolo. Mylius also used zittern to refer to the two-note trill, while Printz and Falck used it in conjunction with the single-note trillo. Zittern thus seems to refer to vocal agility, implying throat articulation, akin to the Italian term dispositione. Printz used the term Bebung to describe the trilletto, probably an intensity vibrato: “Trilletto is only a vibrating [Bebung] of the voice so much gentler than the trillo that it is almost not struck [with the throat].” Intensity vibrato or “shimmer” gives vitality to a tone while keeping the pitch steady. Printz’s description of his trilletto seems to have been the basis for Martin Heinrich Fuhrmann’s tremoletto, which he described in terms not unlike Printz’s: “Tremoletto is a vibrating [Bebung] of the voice, almost not struck at all, and happens on one note or in one Clave, as is best to show on the violin, when one lets the finger remain on the string and as with the shake, slightly moves and makes the tone shimmer [schwebend].”84 Furhmann also gave a musical example, shown in Example 1.2. This further clarifies Praetorius’s use of the term bebende. The evidence in the German sources clearly supports the use of intensity vibrato and strongly suggests very limited use of pitch-fluctuation vibrato as a fundamental
aspect of the German vocal aesthetic throughout the seventeenth century.

National Singing Styles - Germany (I)

German sources on singing from the seventeenth century outnumber both Italian and French. As the chart in Figure 1.1 indicates, there are strong links among the German sources. The model established by Michael Praetorius in Syntagma Musicum III (1619) was imitated throughout the century by writers who tried to convey what they understood of the Italian style of ornamented singing. Though there was increasing impact of Italian musical developments in Germany as the century progressed, the vocal aesthetic that emerges from German treatises changed relatively little, except in its attitude toward falsetto.

Praetorius called attention to the close connection between singing and oratory. It was important for a singer to have not only a good voice, but also an understanding and knowledge of music, skill in ornamentation (which required throat articulation), good diction, and proper pronunciation. We can establish from Praetorius that the Germans ca.1620, like the Italians ca. 1600, used throat articulation, prized the development of good breath control, and did not favor using falsetto. Praetorius’s description of the requisites of a good singing voice has been quoted frequently, in modern times often as a defense for using continuous vibrato:

The requisites are these: that a Singer first have a beautiful, lovely, agile [zittern] and vibrating [bebende] voice . . . and a smooth [glatten], round throat for diminutions; secondly, the ability to hold a continuous long breath without many inhalations; thirdly, in addition, a voice . . . which he can hold with a full and bright [hellem] sound without Falsetto (which is a half and forced voice).

National Singing Styles - France (II)

The French found a way of compensating for most singers’ tendency to spend less time on consonants in singing than in speaking. They intuitively understood what we now know scientifically, that to reach a threshold of intelligibility, a brief acoustic event such as a consonant needs to be higher in amplitude or longer in time. They also understood the expressive parameters in amplitude and duration to convey meaning and feeling. With consonants voiced on a precise pitch, we can be virtually certain that subvocal “scooping” was not a general feature of French singing at this time.

Both Mersenne and Bacilly describe a quality of the ideal singing voice that is related to harmonie, a certain quality of body or focus in the sound that was independent of the overall size of the voice. Mersenne describes this quality as being like “a canal which is always full of water” as opposed to a “thin trickle,” while Bacilly describes it as the “amount of tone or harmonie present in the voice” that “nourishes the ear.”

National Singing Styles - France (I)

We are fortunate in having several detailed sources on French singing from the seventeenth century, the most important of which are Bénigne de Bacilly’s Remarques curieuses sur l’art de bien chanter (1668) and Marin Mersenne’s Harmonie universelle (1636). French singing did not undergo the radical changes seen in the Italian school at the turn of the seventeenth century, though the French were certainly aware of developments in Italy. Mersenne, for example, mentions Caccini, who performed at court in 1604/1605. There were notable champions of the Italian style of singing in France, as demonstrated by various efforts (ultimately unsuccessful) to establish Italian opera there. One of Louis XIII’s favorite singers, Pierre de Nyert, the teacher of Bacilly and Michel Lambert, studied briefly in Rome, and a handful of castratos sang at the court of Louis XIV prior to 1700.50 Although Italianisms became increasingly present in French music toward the end of the century, in the main the style and technique of French singers differed considerably from those of their Italian counterparts.

Early seventeenth-century French singing retained many aspects of sixteenthcentury technique, particularly with respect to breathing. I have described the French approach to breathing as a “steady-state” system, where air pressure, speed, and volume remain virtually constant. Such a system is perfectly suited to the quantitative nature of the seventeenth-century French language and to the chanson mesurée and air de cour. Throat articulation, known in France as disposition de la gorge or simply disposition, was also used in the elaborate doubles, ornamented second verses of airs, as well as for agréments.

National Singing Styles - Italy, ca. 1600–1680 (III)

In the absence of a mid-century Italian source on singing as comprehensive as Tosi’s Opinioni of 1723, the music itself can provide clues to the evolution of vocal technique. In order to accommodate the wider ranges, singers likely used more than one vocal register. Falsetto and head voice would have been necessary to achieve the upper extension of the range. For female singers, head voice alone may have sufficed, though there is nothing from a laryngeal point of view to have precluded the use of falsetto at any point in the range.41 Tosi is the first source to discuss this issue, though it is unclear whether his equation of voce di testa with falsetto extends to all voice types.42 We can only surmise how smoothly blended was the transition between registers before the end of the seventeenth century. It was certainly of the utmost importance to Tosi, who preferred head voice for executing passaggi and other ornaments. A blended register transition still did not mean that the Italians preferred a unified color to the voice; composers exploited the contrasts between the top and bottom. Like pop singers today, Italian Baroque singers were adept at switching between different registers, laying the foundation for the cantar di sbalzo techniques so essential
for singers in the eighteenth century.

National Singing Styles - Italy, ca. 1600–1680 (II)

Modern singers, trained to sing with absolute rhythmic precision, need time to become comfortable with the concept of sprezzatura. The easiest way to incorporate it into singing is by first declaiming the text in an impassioned way as an orator or actor might. When I am not singing from memory, I often use a small prompt book with the texts set out according to the poetic lines, so that I can see the text as poetry freed from the musical notation. Sprezzatura can be equally daunting to a continuo player used to counting measures. In Ensemble Chanterelle, a group with which I perform regularly, theorbist Catherine Liddell has developed a notation system for works in stile recitativo, shown in Example 1.1, which reproduces only the singer’s text and the bass pitches corresponding to the correct syllables, without any durational values (plus any necessary figures and some shorthand reminders about chord arpeggiation). This allows me total rhythmic freedom, frees her from unnecessary visual information, and enables both of us to make each performance responsive to the inspiration of the moment.

Perhaps the overriding characteristic of Italian singing in the first part of the century was the passionate engagement of the singer with the music, which in turn engaged the audience. Marco da Gagliano described hearing Jacopo Peri:

National Singing Styles - Italy, ca. 1600–1680 (I)

During the 1580s and 1590s, florid singing in Italy reached a zenith with singers who excelled in the gorgia style of embellishments. These singers included women, boys, castratos, high and low natural male voices, and falsettists. The term gorgia (= throat) identified the locus of this technique, involving an intricate neuromuscular coordination of the glottis, which rapidly opens and closes while changing pitch or reiterating a single pitch, an action that is apparently innate to the human voice. A basic threshold of speed is required in order for throat articulation to work easily. The glottal action can be harder or softer depending on the degree of clarity and the emotional expression desired; the Italians apparently used a harder articulation than the French. In 1639 André Maugars observed that the Italians “perform their passages with more roughness, but today they are beginning to correct that.” Throat articulation works best when the vocal tract is relaxed and there is not excessive breath pressure.

Lodovico Zacconi described gorgia singers as follows:

These persons, who have such quickness and ability to deliver a quantity of figures in tempo with such velocity, have so enhanced and made beautiful the songs that now whosoever does not sing like those singers gives little pleasure to his hearer, and few of such singers are held in esteem. This manner of singing, and these ornaments are called by the common people gorgia; this is nothing other than an aggregation or collection of many eighths and sixteenths gathered in any one measure. And it is of such nature that, because of the velocity into which so many notes are compressed, it is much better to learn by hearing it than by written examples. 

National Singing Styles

Divers Nations have divers fashions, and differ in habite, diet, studies,
speech and song. Hence it is that the English doe carroll; the French sing;
the Spaniards weepe; the Italians . . . caper with their voyces; the others
barke; but the Germanes (which I am ashamed to utter) doe howle like
wolves.
—Andreas Ornithoparcus, Musicæ active micrologus (1515),
translated by John Dowland, 1609

As to the Italians, in their recitatives they observe many things of which
ours are deprived, because they represent as much as they can the passions
and affections of the soul and spirit, as, for example, anger, furor, disdain,
rage, the frailties of the heart, and many other passions, with a violence so
strange that one would almost say that they are touched by the same emotions
they are representing in the song; whereas our French are content to
tickle the ear, and have a perpetual sweetness in their songs, which deprives
them of energy.
—Marin Mersenne, Harmonie universelle, 1636

Although one might assume that the human voice has not changed over the centuries, many elements of seventeenth-century vocal performance practice differed considerably from modern singing. There was no single method of singing seventeenth-century music; indeed, there were several distinct national schools, each of which evolved during the course of the century. The differences between French and Italian singing were widely recognized in this period, and the merits of each were debated well into the eighteenth century.1 There were also distinctive features in German, English, and Spanish singing.

Top 10 Symphonies You Should Own

Want to start a symphony collection, but don't know where to begin? Are you looking to expand upon what you already have? This list of symphonies will provide you with a variety of musical styles upon which to build or add to your symphony collection.

1. Mahler Symphony No. 9 in D Major

If you've never heard Mahler's Symphony No. 9, grab a blanket, sit by the fire, and melt into the lush orchestration Mahler so masterfully created. Mahler wrote this symphony knowing that the end of his life was near. Some believe the fourth movement represents the five psychological stages of death: denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Mahler undoubtedly fits the romantic style to the "t"; heart-wrenching tension followed by ever-so-sweet resolve. Learn more about the life of Mahler in this Mahler profile.

2. Haydn Symphony No. 34 in d minor

One of Haydn's lesser known works, this flawless piece from the classical period is perfectly balanced with emotion and art. The first movement melodies float above rivers of low tones. The upbeat rhythms of the second movement are sure to make you dance; it's any Haydn lover's "pop" music. The third movement menuetto brings images of courtly balls and high tea. The final movement expertly brings closure to the symphony and sends the audience home happy and content. Learn more about Haydn in this Haydn profile.

Sound manufacturing Solutions

Music has always been a passion. We understand the bond between the moving image and the audio that goes with it. Our facility comes with an ever-growing royalty-free music library for finding that perfect piece of music, along with a huge bank of sound effects for transitions and foley.A creative solution for media applications including audio books, commercials, mobile applications, film, television productions and video games. Sdesignme's Sound Design service employs a vast range of audio development and processing tools for the purpose of sound creation, manipulation and replication. Whether it's for a blockbuster film or a piece of visual art our artists and engineers are at your service.


All of our Sound manufacturing solutions are provided at a set rate and consist of one free modification. This way there is no need to fear about emptying your wallet in order to get the audio you want. All songs manufacturing solutions when several paths are presented. Simply choose the service that best matches your venture to find out more or if you'd like to talk with someone from Refinery straight, just check out our contact page form.

What Is a Rhythm Section?

The Rhythm Section, artwork by Suzanne Cerny

A rhythm section is a core group of instruments within an ensemble that together play a  groove/accompaniment under a lead instrument or vocalist. Most commonly, particularly in contemporary groove-based popular music since the 1950s, these roles are the drumbeat, bass, and a chord comping parts, fulfilled by a drum set, electric bass, and guitar and/or piano/keyboard. (Some writers only include bass and drums in the rhythm section, particularly in rock "power trio" contexts.) Together, the players of these parts define the music’s characteristic metric, rhythmic, and harmonic components, which evokes and defines the style and unique character of the song or composition.

The exact instruments that constitute a rhythm section vary depending on the style and era. For example, 1940s jazz rhythm sections tended to have a small drum set, upright bass, and piano. A contemporary Afro-Cuban jazz rhythm section will likely include hand percussion in addition to the drum set. An electronica or other dance style rhythm section will typically have a drum machine, MIDI loops, or other electronic source of drumbeat sounds and electronic synths for bass and chords—possibly no acoustic instruments at all.

15 Drum Gear Hacks

Here are some hacks to keep your drum gear in line.

1. Put a little drop of glue inside of the rubber feet on your cymbal stands. Any kind of glue is fine, but probably rubber cement is best. That will keep them from falling off and getting lost, as is their wont.

2. A great place to store your drum key while you’re playing is in the air vent hole on your bass drum. For softer gigs, it may rattle a bit and won’t work, but otherwise, that’s a great place for it. (See image.)

3. Make a soft mallet by using the butt end of a drumstick. Wrap the furry side of adhesive backed Velcro strips around the stick. It works great, very much like a Swizzle stick but at a fraction of the cost. (See image.)

4. Wrap a little bit of duct tape around the middle of Blastix (kind of a cross between a brush and a stick, nylon strands). The duct tape holds them together and fattens the sound. (See image.)

DJ Melbourne for Hire in the musical minded city of Melbourne

If you happen to be in Melbourne, seek for the best DJ services and you will be presented with the most vibrant music services. Your guests surely need to be kept livelier throughout their stay and that's why you really need the best DJ services.

From Melbourne DJ, you will be given professional DJs who are very flexible and can easily adapt to the state and situations that are present. Having the most modern state of the art equipment, the Disk jockeys from Melbourne Disk jockeys will be able to give you services that will make you want more of their services. They are well trained and presentable DJs who will really adapt to the genre of music that you decide together with the way you want it done. In addition to all these nice qualities, you will not have to hire an extra truck to transport the equipment to the place you are holding the bash from. There are several trucks and a suitable one will be taken from their number of trucks to transport the visual effects and the DJ equipment to the destination.

Dream of Touring the World? It's Not Out of Reach!

Imagine for a moment that you're an indie rock artist and you're sleeping after a full day of marketing, performing, and let's be real, partying. While you're passed out in Lawrence, KS (it's a great college town, so it makes sense you had a gig/party there), a music-aficionado in Germany is wanting some new music to wake up to. He logs into Spotify and searches for bands similar to Queen and your group pops up because of various algorithms that associate your sound with Queen! Turns out our German friend loves the catchiness of your melodies and rich vocal harmonies (which is probably why you're associated with Queen) and begins sharing your music with his 1000's of German friends. When you wake up and login to your computer, you have a message: "10 albums sold. Location: Munich, Germany." Way cool, right?! Now you can connect with fans in Munich and begin devising a world tour. So how can you make this a reality? It starts with a digital music distributor.


What's a DMD?

Music Distributors exist for the purpose of making sure your music is sold through the biggest digital retailers. These are iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Amazon MP3, Rhapsody and MySpace. This increases your exposure because you describe your music using similar artists and upon uploading your music, retailers then log this info into their database. Suddenly, you're using an asset as a tool to connect with potential fans.
A common trait among music distributors and an extremely important one is sales tracking. This service gives you detailed reports on how much you're making and where. These statements will be a critical part of your marketing attack as they will let you know where your efforts are paying off. My advice: put more muscle into areas that are working and don't worry about areas where that aren't. (See our German example above).

Academy Award Trophy of Country Music Awards

Academy award trophy can be made for the country Music Awards. Two country music performing artists, Eddie Miller and Tommy Wiggins joined two club owners, Mickey and Chris Christensen to found the Country and Western Music Academy. It aims to realize their collective dream of gaining support of west coast musical artists in order to promote country music in the thirteen states comprising the West Coast. The CWMA presented its first country music awards ceremony to honor excellence in achievement within the country music industry from during the past year two years later. The event marked the first country music awards backed by a major organization and succeeded in shedding the spotlight on the genre for all the public to take notice.

Winners of the first ceremony included Buck Owens who is Top Male Vocalist; the Buckaroos is his band as Band of the Year; and Bonnie Owens as Top Female Vocalist; all performers based on the West Coast in keeping with the organization's mission to bring such artists recognition. Indicative of their membership is composed primarily of peers in country music also based on the West Coast.

Why Acoustic Guitars Have Only One Strap Button

If you own, or have ever even taken a look at an acoustic guitar, most of them only have a single knob or button on the bottom where you can connect a strap. Have you ever questioned why? I have.


While I've searched Google, Yahoo, Bing and Wikipedia, I can not find an answer as to why. I've read the web sites of Taylor, Martin, Gibson, Fender and many more manufacturers and they definitely do not talk about it. I can not even find anybody on a guitar forum who has hypothesized as to why.

I'm not the only one who questioned that and thankfully, somebody named Lucas Man provided this explanation on YahooAnswers.

Top 10 Violin Concertos of All Time

If you're looking for objectivity, you won't find it here. I'm a psychologist by profession and an amateur violinist. So the following list and the explanations are purely subjective, not the opinion of a professional musician or musical scholar, and will probably change by the time I finish writing this. Nevertheless, as of today, here are the top 10 violin concertos of all time (in rank order), and why I think so.

Number 1 – Ludwig van Beethoven, Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major, Opus 61, written in 1806."The Gentle Giant." A serene piece of music made of the simplest materials but of immense scope and structure. One of the greatest cultural achievements of Western civilization. Listen particularly for the 5-beat element present almost everywhere in the 1st Movement.

How to Self Promote Your Music

Unless you have major label money behind you, the ability to self promote your music is one of the most important skills you can have. When you don't have money to hire PR people to run media campaigns for you, it is up to you to make sure people know about the music you are making. Getting started can be a little overwhelming, however. These steps will help you start out on the right foot, to make sure all of the right people are standing up and taking notice of you.

Here's How:

10 Great Places to Promote Your Music Online

It’s no earth-shattering news that the internet has basically changed the music industry for good. Technologies like file sharing, social media and eCommerce are giving artists more opportunities to expose their music to larger audiences and increase their fan base . But with so many websites and communities available, choosing the right online venues to promote your music on can be challenging. To help you make good choices, we put together a list of 10 great places to promote your music online today. It reviews the most popular, most effective online hangouts you should join (do let us know if we missed something!).

Wix

First things first, any serious musician needs a website where they can show off their art. Like the album art of days gone by, websites are the first place that your fans turn to to get to know more about your music, your art and your personal style. The only website builder designed with musicians in mind, Wix offers a variety of fully customizable free website templates that allow you to show off who you are and what you’re all about. Wix also makes sharing your music incredibly simple with fully integrated music streaming apps, that put the music sharing services you already use on the forefront of your own site.