Musicologists supporting singers: The historically informed performance of vocal appoggiatura

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.