Sprechgesang
Sprechgesang (
German for "speech song") or
Sprechstimme ("speech voice") is a technique of vocal production halfway between
singing and
speaking. Since the end of the
19th century, it has sometimes been called for by composers of
classical music.
In the foreword to
Pierrot Lunaire (1912),
Arnold Schoenberg explains how a good
Sprechgesang should be achieved, saying that the indicated rhythms should be adhered to, but that whereas in ordinary singing a constant pitch is maintained through a note, in
Sprechgesang the indicated pitch should be given, but then immediately left, either by rising or falling. The result should be unlike both normal singing and normal speech.
The earliest known use of the technique is in
Engelbert Humperdinck's
opera Königskinder (1897), but it is more closely associated with the composers of the
Second Viennese School. Schoenberg asks for the technique in a number of pieces: the part of the Speaker in
Gurre-Lieder (1911) is in Sprechgesang, almost all of
Pierrot Lunaire (1912) uses the technique, and it is also employed in his opera
Moses und Aron (1932).
Alban Berg uses a variation on the technique, asking for parts of his operas
Wozzeck and
Lulu to be between
Sprechgesang and normal singing.
Kurt Weill adopted
Sprechstimme to accommodate
Lotte Lenya's distinctive, though non-lyric, voice for her part as Jenny in
Die Dreigroschenoper. Macheath's part also employs the technique.
In Schoenberg's
musical notation,
Sprechgesang is usually indicated by small crosses through the stems of the notes, or with the note head itself being a small cross. The beginning of the vocal part in
Pierrot Lunaire looks like this:
 |
The beginning of the vocal part in "Mondestrunken" |
Berg's part-
Sprechgesang, part-singing is notated with a single stroke through the stems of the notes. A possibility followed by other composers is to use "x"'s in place of conventional noteheads.
The technique was used to some extent by the actor
Rex Harrison in the stage and film versions of the musical
My Fair Lady, where he played Professor Henry Higgins, to cover up the deficiencies of his singing voice.
In Germany today, since the early 1990s, the term
Sprechgesang has been given a new, more popular meaning of "German-language
rap music."
*
rapping*
A translation of Schoenberg's foreword to Pierrot Lunaire
