Musicologists supporting singers: The historically informed performance of vocal appoggiatura
Musicologists supporting singers: The historically informed performance of vocal appoggiatura

Summary/Abstract: One of the topics in which the science of music can contribute most to excellence in performance is that of the historically informed performance of music from the past. I will propose as an example the issue of the prosodic appoggiatura, a particular type of melodic appoggiatura that is almost never written down by composers in the score, but which should always be performed by singers. The examples I give demonstrate that this performance practice was not limited to the eighteenth century, but remained in use until the beginning of the twentieth century, when it was lost due to a misunderstood respect for the written signs in the score.

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