This page intentionally left blank Hiller’s Treatise on Vocal Performance and Ornamentation was published in Germany in 1780 and is an important manual on vocal technique and performance in the eighteenth century.Hiller was a masterly educator and was active not only as a teacher but also as a critic,theorist,composer,conductor,and music director. Thus, his observations served not only to raise the standards of singing in Germany,based on the Italian model,but to present complicated material,par- ticularly ornamentation, in a manner that his peers, the middle class, could emulate. This present edition,translated with an introduction and extensive commen- tary by musicologist Suzanne J.Beicken,makes Hiller’s treatise available for the first time in English.With its emphasis on practical aspects of ornamentation, declamation,and style,it will be valuable to instrumentalists as well as singers and is a significant contribution to the understanding of performance practice in the eighteenth century.  .  is Lecturer in historical musicology at the University of Maryland and is also a performer,concert manager,and music administrator. She is founder of the award-winning Maryland Boy Choir. CAMBRIDGE MUSICAL TEXTS AND MONOGRAPHS General editors:John Butt and Laurence Dreyfus This series has as its centers of interest the history of performance and the history of instruments.It includes annotated translations of authentic historical texts on music and monographs on various aspects of historical performance and instrumental history. Recent titles John Butt Bach Interpretation:Articulation Marks in the Sources of J.S.Bach 0 521 37239 9 Nicholas Thistlethwaite The Making of the Victorian Organ 0 521 66364 4 (paperback) Christopher Page (trans.and ed.) Summa musice:A Thirteenth-Century Manual for Singers 0 521 40420 7 Ardal Powell (trans.and ed.) The Virtuoso Flute Player by Johann George Tromlitz 0 521 39067 2 (hardback) 0 521 39977 7 (paperback) Beth Bullard (trans.and ed.) Musica getutscht:A Treatise on Musical Instruments by Sebastian Virdung 0 521 30830 5 David Rowland A History of Pianoforte Pedalling 0 521 40266 2 John Butt Music Education and the Art of Performance in the German Baroque 0 521 43327 4 Rebecca Harris-Warrick and Carol Marsh Musical Theatre at the Court of Louis XIV Le Mariage de la Grosse Cathos 0 521 38012 X Julianne C.Baird (trans.and ed.) Introduction to the Art of Singing by Johann Friedrich Agricola 0 521 45428 X Valerie Walden One Hundred Years of Violoncello A History of Technique and Performance Practice,1740–1840 0 521 55449 7 Bernard Brauchli The Clavichord 0 521 63067 3 Illustration on title page of Hiller’s Anweisung zum musikalisch-zierlichen Gesange(Treatise on Vocal Performance and Ornamentation), published in Germany in 1780. Photograph by John Consoli TREATISE ON VOCAL PERFORMANCE AND ORNAMENTATION BY JOHANN ADAM HILLER     SUZANNE J. BEICKEN UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND           The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom    The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia Ruiz de Alarcón 13, 28014 Madrid, Spain Dock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa http://www.cambridge.org ©Cambridge University Press 2004 First published in printed format 2001 ISBN 0-511-03718-X eBook(Adobe Reader) ISBN 0-521-35354-8 hardback Contents Acknowledgments page ix Translator’s introduction and commentary 1 Note on the text and musical examples 32       33 Preface 35 Dedication 49 1 On the qualities of the human voice and its improvement 51 2 On good performance and how to use the voice 56 3 On good performance,with regard to text and music 66 4 On good performance,with regard to ornaments 72 5 On good performance,with regard to passaggi 101 6 On good performance,with regard to the various genres of vocal forms and in consideration of performing in various places 110 7 On cadenzas 121 8 On arbitrary variation of the aria 135 Appendix:Biographical information on musicians mentioned by Hiller 155 Bibliography 185 Index 190 vii