Rappresentativo
The early Baroque dramatic style.
What it means
Stile rappresentativo designates the representational style of the early seventeenth century: a music that presents a person and their speech on stage. The singing voice follows the speech rhythm, the accompaniment is limited to the figured bass, and the musical shaping is guided by the affect and stress of the text. From this style, recitative and aria develop, at first not yet separated from each other.
Musical use
Behind the term stands the deliberate turning away from the polyphonic vocal music of the sixteenth century, whose interwoven voices covered the text. The new music was meant to let a single person speak — the precondition for action on stage to become presentable through singing. From this the first operas arise, as well as the sacred works of the early Baroque, which use the same means. Characteristic are free timing, expressive dissonances on stressed words, alternation between speech-like and song-like sections, and a sparing, mobile continuo.
Performance practice
Start from the text: speak it aloud, determine stresses and affects, and orient the timing accordingly; the note values are guides. Keep the tone supported despite the speech-like character. In the continuo, follow the voice, choose a thin scoring, and set chords sparingly and in a comfortable position. Ornaments belong to the execution but are not overloaded. Clarify the pitch standard and the scoring of the continuo beforehand and rehearse the transitions between speech-like and song-like sections.
Bear in mind that the treatment of dissonance in this music departs from the later rule book: what would seem wrong by the rules of the eighteenth century is here a means of expression and must not be smoothed over. Check such passages against the text, because they usually stand at key words. Clarify the continuo scoring, for lute, theorbo, harpsichord, or organ give the declamation different colours. In the continuo, the scoring stays thin and mobile. Monteverdi's L'Orfeo of 1607 is a central example of this style.
Check whether the edition has added barlines, because the sources often notate without a fixed bar order.