国际合唱音乐联盟、世界合唱比赛

姚拓写过的一首歌

摘自《第43届吉隆坡歌乐节特刊》，第27页。

Vocal Music, the soul of classical music

The soul of classical music                                                                                                       
For most centuries vocal music formed the core of classical music. In fact almost all notated music before 1500 is purely vocal and in the second half of the Renaissance still nine-tenths of the musical output was vocal.

In the Baroque we see the meteoric rise of instrumental music, but the production of vocal and instrumental music was about equal in quality and prominence in this period. It was only after 1750 that instrumental music gained its pole position in classical music. However, if we counted all the notes sung and played today, especially with the contribution of amateur choral singing, one wonders if vocal music still might take the number one position in classical music performances.

There are several ways we could classify vocal music. There is a clear distinction between solo vocal and choral, and also between sacred and secular vocal music. Whichever way we look at it, the number of genres produced in vocal music is countless. The simplest category is that of solo vocal music: only one voice, accompanied by whatever instrument, ensemble or orchestra. This is the fascinating world of Song reaching from the Medieval Troubadour songs, via the solo cantatas of the Baroque era towards the classical master of song (with piano) Franz Schubert. Opera, with its numerous arias and recitative, also belong to this category as does the gorgeous Symphonic songs written by the late Romantics Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss.

Choral music on the other hand is much more complex to classify. In fact all sacred vocal music up to 1600 was written for choir or vocal ensemble. This counts for the Medieval Gregorian Chant as well the main Renaissance genres mass and motet. Right from the start of the Baroque the greatest of all pioneers Claudio MonteVerdi mixed old and new styles, both solo vocal and choral in his Vespro della Beata Virgine. This contrasting mix of music types became standard practice in all great forms of Baroque sacred music: the Oratorio, Cantata and Passion. This tendency to combine all kinds of musical types can also been seen in secular music, but most of all in opera.

圣乐——基督信仰的声音

摘自《20090524星洲日报副刊》

Caruso发声技术后无来者