in which it is employed, and in the
second of these it is used only by the bearers of the comedy element.
The dissolute _Don_ chatters glibly in it with _Zerlina_, but when
_Donna Anna_ and _Don Ottavio_ converse, it is in the _recitativo
stromentato_.

[Sidenote: _The object of recitative._]

[Sidenote: _Defects of the recitative._]

[Sidenote: _What it can do._]

In both forms recitative is the vehicle for promoting the action of
the play, preparing its incidents, and paving the way for the
situations and emotional states which are exploited, promulgated, and
dwelt upon in the set music pieces. Its purpose is to maintain the
play in an artificial atmosphere, so that the transition from dialogue
to song may not be so abrupt as to disturb the mood of the listener.
Of all the factors in an opera, the dry recitative is the most
monotonous. It is not music, but speech about to break into music.
Unless one is familiar with Italian and desirous of following the
conversation, which we have been often told is not necessary to the
enjoyment of an opera, its everlasting use of stereotyped falls and
intervallic turns, coupled with the strumming of arpeggioed cadences
on the pianoforte (or worse, double-bass and violoncello), makes it
insufferably wearisome to the listener. Its expression is
fleeting--only for the moment. It lacks the sustained tones and
structural symmetry essential to melody, and therefore it cannot
sustain a mood. It makes efficient use of only one of the fundamental
factors of vocal music--variety of pitch--and that in a rudimentary
way. It is specifically a product of the Italian language, and best
adapted to comedy in that language. Spoken with the vivacity native to
it in the drama, dry recitative is an impossibility in English. It is
only in the more measured and sober gait proper to oratorio that we
can listen to it in the vernacular without thought of incongruity. Yet
it may be made most admirably to preserve the characteristics of
conversation, and even illustrate Spencer's theory of the origin of
music. Witness the following brief example from "Don Giovanni," in
which the vivacity of the master is admirably contrasted with the
lumpishness of his servant:

[Sidenote: _An example from Mozart._]

[Music illustration: _Sempre sotto voce._

DON GIOVANNI. LEPORELLO.
_Le-po-rel-lo, o-ve sei? Son qui per_
Le-po-rel-lo, where are you? I'm here and