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ORIGINS The first use of recitative in Opera was preceded by the Monodies of the Florentine Camerata in which Vincenzo Galilei , father of the astronomer Galileo Galilei , played an important role. The elder Galilei, influenced by the writings of the ancient Greeks and wishing to recreate the old manner of storytelling and drama, pioneered the use of a single melodic line to tell the story, accompanied by simple chords from a harpsichord or lute. In the and La Cenerentola were composed by assistants. SECCO Secco recitative, popularized in Florence though the proto-opera music dramas of Jacopo Peri and Giulio Caccini during the late 16th century, formed the substance of Claudio Monteverdi 's operas during the 17th, and continued to be used into the Romantic Era by such composers as Gaetano Donizetti , reappearing in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress . It also influenced areas of music outside opera from the outset. The 1610 Vespers of Monteverdi contain two large sections of ''secco'' recitative for Tenor , the second of which, for the virtuoso '' Audi Coelum '', is seamlessly intertwined with choral sections, florid runs and an echo effect from a second singer. The recitatives of Johann Sebastian Bach , found in his passions and Cantata s, are also quite notable. In the early operas and cantatas of the Florentine school, secco recitative was accompanied by a variety of instruments, mostly plucked strings with perhaps a small organ to provide sustained tone. Later, in the operas of Vivaldi and Handel , the accompaniment was standardised as a Harpsichord and a bass Viol or Violoncello . When the harpsichord went out of use in the early 19th century, many opera-houses did not replace it with a Piano ; instead the violoncello ws left to carry on alone or with reinforcement from a Double Bass . A 1919 recording of Rossini 's '' Barber Of Seville '', issued by Italian HMV , gives a unique glimpse of this technique in action. There are examples of the revival of the harpsichord for this purpose as early as the 1890s (e.g. by Hans Richter for a production of Mozart 's '' Don Giovanni '' at the London Royal Opera House , the instrument being supplied by Arnold Dolmetsch ), but it was not until the 1950s that the 18th-century method was consistently observed once more. ACCOMPAGNATO Accompanied recitative, known as accompagnato, employs the Orchestra as an accompanying body. As a result, it is less improvisational and declamatory than ''recitativo secco'', and more Song -like. This form is often employed where the orchestra can underscore a particularly dramatic text, as in Thus Saith the Lord from Handel's '' Messiah ''; Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were also fond of it. A more inward intensification calls for an Arioso ; the opening of "Comfort Ye" from the same work is a famous example, while the ending ("The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness") is accompagnato. POST-WAGNER USES Later operas, under the influence of Richard Wagner , favored Through-composition , where recitatives, arias, choruses and other elements were seamlessly interwoven into a whole. Many of Wagner's operas employ sections which are analogous to accompanied recitative. INSTRUMENTAL RECITATIVE Recitative has also sometimes been used to refer to parts of purely instrumental works which resemble vocal recitatives (passages in Ludwig Van Beethoven 's '' Piano Sonata No. 17 '' (''The Tempest'') and '' Piano Sonata No. 31 '' are examples). SEE ALSO
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