Thereupon, Dr. Burney relates, he began to sing with such amazing
rapidity that the orchestra found it difficult to keep up with him.
Dr. Dommer justly comments on this story that, for such racing with an
orchestra, a singer would be hissed to-day by musical people.
It was not only quick and animated songs that were thus overloaded
with meaningless embroideries by the sopranists and the prima donnas
that followed them. Slow movements, which ought to breathe a spirit of
melancholy, appear to have been especially selected as background for
these vocal fireworks. I need not dwell on the unnaturalness of this
style. To run up and down the scale wildly and persistently in singing
a slow and sad song, is as consistent as it would be for an orator to
grin and yodle while delivering a funeral oration.
A question might be raised as to how far the great Italian composers
are responsible for this degradation of the vocal art to the level of
the circus. The public, it might be argued, wanted the florid style
of song; and if Rossini and Donizetti had refused to write in the
style admired by them, they would have been neglected in favor of
other and less gifted composers.
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