Page:Rolland - A musical tour through the land of the past.djvu/165

Rh assemblage of recitativo secco and arie. The recitativo secco was a monotonous and very rapid chant, not very greatly diverging from ordinary speech, and unrolling its interminable length to the accompaniment of the harpsichord solo, supported a few bass notes. The musician paid very little heed to it, reserving his powers for the aria, in which his technical skill and that of the interpreter were given free scope. The poet, on the other hand, retained an affection for the recitative, as it enabled the audience to hear his verses fairly distinctly. This rough and ready compromise satisfied no one. The poet and the composer were sacrificed in turn, and there was seldom or never a true partnership between them. However, since the second half of the seventeenth century an intermediate form had found its way into opera: a form which was gradually to assume the most prominent position, and which has retained that position (shall I say unfortunately?) in the modern lyrical drama: this was the recitative accompanied by the orchestra, the recitativo stromentale, or to give it a shorter and more popular title, the accompagnato. Lully employed it to excellent effect in his later operas. But in Italian opera the accompagnato did not become permanently established until the days of Händel and Leonardo da Vinci (1690–1732). The latter, whom President de Brosses called the Italian Lully, had already conceived the idea of employing the accompagnato at the climax of the dramatic action, in order to depict the passions excited to the state of frenzy. However, in his case