The music of the Contrasto is a chant, and the poets sing it without any instrumental accompaniment. As a chant, the music has no beat, but follows the words, and the time it takes to sing an octet may vary between 30 seconds to more than a minute. Similarly, the melody retains much flexibility, with a few consistent characteristics. For example, the scale is always a 7-tone minor scale and each poet has a consistent starting note from which they will gradually descend. Variations are present in the middle of the line, where a poet may stay on or near the starting note, or descend. At the end of the line the poet may descend down up to an octave or, occasionally, produce a last note that is one note higher than the penultimate. The tempo may change, becoming faster, as the poets get more and more absorbed in dueling, especially when it gets “rougher.” Each verse is also characterized by melismatic expansions. The longest expansion usually happens at the end of the first verse. Here, it may also have the function of giving the poet some time to recollect his thoughts and find the right rhyme. Inside each verse, the melodic expansions usually follow the metric (syllables, accenting), with longer or vibrating sounds, sometimes dividing syllables to follow the rule of having eleven of them in each verse. The major melodic expansion usually falls on the penultimate note. In general, the tempo in the second four verses is more sustained and quicker than in the first four verses, drawing naturally toward the closure. According to the ethnomusicologist Maurizio Agamennone (1988:24): “The contraction of the tempo increasingly stringent in the 5th to 8th verses favors the fluidity of the expression and leads directly to the conclusion. The segmentation of the tempo of the octet coincides thus with a crescendo of the expressive pathos whose apex is the closing in the coupled rhyme.” Variations are present and depend on the individual style of the artist, from the difficulty of the theme or of the rhyme, as well as from other contextual factors. From the notation presented here, it appears that Logli and Chechi are fast singers, while De Sanctis and Casati sing much more slowly. Notice that the faster singers tend to stay on one note longer than the slower ones, which in turn often have longer melismatic expansions. It is also interesting to note that the younger, less expert poets like Ciolli and Ara have trouble sustaining long melismatic expansions. Ara, in particular, slows down at the end of his verses, but tends not to have very ornate melismas. This could lead over time to changes in the traditional singing style.
Chants
To better understand the secular Contrasto texts and singing style we can look at the features of similar chants in religious traditions. The term “chant” is very vague, as there is great diversity in its musical or spoken forms. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines it as “a short, simple melody in which a number of syllables or words are sung on each note." Many genres of chant which consist of narrative or religious texts tend to follow the natural rhythms of speech. Thus in the plainsong of the Gregorian chant and in the liturgical chanting of Jewish scripture, the chant rhythm is not strictly metrical and the notation system does not indicate rhythm. The written form leaves much room for the performer's interpretation. In Gregorian chant, the basic shape of the melodic line is indicated with neumes (approximating the melodic shape), and in Jewish scripture, small cantillation signs are printed into the text as symbols for melodic motifs. In both these cases, as in Byzantine liturgical chanting and Islamic chanting of the Qur'an, the melodies are distinguished through particular modal sets, and also through musical peculiarities such as intonation formulae, melismas, and cadences; thus, along with modes, text, and religious/social context of performance, it is the basic style of tonal manipulation that defines each chant genre. In the Indian tarannum (the chanting of Urdu poetry and Hindu Vedas), as well as in all of the above examples the music is the tool for the transmission of the word, so appreciation of the chant is approached through the text, rather than its musical realization. In the tarannum, there is therefore no standard vocal model as in singing, the range and timbre reflects the reciter's speaking voice, the consonants are articulated in correlation with their duration in speech, and the chant tunes are portable (easily “carried” from one poem to another). In Gregorian, and Anglican chant in general, there is a relatively simple melodic range. A short melody is repeated to each verse of the text. The “reciting note” at the beginning of each line allows for a varying number of syllables. (Based on a report by Elia Gilbert)
