Secco recitative

What it means

The secco recitative is the plain form of the recitative: the singing voice is supported only by the continuo, that is, by a bass instrument and a chordal instrument, usually harpsichord or organ. Secco means dry and designates the terse, unelaborated accompaniment. Opposite it stands the accompagnato, in which the orchestra accompanies and the passage thereby gains dramatic weight.

In the notation

Only the singing voice and a bass note with figuring are notated; everything else is executed by the player. The note values of the singing voice are approximations to the speech rhythm. The closing cadence usually appears as a V–I cadence in the bass with a fixed turn in the singing voice, whose execution differs by period.

Musical use

The secco carries the plot in the opera, oratorio, and cantata of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: dialogues, reports, transitions. Because the accompaniment claims almost no space, the tempo of speech is preserved, and long stretches of text can be delivered briskly. Precisely this alternation between swift action in the recitative and lingering in the aria gives the opera of that time its form. In the nineteenth century the secco largely disappears, because through-composed scenes take its place.

Performance practice

Speak the text aloud before you sing, and orient tempo and stress accordingly; the notated values are guides. Keep the tone supported despite the speech-like character. In the continuo, follow the singer, grip the chords briefly and do not let them sustain, if the style demands it. Clarify the execution of closing cadences explicitly: the continuo can play the V–I chords under the last word or only after the singing has ended. According to Winton Dean, the delayed cadence remained accepted practice up to Mozart; choose it where a thought is complete, and the foreshortened one where the dialogue runs on. Plan the transitions to the following number, so that the tension holds.

The execution of the continuo is shaping and not mere accompaniment: the choice of chord voicing, the length of the chords, and the reaction to the singer determine whether the scene comes alive. Work them out deliberately and rehearse together.