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.


Sherman and Brown (“Singing Passaggi”) conducted controlled observations of four different methods for rapid articulation, using microphone and electroglottographic waveforms, airflow waveforms, and video laryngoscopy. Their conclusion is that glottal articulation better reproduces the speed, clarity, and separation of notes admired by Renaissance and Baroque writers than any of the other three methods (mentally reproducing the vowel, abdominal/diaphragmatic pulsation, or adjusting the vibrato rate to coincide with the tempo of the diminutions). They address the distinction between glottal attack, which can be damaging to the voice, and glottal articulation, in which “the breath flow must be gentle and steady, and abdominal musculature should remain relatively relaxed.”

Playford, admiring the ability of a particular singer in executing trills very exactly, inquired of him how he practiced. The singer replied,

I used at my first learning the Trill, to imitate that breaking of a Sound in the Throat which Men use when they Lure their Hawks, as He/he/he/he/he’; which he used slow at first, and after more swift on several Notes, higher and lower in sound, till he became perfect therein.

Similarly, Sherman proposes using laughter as a springboard in teaching glottal articulation and finds that even inexperienced amateur singers rapidly improve in their ability to sing long runs of allegro sixteenth notes cleanly.

Conclusion

All modern performances of early music represent a series of compromises. Even the most historically informed, scholarly, and dedicated choral director is unlikely to hide his or her performers behind a screen, for example, or require singers to learn all their music by solmization in the old hexachord system, or forgo certain repertory altogether for lack of boy trebles. Musicians who are committed to historically informed performance must strike a balance between historical accuracy and an artistically satisfying performance; and the balance may shift with every piece of music on the program. Directors of student ensembles, understandably, will also place a priority on the education of the performers themselves, which introduces yet another set of compromises. To be conscious of the compromises you make and to articulate them clearly for your students and your audiences is one of the most important aspects of the art of the ensemble director.