Music, men and manners in France and Italy, 1770 / Charles Burney

urn:iso:std:iso:639:ed-3:eng

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text excerpt

After dinner to the Franciscan’s church again where there was a larger band than the day before, the whole conservatorio of the Pietà consisting of 120 all dressed in a blue uniform attended. The sinfonia was just begun when I arrived, it was very brilliant and well executed – then followed a pretty good chorus – after which an air by a tenor voice, 1 by a soprano, 1 by a base, 1 by a contr’alto and another by a different tenor, but worse singing I never heard before in Italy: all was unfinished and scholar-like the closes stiff, studied and ill-executed; and nothing like a shake could be mustered out of the whole band of singers. The soprano forced the high notes in a false direction till they went to ones brain and the base singer was as rough as a mastif, whose barking he seemed to imitate. A solo concerto on the bassoon too in the same incorrect and unmasterly manner, drove me out of the church ere the whole vespers were finished.

excerpt from 'Music, men and manners in France and Italy, 1770 / Charles Burney' pp. 164 (175 words)

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