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.

Printz provided a very detailed description of the lightness and rapidity of throat articulation, which was the principal technique for executing ornaments. He recommended keeping the mouth in an average opening, the cheeks in a natural position (not raised, as in a “smile” position), the tongue relaxed, and the jaw still. Printz’s
comments should dispel any notion that a single-note trillo sounded like a bleating of a goat: “Throat articulation (the beating in the throat) happens very gently, so that the voice does not become fatigued [geschleisset].”

In the second half of the century, the Germans seem to have followed an evolution similar to the Italian school, though a bit later, in mixing the falsetto with the natural voice. With the greater cultivation of different voice registers, the Germans also followed the Italians in applying the “pyramid” shape of the voice. Printz articulated this concept quite explicitly: “The more a voice ascends and the higher it is, the more subtle and softer it should sing, and the lower a voice gets, the greater the strength should be given to it.”87 The pyramid concept provides the dynamics that are not notated in the score.

The German vocal ideal then was one of a lovely, light, well-supported voice that accorded itself to the meaning of the words, was agile, unforced, and “shimmering” (i.e., with intensity vibrato), using falsetto only when absolutely necessary at the top of the range and, in the second half of the century, following the “pyramid” shape of the Italian school.

Printz, like Bacilly and Mersenne, understood the need for greater clarity in singing consonants, especially in larger spaces. His solution was to make the consonants higher in amplitude (not longer in duration as discussed above for French singing), with a forceful, hard pronunciation:

The consonants should be very strongly pronounced, especially in large rooms or in open spaces. Vowels are easy to do on account of their sounds, but not consonants. So that one can understand the consonants from far away, they must be pronounced harder than in normal speech, yea almost excessively hard.

The German language, like Italian, is qualitative. German writers recognized the dynamic ebb and flow of the language in good oratory and in good singing. It is likely, then, that German singers used a flexible breath stream similar to the Italians’, whose style(s) and technique(s) of singing they so frequently emulated.

(by A Performer's Guide to Seveteenth-Century Music)