Romantic anatomies of performance

281 Pages·2014·4.09 MB·English

by  James Q. Davies

Romantic Anatomies of
Performance
J. Q. Davies
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley Los Angeles London
Romantic Anatomies of Performance
Th e publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the
Ahmanson Foundation Humanities Endowment Fund of the
University of California Press Foundation.
Romantic Anatomies of
Performance
J. Q. Davies
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley Los Angeles London
University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university
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University of California Press
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University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2014 by Th e Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Davies, J. Q., 1973–
Romantic anatomies of performance / J. Q. Davies.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-520-27939-1 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Music—19th century—History and criticism. 2. Music—
Performance—History. I. Title.
ml160.d257 2014
781.4′309034—dc23
2013032716
Manufactured in the United States of America
22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In keeping with a commitment to support environmentally responsible
and sustainable printing practices, UC Press has printed this book on
Natures Natural, a fi ber that contains 30% post-consumer waste and
meets the minimum requirements of ansi/niso z39.48–1992 (r 1997)
(Permanence of Paper).
To My Family
My primitive tongue
is trying to articulate
stone and water,
trees and stars,
naming god in images
that taste of gall and honey.
—Don Maclennan (2007)
contents
List of Illustrations and Musical Examples ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
1. “Veluti in Speculum”: Th e Twilight of the Castrato 13
2. Refl ecting on Refl ex: A Touching New Fact about Chopin 41
3. Th e Sontag-Malibran Stereotype 66
4. Boneless Hands / Th alberg’s Ready-Made Soul / Velvet Fingers 93
5. In Search of Voice: Nourrit’s Voix Mixte, Donzelli’s Bari-Tenor 123
6. Franz Liszt, Metapianism, and the Cultural History of the Hand 152
Epilogue 180
Notes 185
Works Cited 239
Index 257

illustrations and musical examples
FIGURES
1. Louis Marks’s depiction of Velluti 26
2. “Caro suono lusinghier” 32
3. A view of Bichat’s “little brains” 47
4. Paolo Mascagni, Tavole fi gurate di alcune parti organiche
del corpo umano 52
5. A neuromuscular view of the insulated hand 53
6. Chopin’s Étude op. 25, no. 3, coda, with fi ngerings at m. 69 60
7. Chopin’s Étude op. 25, no. 3, mm. 1–16 61
8. A phantom hand sounds the melody in Fantaisie pour le piano 96
9. Th e operatic “slow movement” of Kalkbrenner’s Eff usio musica 108
10. Jacques-Marie Delpech’s apparatus for a straight spine and erect head 112
11. Th e problematic leg-arm homology 116
12. Young and Delcambre’s type-composing machine 120
13. Rosenberg’s composing machine 121
14. Manuel García fi ls searches for voice in Traité complet de l’art
du chant 127
15. Francesco Bennati, Recherches sur le mécanisme de la voix humaine 128
16. Johann Nepomuk Czermák, Du laryngoscope et de son emploi en physiologie
et en médecine 129
17. “Do” and “Re” as imagined in Gesualdo Lanza, Th e Elements of
Singing 131
18. Édouard Fournié’s view of glottis confi gurations 132
ix