[ 323 ]
TOC
|
notes, without the least intermission.
The voice part is very slow, a kind of
psalmody; the words, of which there
are many stanzas to the same air, are
in the Neapolitan language, which is as
different from good Italian, as Welsh
from English. It is a very singular spe-
cies of music, as wild in modulation, and
as different from that of all the rest of
Europe as the Scots, and is, perhaps, as
ancient, being among the common peo-
ple merely traditional. However, the vio-
lin player wrote down the melody of the
voice part for me, and afterwards brought
me something like the accompaniment;
but these parts have a strange appearance
when seen on paper together. I heard
these musicians play a great number of
Neapolitan airs, but all were different
from other music.
A little before Christmas musicians
of this sort come from Calabria to Na-
ples, and their music is wholly different
from this: they usually sing with a
|
.jpg)