Sprechgesang (, "spoken singing") and Sprechstimme (, "spoken voice"), more commonly known as speak-singing in English, are expressionist musical vocal techniques between singing and speech. Though sometimes used interchangeably, Sprechgesang is directly related to the recitative manner of singing (in which pitches are sung, but the articulation is rapid and loose like speech), whereas Sprechstimme is closer to speech itself (because it does not emphasise any particular pitches).
Sprechgesang
Sprechgesang is more closely aligned with the long-used musical techniques of
recitative or parlando than is Sprechstimme. Where the term is employed in this way, it is usually in the context of the late
Romantic music or "
" that were composed by
Richard Wagner and others in the 19th century. Thus, Sprechgesang is often merely a German alternative to 'recitative'.
[: "'Sprechgesang' means a 'parlando' manner of singing, and indeed is translated in standard dictionaries as 'recitative,' whereas 'sprechstimme' in itself simply means 'speaking voice'".]
Sprechstimme
The earliest compositional use of the technique was in the first version of Engelbert Humperdinck's 1897 melodrama
Königskinder (in the 1910 version it was replaced by conventional singing), where it may have been intended to imitate a style already in use by singers of
and popular song,
[Griffiths, Paul, "Sprechgesang", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan, 2001).] but it is more closely associated with the composers of the Second Viennese School. Arnold Schoenberg asks for the technique in a number of pieces: the part of the Speaker in
Gurre-Lieder (1911) is written in his notation for Sprechstimme, but it was
Pierrot lunaire (1912) where he used it throughout and left a note attempting to explain the technique.
Alban Berg adopted the technique and asked for it in parts of his operas
Wozzeck and
Lulu.
History
In the foreword to
Pierrot lunaire (1912), Schoenberg explains how his Sprechstimme should be achieved. He explains that the indicated rhythms should be adhered to, but that whereas in ordinary singing a constant pitch is maintained through a note, here the singer "immediately abandons it by falling or rising. The goal is certainly not at all a realistic, natural speech. On the contrary, the difference between ordinary speech and speech that collaborates in a musical form must be made plain. But it should not call singing to mind, either."
[Schoenberg, Arnold. Verklärte Nacht and Pierrot Lunaire. Dover Publications. New York, 1994. (p. 54)]
For the first performances of Pierrot lunaire, Schoenberg was able to work directly with the vocalist and obtain exactly the result he desired, but later performances were problematic. Schoenberg had written many subsequent letters attempting to clarify, but he was unable to leave a definitive explanation and there has been much disagreement as to what was actually intended. Pierre Boulez wrote, "the question arises whether it is actually possible to speak according to a notation devised for singing. This was the real problem at the root of all the controversies. Schoenberg's own remarks on the subject are not in fact clear."[Pierre Boulez. Orientations. Faber and Faber. London, 1986. (From the essay "Speaking, Playing, Singing", written 1963, pp. 330–335)]
Schoenberg later used a notation without a traditional clef in the Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte (1942), A Survivor from Warsaw (1947) and his unfinished opera Moses und Aron, which eliminated any reference to a specific pitch, but retained the relative slides and articulations.
Notation
In Schoenberg's
musical notation, Sprechstimme is usually indicated by small crosses through the stems of the notes, or with the
notehead itself being a small cross.
Schoenberg's later notation (first used in his Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte, 1942) replaced the 5-line staff with a single line having no clef. The note stems no longer bear the 'x', as it is now clear that no specific pitch is intended, and instead relative pitches are specified by placing the notes above or below the single line (sometimes on ledger lines).
Berg notates several degrees of Sprechstimme, e. g. in Wozzeck, using single-line staff for rhythmic speaking, five-line staves with 'x' through the note stem, and a single stroke through the stem for close-to-singing Sprechstimme.
In modern usage, it is most common to indicate Sprechstimme by using an 'x' in place of a conventional notehead.[Gardner Read. Musical Notation. Taplinger Publishing, New York, 1979. (p. 288)]
Use in pop and rock music
Sprechgesang-style talk-singing has appeared in contemporary
pop music,
rock music,
punk rock, and
alternative rock music since the 1960s.
The Sprechgesang vocal style is also prominent in the
Windmill scene, with several groups featuring a vocalist that uses the talk-sing method.
- The following pop and rock artists have been described as featuring Sprechgesang or talk-sing vocals in their music
See also
External links
