Content area
Full text
[This article appeared as the introduction to a facsimile reproduction of Bassini's book published by Plural Press in 2007.1 While much of the information herein has appeared in previous columns, it is hoped that presenting it in context of Bassini's method will be of interest to the reader.]
IF WE WERE ABLE TO TRAVEL back in time and peruse the bookshelf of a singer or voice teacher in the United States during the last half of the nineteenth century, it is likely that you would find a copy of Carlo Bassini's The Art of Singing, first published in 1857. This book was perhaps the most popular text on the art of singing published in America during this period.
Little is known today about Bassini. Born in Cuneo, Piedmont Italy in 1812 of parents who were both musicians, he received intensive training on the violin as a youngster. He began his adult life as a professional violinist. One source suggested that he first came to South Americas as a part of an opera orchestra from Genoese. From there he went to New York to seek fame and fortune as a solo artist. This effort failed, and soon thereafter he was building a reputation as a voice teacher. A somewhat different story was related in a letter to the editor of The Boston Home Journal (later reprinted in Dwight's Journal of Music in 1878). Ship captain James Madison Hill reminisced about his long-time friend, Carlo Bassini, who had died in Irvington, New Jersey in 1870. He said that he met Bassini in southern France while there on a merchant venture. He reported that he gave Bassini and his whole family free passage from the Gulf of Lyon to New York on his ship in order to flee the terror of Napoleon III. According to Captain Hill, Bassini and his wife Pauline along with five children boarded his ship with nine other passengers for the long journey. At least part of this romantic tale does not stand up under scrutiny. Census records of the United States in 1870 show that the Bassini household included Carlo, his wife and three children, who were all born in the United States!
Even though there is some confusion about how Bassini...