Giovanni Legrenzi (1626*-1690):
Che fiero costume
(from a cantata in Echi di reverenzia, Op. 14) (1678)
Text:  Anonymous

Recorded (Schirmer Medium High) Key:  G Minor
Original (1678) Key:  A Minor
Teach-Track begins:  downbeat of pickup measure**
(3 preparatory dotted-quarter-note beats added, to set tempo)
Accompaniment Track begins:  m. 1
Pianist:  Daniel Michalak

*  This birthdate according to The New Grove?s Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Macmillan, London, 1980, ed. Stanley Sadie).  The date of 1625 given in the Schirmer
anthologies 24 Italian Songs and Arias and Anthology of Italian Song (and in the Ricordi 30 Arie Antiche Vol. 1) has since been revised by more recent scholarship.

**  The International edition (ed. Luigi Dallapiccola) adds two eighth-notes to the Schirmer introduction so that it rhythmically matches the singer?s first phrase (which certainly makes it easier for the singer to feel the metric pulse and enter with confidence).   We have chosen to record the introduction as it appears in the Schirmer edition (i.e., starting on beat 8 of the pickup measure) to avoid any confusion, because most listeners are likely to be using that version.   It must be said, however, that Dallapiccola?s alteration has the added advantage of relieving the pianist of any need to give vigorous (and possibly unsuccessful) head cues to the singer in order to establish the beat.  [Neither one of these versions, however, represents the original form of the music, which is reprinted in the John Glenn Paton (ed.) edition of 26 Italian Songs and Arias (Alfred Publishing, Van Nuys, CA, 1991).  Paton points out that the original editor of the Schirmer version of this piece (Carl Banck) shifted the music one dotted-quarter earlier so that, for example, the singer?s initial high note would fall on a strong beat.]

N. B.  Our recordings feature the piano accompaniments as they appear in the G. Schirmer volume of 24 Italian Songs and Arias (LB1722).  These often differ in significant ways from those found in the John Glenn Paton (ed.) edition: the Paton-edition accompaniments are usually sparer and simpler, and the suggested tempos often faster and more dancelike; the voice parts sometimes differ melodically and/or rhythmically; and the pieces themselves may even differ in length (e.g., because the introduction or postlude is different).  His scholarly approach, returning wherever possible to the original manuscripts, is extremely welcome, and wherever he has updated the historical record (e.g., reassigning dubious attributions, and even exposing a few pieces as deliberate forgeries) we have gratefully included this information. For each piece (see below), we have also indicated any melodic/rhythmic differences between the two editions that would directly affect the singer, so that even if you are working from the Paton edition, our recording can still be used successfully as a learning tool.  

Our experience, however, has been that a sizeable majority of voice teachers and students remain attached to the Schirmer versions, not only because of their greater familiarity, but also because of their generally richer and fuller sound (which gives beginning voice students in particular a welcome feeling of support).  The Schirmer arrangements may not always be models of historical ?authenticity,? but  they have proven their musical effectiveness for more than a century.  Because these pieces are being used primarily to teach general principles of good singing (and because in most cases the putative ?original? versions have no comparable performance tradition of their own), such concerns are not as pertinent as they might otherwise be.  (Indeed, for several generations of singers, these versions are ?the originals? simply because we have grown up hearing them that way.)   None of this is to deny the value of historically-informed performance practice--merely to observe that the relative effectiveness of one piano accompaniment vis-a-vis ano