Andrew Lawrence-King

How did Shakespeare’s verses sound, as he and other actors of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men recited them on the stage of the Globe Theatre? New research into the performance practice of seventeenth-century music suggests that this question can now be answered in considerable detail.

On November 13th 1664, Samuel Pepys spent the afternoon reciting ‘To be or not to be’, and in the 1680s, guitarist Cesare Morelli set the soliloquy to music for him, as an
Italian-style Recitative.

Now opera director Andrew Lawrence-King applies to Morelli’s setting new insights into the performance of 17th-century Italian Recitative, in order to reveal for modern actors, directors and scholars hidden secrets of period declamation in Shakespearian speech.

Musical notation may be the closest we can ever approach to a recording of Shakespeare himself speaking.

Essential reading for anyone interested in artistic research applied to music This book is the first anthology of writings about the emerging subject of artistic experimentation in music. This subject, as part of the cross-disciplinary field of artistic research, cuts across boundaries of the conventional categories of performance practice, music analysis, aesthetics, and music pedagogy. The texts, most of them specially written for this volume, have a common genesis in the explorations of the Orpheus Research Centre in Music (ORCiM) in Ghent, Belgium. The book critically examines experimentation in music of different historical eras. It is essential reading for performers, composers, teachers, and others wanting to inform themselves of the issues and the current debates in the new field of artistic research as applied to music. The publication is accompanied by a CD of music discussed in the text, and by an online resource of video illustrations of specific issues. Contributors Paulo de Assis (ORCiM), Richard Barrett (Institute of Sonology, The Hague), Tom Beghin (McGill University), William Brooks (University of York, ORCiM), Nicholas G. Brown (University of East Anglia), Marcel Cobussen (University of Leiden), Kathleen Coessens (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, ORCiM); Paul Craenen (Director Musica, Impulse Centre for Music), Darla Crispin (Norwegian Academy of Music), Stephen Emmerson (Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University, Brisbane), Henrik Frisk (Malmö Academy of Music), Bob Gilmore (ORCiM), Valentin Gloor (ORCiM), Yolande Harris (Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media – DXARTS), University of Washington, Seattle), Mieko Kanno (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), Andrew Lawrence-King (Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, Royal Danish Academy of Music, Copenhagen, University of Western Australia), Catherine Laws (University of York, ORCiM), Stefan Östersjö (ORCiM), Juan Parra (ORCiM), Larry Polansky (University of California, Santa Cruz), Stephen Preston, Godfried-Willem Raes (Logos Foundation, Ghent), Hans Roels (ORCiM), Michael Schwab (ORCiM, Royal College of Art, London, Zurich University of the Arts), Anna Scott (ORCiM), Steve Tromans (Middlesex University), Luk Vaes (ORCiM), Bart Vanhecke (KU Leuven, ORCiM)

Something special was happening around the year 1600. In London, audiences thronged to the Globe Theatre to hear words and music that evoked a 'demi-paradise', the 'havoc ... of war', 'the vasty fields of France' or a 'vision' of 'cloud-capp'd towers'. Piecing out the imperfections of a bare stage with their thoughts, spectators with their 'imaginary puissance' saw kings, kingdoms and horses: actors used 'imaginary forces' to work their new techniques of Personation.

This article presents the work of three scholars from three disciplinary areas, surveying the history of the Irish harp through the lenses of organology and musicology, supported by literary and mythological studies. The historical Irish harp, also known as Cláirseach or Early Gaelic harp, is simultaneously one of the world’s most famous and least known musical instruments. We see it on various romanticised “Irish” flags, on the State arms of Ireland (and indeed, representing Ireland, on those of the UK and Canada), on the Irish Presidential standard and the flag of the Irish province of Leinster, on Irish Euro coins, and painted on the tails of aeroplanes. The Guinness brewing company exports millions of images of the harp, labelling the bottles of its most famous product. But we hear it far less often, and our knowledge of its technical workings is clouded by a mist of repeated half-truths and patriotically inspired legends. The popular vision of ancient harpers is surrounded by a...

This article celebrates the 400th anniversary of Isabella Leonarda – 17th-century nun, singer & composer – in connection with the Earthly Angels performance and recording project. You can hear some of her music here: https://vaasabaroque.com/play/

In 1601, song-composer Caccini proclaimed the Baroque priorities of his ‘New Music’ as ‘Speech and Rhythm’. In Baroque speech and music, Rhetoric aims to ‘move the passions’. Leonarda’s precise notations contradict 20th-century assumptions that performers choose their own tempo, or that expressiveness requires rubato.

Poetic detail, moving passions, vocal effects, contrasts of tempo, expressive gestures: Leonarda does ‘act with the hand, act with the heart’. The composer’s hand notates subtle tempo changes, in which the serene movement of the Divine Hand is reflected in the diverse pulse-rates of a lover’s human heart. Violinists’ and continuo-players’ hands give life to instrumental music, a microcosm of heavenly perfection, yet swayed by the human passions of the Four Humours. All this is guided by Tactus and expressed by gestures.

Invisible to her 17th-century listeners, almost unnoticed by musicologists until recently, women’s hands are the heart and soul of Leonarda’s music.

An extended version of this article is published online at  http://andrewlawrenceking.com/2020/08/20/leonarda/

No, these first steps will not make you a master of Baroque Gesture. But they will create the conditions in which you can study and practise further.

So, whilst you are putting in the time to internalise the collected wisdom of Quintilian, Bulwer & Bonifacio, to memorise the complete works of Shakespeare and/or to translate all the ‘opera’ libretti from Anima e Corpo (1600) to Poppea (1643), to learn all of Negri’s courtly dances, and to become a rapier-master according to Capo Ferro, here are some quick and easy short-cuts, literally from the ground up.

How can academic research, continuing professional development, artistic training and international-level Early Opera performance be better integrated?

17th-century priorities guided Andrew Lawrence-King's 5-year investigation at the Australian Research Council's Centre for the History of Emotions and with IL CORAGO, the production company for historical staging. With a unique combination of academic rigour, unified focus, practitioner expertise and international scope, this program applied historical research to the development of new training methods for modern performers in some 2 dozen award-winning productions of Early Modern music-dramas and Historical Action worldwide.

The posted paper includes open access links to documentary films, videos and further articles.

Frescobaldi’s Preface to his 1615 collection of 'Toccate & Partite' is often cited in discussions of rhythm and tempo in early 17th-century music. Since Frescobaldi compares his style to concerted vocal/instrumental music, his Rules are relevant to ensemble situations well beyond solo keyboard-playing. Nevertheless, we should be cautious: precisely where and when can we apply the Frescobaldi Rules? Just how do they work in practice? These article offers a brief survey of the context in which Frescobaldi wrote, with an English translation and commentrary on the 1615 Rules and other Prefaces.

Flow, an optimal state for study, training and creativity, is often linked with the concept of The Zone, an ideal state for elite performance. Are these two states identical, or how might they differ?  Does it matter, which name we use? See more at www.TheFlow.Zone

In this first of two parts, I’m considering the similarities between Flow and The Zone, as two of the many different manifestations of Hypnotic trance. I’m arguing for very careful use of language, but not for the sake of a more rigorous theoretical discussion. The narrow definitions of some terms are highly contentious, so I’m deliberately accepting broad definitions in order to sidestep those theoretical debates. But I suggest that precise choice of terminology is vital, for utterly practical reasons.

In this article, I’m looking again at what Caccini actually wrote in his famous Preface to Le Nuove Musiche (Florence 1601/2), separating the facts from popular myths.

Actually, he only mentions sprezzatura twice, in the whole Preface. He only uses it once, in all his extensive music examples. Sprezzatura was not his priority. Sprezzatura was applied only to whatever did not matter. In contrast, he talks much more about divisions and  exclamations, and he uses these much more in his example songs. His priorities were text and rhythm.

But there is one other concept that he discusses far more than any other. Caccini’s text is dominated by the interlinked concepts of affetto (passion, or a passionate ornament) and effetto (a passionate ornament or the effect of such an ornament on the listener’s passions). He mentions affetto and its derivatives 32 times: include the 8 occurrences of effetto, and this interlinked concept has 40 hits. There is also an exclamatione affettuosa in the first of the three example songs.

This suggests that what is really ‘new’ about the nuove musiche is Caccini’s focus on passion (affetto), combined with the linking of such passion to a particular class of ornaments (affetti/effetti) and to the emotional effect on the listener (effetto).

Caccini does not equate sprezzatura with free rhythm.

The priorities for Caccini and the Camerata are Text & Rhythm. Sound is the lowest priority. Castiglione indicates that sprezzatura is applied to low-priority elements, suggesting that Caccini’s sprezzatura should be applied to Sound. Caccini’s phrases are sprezzatura di canto and canto in sprezzatura. He associates sprezzatura with ‘almost speaking’.

Caccini’s sprezzatura is a nonchalant voice-production that is ‘almost speaking’.