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Daniel Friderici’s RULES FOR CHORAL SINGING

Rule 22: A cantor must properly also take care that the Concluding Observations
mode of the selected song be known to his singers, so Friderici’s rules for “elegant” singing go beyond their
that there may be known what especially is to be paid ostensible aesthetic purpose and address a variety of is-
attention to for a clavis [key] in singing. How one can cor- sues useful to modern choral directors, including both
rectly recognize the mode of each song must be learned fairly commonplace information and much more subtle
in the following chapter. or erudite factors. Among the more commonplace is-
sues is one that can too easily become lost to sight—the
Commentary Rule 22: This raises a major issue of attitude of the singer toward learning and performing
seventeenth-century theory. At this time clavis [key] re- (Rule 1), a subject particularly critical for choral educa-
fers either to (a) the letter name of the note or to (b) the tors. Other details such as stage deportment (Rule 3), set-
letter name plus the Guidonian vox syllable(s); the clef is ting pitch (Rules 5 and 6), controlling breath impulse in
clavis signata. In Chapter 8 on the modes, the two factors less advanced singers (Rule 7) and matching pitch (Rule
that Friderici considers most important are the B-durus 11), might provide a useful pre-rehearsal or pre-concert
(B-natural) versus the transposed B-mollis (B-fl at) forms “checklist.” Remarks regarding shouting and excessive
of the modes, which he calls respectively regular and ir- opening of the mouth (Rule 1) are related to the more

regular, and the fourth/fifth division of the range. The advanced issues of functional freedom in vocal pedago-
authentic form of the mode has its range divided with gy. Proper pronunciation (Rule 8) and avoiding stridency

the fifth on bottom and fourth on top, whereas the pla- (Rule 10) are, in the author’s personal observation, con-
gal is the reverse. Friderici may also mean something so cerns particularly for choral educators and church choir
v
simple as he states in Chapter 8, Observation I (Div ), directors. Some of the rules address concerns relevant
that in order to find the mode you look at the last note for both vocal and instrumental practice, such as proper

of the Bass voice at the end of the piece. The one thing rhythmic execution of small note values (Rule 9) and lis-
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clavis cannot refer to here is our modern concept of a key, tening to others (Rule 10).
which developed only slowly throughout the seventeenth Friderici also raises some issues of considerable his-
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century. German theorists and pedagogues persisted torical interest. Following Praetorius, he assumes that the
in trying to understand music within the modal system choral singer will use vibrato, not the straight tone com-
till the eighteenth century after the French and English mon today (Rule 2). His restriction of displacing a vocal
had developed the concepts of key, tonality, and even range at the octave (Rule 14) is perhaps most striking in
the beginning of the Major-Minor system. As an aside, revealing that it was apparently a common practice at
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Friderici also gives characteristic modal affects in his dis- the time. His remarks on clavis “key,” though somewhat

cussion of the modes, as do many seventeenth-century ambiguous today, seem to concern an issue important
authors. As early as his comments in the 1619 edition at the time and possibly often overlooked today, melod-
on the character of Mode I, Dorian, he remarks that ic organization of the authentic and plagal forms of a
it is good, among other things, for Epithalamia (wedding mode into an upper or lower fi fth and fourth structure.

songs). This same affect appears in Otto Harnisch’s Ar- The extension of the last pitch where a voice apparently
tis Musicae Delineatio (1608). It seems unlikely that both falls silent too soon is probably an issue resolved silently
authors would independently connect Mode I with the or overtly by modern editors. Friderici’s complete accep-
ancient Greek-inspired genre of wedding poems, which tance of the practice of improvised diminution of the

suggests either an influence on Friderici from Harnisch upper voices is a practice that modern sentiment would
or that both were influenced by a third source. The con- most probably wish to avoid! Arguably the most histori-

nection at least is another piece of evidence that Frideri- cally important evidence for performance practice is the
ci was consciously working within a tradition of German author’s clear, emphatic support for the variation of the
music pedagogy and theory. speed of the tactus according to the sense of the text, a
practice that fairly recent attitude often rejected. In all,
it seems both humbling and, in a sense, heart warming

28 CHORAL JOURNAL June/July 2021 Volume 61 Number 11