ABSTRACT
The dramma per musica probably reached its high point in the 1730s, before the taste for accompanied recitative began to distort the aesthetic emphasis of the form. The German writer is too concerned with the minutiae and rudiments of recitative composition; the Italians are silent on the matter. As Neumann found, they concern themselves with general issues—whether recitative is a 'singing speech' or a 'speaking song'—and they discusses practical problems, like the anticlimax after an aria and how it might be avoided, but they help very little with the question of expressiveness. Often a single scene contains a mixture of historic and pathetic recitative according to the content and rhythm of the text. Historic recitative is not merely neutral and suitable only for perfunctory narratives and expository dialogue. As for Binni's point about the unity of recitative and aria, there is some evidence that the composer aimed at a similar unity.
