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Singing in Style
Jeremy Fisher
reviews a book on singing in different musical styles for classical
singers
[this article first appeared in the June 2010 edition of the
Music Teacher Magazine]
 Singing
in Style – a Guide to Vocal Performance Practice
Martha Elliott
Yale University Press ISBN: 978-0-300-13632-6 £15.00
This comprehensive
book on vocal style through the centuries contains numerous insights
into performance practice, backed up by prodigious research and a
20-page list of further reading. The scope of the book is perhaps
over-ambitious – identifying trends in vocal performance practice in
classical music from the early 16th century to the present day. But
the author does a sterling job of picking out the highlights from
several hundred references, articles and treatises. The book is an
eminently readable if dense overview of current thinking on the
performance of songs, sacred and chamber music.
We are advised on
when to treat the score with reverence (original 20th century or
some of the late Romantics) and when to interpret and add (pretty
much any Baroque score). Valuable and detailed examples are given on
the use (and misuse) of ornamentation through the centuries. Elliott
describes vibrato (frowned on for several hundred years if excessive
or continuous); the difference between the trillo (vibrations of the
throat on a single pitch) and the gruppo (moving between two pitches
now known as the trill); graces (small ornaments that don’t alter
the contours of the melody) and diminutions (additions including
cadenzas that divide larger notes into smaller ones by filling them
with rapid notes); the “cercar della note” starting a fourth below
the target note and sliding up; and that the word coloratura comes
from the Italian for “colouring in” the white notes with lots of
little black notes.
Each chapter ends
with a useful summary page. Several concepts appear throughout the
book – variations in breath pressure, different palettes of tonal
colour, the changing emphasis on text and specific meaning. I was
heartened to read that 21st century opera singers need to abandon
their use of continuous, even, full breath pressure in order to be
able to sing 18th and even 19th century music with accuracy and
style.
Historical context
is important in understanding performance practice. Elliott
clarifies differences and their causes for, for example, singing
recitative of the same period from different countries, the
relationship of dance to composition styles, and how the 1780s
violin bow, the fortepiano and piano, the decline of royal
patronage, and the introduction of publishing for the home market
all had an effect on the vocal and stylistic requirements of the
day.
There's an
interesting take on Lieder composers and their own views on
publishing, performance styles and transposition of their songs.
There are entire chapters on French Melodies, the Second Viennese
School, and Working with Living Composers, making this book
invaluable to classical vocal students at conservatoire level,
although the last is a reassurance rather than a detailed treatise,
and reads more like a singer’s memoire.
Written by a singer
for singers, this is a lot more appetising than the dry Grout I was
served at music college. Having worked as a vocal coach and
accompanist in just about every musical genre described here, I can
safely say it’s a must-read.
©
2010 Jeremy Fisher
Jeremy Fisher is a performance coach, writer, director of Vocal
Process and author of the free ebook
86 things you never hear a singer say
This article appears
by kind permission of
Rhinegold
Publishing Ltd
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Giving the student broader knowledge about the structures of the
larynx can be effective on many levels of their training and
understanding. The 'moveable larynx' has long been the starting
point of Vocal Process courses including Singing and the Actor Training.
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build_your_own_
tilting_larynx.pdf
[2-page PDF, 294kb]
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