Words Without Songs

Notes on the Program

by Michael Barrett

Spoken text set to music is in no way a 20th century art form as today’s program might suggest. In fact, it is an ancient genre, surely among the earliest musical forms. The Greek epic poems of Homer and Hesiod were performed live with the accompaniment of a plucked instrument. Poetry recitations were referred to as “singing,” though actually spoken. (The traditional style of Shakespeare declamation is still referred to as singing – think of Olivier or Gielgud). Indeed, Plato refers to the fine arts as “music”; not only actual music but poetry, theater, and philosophy. The Troubadours of southern France in the 12th and 13th centuries, whose influence spread throughout France and into Germany (Minnesingers) certainly maintained, or rediscovered this tradition. In the 18th century, as new text-with-music art form appeared as the Melodrama. J. J. Rousseau’s Pygmalion in 1762 was the earliest such work to combine spoken text with sung text, with occasional “incidental” music. This was followed by Ariadne auf Naxos and Medea, both in 1775. (can these entertainments have been far from the Greek theater of Aristophones?) One can follow this popular form through the 19th century, and see its influence in important works; Fidelio, Der Freischütz, Medelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Beethoven’s Egmont all rely heavily on the melodrama.

The melodrama has survived the 19th century and found an important place in today’s repertory in the guise of the narrated musical work. Some are traditional in their direct storytelling way (Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat, Strauss’s Enoch Arden, and the famous Carnival of the Animals and Peter and the Wolf), while others have been groundbreaking (Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire).

The complete notes are now available for purchase.