I will be dedicating several upcoming blogs to the wisdom of Giambattista Mancini’s book Practical Reflections on the Art of Singing, (Riflessioni Pratiche Sopra il Canto Figurato, published in 1774.
This book, along with Pierfrancesco Tosi’s Opinoni de’ cantori antichi e moderni, are the two cornerstones of our understanding of the singing of the Italian Baroque era.
Mancini was born in Ascoli in 1716, and died in Vienna in 1800. He studied with Leonardo Leo, Antonio Bernacchi, and Padre Martini. Maria Theresa of Austria (and the mother of Marie Antoinette) called him to Vienna, where he became the singing master to the Imperial Court. Evidently, such a prestigious honor was proof of his talents and skills as a teacher of voice. The publication of his book Riflessioni Pratiche show us as a modern audience the astuteness of Maria Theresa’s choice in selecting him.
Charles Burney the author of The Present State of Music in France and Italy: or The Journal of a Tour through those Countries, undertaken to collect Materials for A General History of Music (1773), met Mancini in Vienna and remarked how excited about the prospect of a book on singing written by such an illustrious teacher.
There have been several versions of this text. Here is a breakdown of the history of its publication:
| Edition | Year |
| Original Edition Italian, *prepared under Mancini’s guidance, Vienna, Austria | 1774 |
| French Version, L’Art du Chant Figuré, Translated (per Mancini) by M. Defaugiers Paris, France | 1776 |
| Third Version, Italian *prepared under Mancini’s guidance, Milan, Italy | 1777 |
| New French Edition, Réflexions Pratiques sur le Chant Figuré | 1796 |
| New Italian Edition, Metodo Per Ben Insegnare D’Apprendere L’Arte del Cantare, Ossiano Osservazioni Pratiche su Questa Nobile e Difficile Arte *includes a letter from Mancini to a “Conte N.N.” | 1807 |
| First English Translation, Practical Reflections on the Figurative Art of Singing Translated by Pietro Buzzi Boston, Massachusetts | 1912 |
| Second English Translation, Practical Reflections on the Figurative Art of Singing Translated by Edward Foreman Minneapolis, Minnesota | 1967, 1996 (reprinted) |
What comes through in Mancini’s (and Tosi’s) works are indeed practical reflections and observations on singing. Those that believe that they contain some ‘secrets’ to the lost art of Italian bel canto will be sadly disappointed. What does come through are very fascinating pedagogical views on the art of singing and the teaching of singing. I hope to show in this blog series how the pedagogical ideas of the late Italian Baroque can still communicate to our modern age a philosophy and worldview of what singing is, and demonstrate a through-line of thinking that has endured to the present day.
If nothing else, the text demonstrates the truest secret of these great singers of the Italian Baroque era: daily study with a teacher, and a dedication to mastery over a long and arduous training period that respected nature (i.e., the human body and mind) at all times.
Those that would commit to learning to sing in this way would most assuredly be guaranteed success.
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