The Disciplines of Vocal Pedagogy: Towards an Holistic Approach

Karen Sell

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351545013
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

If classical singers and vocal pedagogues are to be prepared adequately for performance, teaching and co-operation in inter-professional relations, then an holistic education entailing multi-disciplinary study is essential. In this important new book, Karen Sell examines the disciplines pertinent to vocal pedagogy, tracing the lineage of views from the ancient world to the present day. In the process important diverse roots are exposed, yielding differing and even conflicting tonal ideals which have a bearing on the consideration of different singing methods and the interpretation of songs and arias. Ethics and psychology are identified as central to the entire pedagogical process along with the scientific basis of singing: encompassing acoustics, anatomy and physiology, with special reference to the bearing of the latter two upon vocal health and hygiene. A detailed consideration of singing technique is the centrepiece of the book, and an understanding of good technique and scientific awareness is shown to be fundamental to good vocal pedagogical practice. This leads to a discussion on performance and aesthetics, contributing to the education of the fully equipped singer. No study to date has demonstrated the inter-relationships between all these individual disciplines and the ways in which they influence singing pedagogy. Sell's holistic, multi-disciplinary approach will be of particular benefit to singers and voice teachers, and will also appeal to music educationalists and professionals in cognate disciplines.

Chapter 1
A History of Vocal Pedagogy

In keeping with the overall intention of this book, my purpose in this chapter is not to provide a complete history of singing and song, but to extract from the general history material which will exemplify the historical roots and variety of pedagogical methods. Since these come to the fore from the sixteenth century onwards, this will be our point of departure.¹

The history will reveal how singers and teachers have been challenged to assimilate stylistic and technological developments. In order to understand the various strands of contemporary vocal pedagogy it is necessary to have some knowledge of their roots, In each of the following sections I shall tell the story with special brief reference to the significant differences of approach to such matters as posture, the breathing mechanism, the vibrators, resonators and articulators, and to other interdisciplinary perspectives. As a result of this enquiry, we shall in subsequent chapters be able to draw upon the pedagogical inheritance when considering the good teaching practice to be aspired to today.

The Sixteenth Century

In 1562 Maffei (early sixteenth century; fl. 1562–73), a lutenist, singer, philosopher, physiologist and physician, produced in a letter to his employer probably the first written method of singing. As far as we know he was the first to use the terms passaggio/passaggi. He begins with a description of anatomy and physiology acknowledging Aristotle and Galen. His method consists of ten rules, of which the eighth reads, 'that one propels the breath little by little with the voice; and one takes great care that it does not go out through the nose or the palate ...' (cited by Timberlake, 1993, p. 24).

Zacconi (1555–1627), in his Prattica di Musica (1592), emphasizes the importance of physical appearance, 'The singer must be young, refined, well-dressed, not entirely ignorant, not hesitant of speech, nor sharp in speaking; but gentle, courteous, clean ...' (cited by Duey, 1951, p. 38). He goes on to say, 'Some when they cannot reach the figures in certain chords stretch their necks and arch their eyebrows, so that it is apparent that they are pulled there by force' (ibid., p. 39). The use of vibrato, which he calls 'tremoly', is recommended. 'This tremolo', he says 'should be slight and pleasing; for if it is exaggerated and forced, it tires and annoys' (cited by Miller, 1998, p. 302).

Many sixteenth century singers, including Rossetti, Frosch, Zacconi, Coclico and, of course, Maffei, most if not all of whom probably taught, placed high importance on breathing and the problems of breathing for singing. But there is no evidence concerning their actual technical instruction. The problems were very similar to those that occur in the studio of the twenty-first century. The importance of having a good listening ear was stressed. Zarlino (1517–90) wrote 'hearing when it has been purified, cannot easily be deceived as to sound' (cited by Duey, 1951, p. 40). Precise intonation, accurate singing of intervals, correct singing of what was written was required. But, again, there are no manuals to inform us how the voice was to be trained, for example, in flexibility, to cope with widely ranging intervals, ornaments and embellishments. The advice seems to have been that students should find teachers who sing well. Coclico (1499 or 1500–1562) and Maffei suggest that singers could learn to sing without any help from a teacher but by studying their singing manuals which, as we have seen, did not explain how to sing. Of Zacconi's Prattica di Musica Duey writes:

For the most part he offers only generalities and these tell what should be done rather than what was done ... [They] ... should have a good chest for sufficient breath, vocal agility, a good ear, know when and where to perform the ornaments with good taste (ibid., p. 42).

As with Maffei coloratura is an ideal, and Zacconi offers the suggestion that singers should practise their exercises on all vowels in an attempt to secure evenness of tone throughout the vocal range. This evenness of tone throughout the vocal range may be the precursor of vowel modification. However Zacconi is saying very little that is different from previous writers.

As in the medieval period, vocal registers, were recognized. Three were suggested by some: high, middle and low, and two by others.² Much more interest was taken in the falsetto voice – about which there is much misunderstanding throughout the whole of the history of vocal pedagogy, and of which more will be said later. At this period falsetto is understood to be the feminine sound of the male singer, and it is described as emasculated and effeminate, in agreement with Raynard, Abbot of Citeaux.³

Music flourished widely during the Renaissance. Choirs were to be found in the courts of nobles, in monasteries and in churches. Boy sopranos were in short supply and some were even abducted to sing in choirs. It is said that Orlando di Lasso (1532–94), when a boy soprano, was abducted three times before his parents finally gave their permission for him to go into the service of the Viceroy of Sicily. Male falsettists replaced the boy sopranos who were in turn succeeded by the castrati.⁴ The composer Lodovico Viadana (1564–1645) preferred the castrati to the boy soprano because, in his opinion, 'the boys sing mostly sloppily and with little grace' (cited by Günter, 1997, p. 10). Also, by the time they had learnt technique and repertoire their voices would have changed. However the falsettist's voice was unpopular because of its feeble sound.

Very little, so far in the history, has been said about the breathing mechanism. Duey quotes Caccini (c. 1545–1618) as telling us why breath control is so necessary for his 'noble manner' of singing, of which more anon: 'A man must have a command of breath to give the greater spirit to the increasing and diminishing of the voice, to exclamations and other passions as is related' (1951, p. 74).

This was all empirical teaching; the earlier pedagogues were more concerned with when to breathe rather than with Caccini's suggestions about the importance of breathing. For most teachers a light flexible voice that sang softly was the ideal. It is not until well into the seventeenth century that we have more technical detail and instruction. Most singers and teachers seemed to agree that the best way to learn was by imitating a good teacher, but without suggesting what constitutes a good one.

The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

Many scholars call this the age of bel canto. Whereas today some composers, most of whom are not singers, make extreme demands upon the voice, in the centuries with which we are now concerned many of the singers and teachers were also composers of vocal music and thus tended to write more sympathetically for the voice.

It was at the end of the sixteenth century that individual soloists emerged as public performers in their own right. Previously they had been mainly attached to courts or religious institutions. Although they were highly skilled, singing was mostly in ensemble form as in the contrapuntal motets of the period. With the 'birth of opera', firstly in Italy and later in France, solo vocal works began to require a more consistent and developed technique. There was a new emphasis upon vocal display, agility, dramatic ability and voice production capable of filling not just smaller chambers but large halls and theatres. These skills were called for in the music of Monteverdi, Purcell, Handel and their contemporaries, and also in works flowing down from Mozart's big showpiece arias, to those of Rossini and Bellini. Thus arose the need to discover and circulate technical principles, and to promote the discipline of vocal pedagogy. Since the castrati predominated among the teachers of the time, all voices, male and female alike, were taught to model their singing imitatively upon their practice. Four vocal qualities were demanded by the Baroque composers: perfect intonation, good breathing technique, clear diction and meaningful expression of the text – exactly what one expects from singers today.

There was considerable medical research into the singing voice during this period. Many earlier teachers looked back to Galen's theory of voice production, which describes the position of the vocal folds as elliptical, closing together as the pitch rises. In his Syntagma musician (1619) the German theorist Michael Praetorius (c. 1570–1621) notes that daily vocal practice is an aid to the general health of the singer, warming up the muscles and cultivating a feeling of well being. He goes on to comment positively on vibrato: 'a singer must have a pleasantly vibrating voice'; breathing: 'some singers take too many breaths'; and, unusually at this time, on resonance: 'some sing through the nose and hold the voice in the throat; others sing with the teeth closed' (cited by MacClintock, 1979, p. 164).

Giulio Caccini (c. 1545–1618), composer/singer/teacher, was probably the earliest Baroque writer on singing. He states: 'Therefore, to proceed in order, thus will I say that the chiefest foundations and most important grounds of this art are the tuning of the voice in all the notes' (1601/2, p. 382). He goes on to write, 'a man must have a command of breath to give the greater spirit to the increasing and diminishing of the voice, to exclamations and other passions, as is related' (ibid., p. 391). Concerning diction he says: 'unless the words [are] understood', the singer is not able to 'move the understanding' (ibid., p. 378). Caccini identifies two registers – chest and head and warns against singing all songs in the same way.

In 1636 in Paris, the monk and priest Marin Mersenne (1588–1648) published his encyclopaedic work Harmonie Universelle, which includes a treatise on voice and singing, Traitez de la Voix el des Chant. A precise description of the vocal mechanism as known at this time is given, based on the teaching of Galen. The first chapter includes paragraphs on the voice, the parts that produce sound, the ear and hearing. This appears to be the first time the importance of hearing is mentioned with regard to singing. We shall see what Bacilly has to say about this when we come to his contribution. Mersenne writes about the muscles for breathing: the intercostals and the diaphragm; he observes that the source of the voice is the glottis and that the muscles and the nerves of the larynx are necessary in order to be able to sing high or low. He is very precise about articulation and writes praising Baillif, presumably a well-known singer, 'who pronounces very distinctly and sounds all the syllables instead of stifling them in the throat, as do most of the others' (cited by MacClintock 1979, p. 173). Mersenne goes on to say that the voice is as individual as the face and that one can be recognized by this vocal individuality.

Like Mersenne, Benigne de Bacilly (c. 1625–90) underlines the importance of having a good ear. The main cause of 'bad pitch' is 'ignorance of whole-steps and half steps ... a good knowledge of notes can greatly contribute to its correction' (cited by Caswell, 1968, p. 28). He describes cadence (translated as 'vibrato') as a 'gift of nature' that sometimes becomes too slow or too fast. For Bacilly a pretty voice, 'is very pleasing to the ear because of its clearness and sweetness and above all because of the nice cadence [here vibrato] which usually accompanies it' (cited by Miller 1998, p. 301). Bacilly continues the two-register theory and appears to give singers the choice of singing in either register: 'Some people are proud of their high voices, and others of their low tone ... [some] scorn the falsetto as being too shrill ...' (cited by Caswell, 1968, p. 19). It may be that as much seventeenth century vocal music had a limited range of eleven notes, this choice was a reasonable option. On the other hand the policy may have been to avoid the difficulty of singing seamlessly through the registration events. This issue will recur in eighteenth century pedagogy. Other treatises of the late Renaissance refer frequently to unwanted nasality and out of tune singing. They demand beautiful tone but, again, do not suggest ways of achieving this.

Eighteenth century vocal pedagogy became the cornerstone for vocal technique, and much of today's international historic Italianate teaching of singing is based on this. Breath management was paramount, and a common exhortation was 'filar il suono' (spin the tone), which means control the airflow emission. Writers, among them Giustiniani, Mancini, Agricola, Tosi and Burney, called this portamento. By portamento was meant the literal translation 'carrying' – the carrying of the voice. This is not a complete description; a more accurate suggestion may be that it means the blending of equally matched tone with tone, both in quality and quantity, ascending and descending. It means more than just legato. We use the term portamento today in an instrumental sense, for example, the linking of two or more intervals together.

Francesco Antonio Pistocchi (1659–1726) founded the Bolognese school about 1700. The elaborate, florid style of technique taught in this school closely vied with string playing. Antonio Bernacchi (c. 1690–1756), a pupil of Pistocchi taught two of Handel's favourite castrati, Senesino and Carestini. It seems that in the very early seventeenth century operas predominance was given to the tenor voice, but after about 1640 the castrati appeared more regularly and took the dominant roles to the end of the eighteenth century.⁵

In Naples Nicola Porpora (1686–1768), a pupil of Alessandro Scarlatti (1658–1725), was known as a great teacher rather than a great singer. He was a tenor, at a time when tenors were generally considered unimportant. Porpora founded a school and was famed for his pupils, the castrati Caffarelli and Farinelli, the female sopranos Mingotti and Gabrielli, and the composer Joseph Haydn (1732–1809). This school became internationally famous. The aims of the school were to sustain (cantabile) and to move the voice (cabaletta), anticipating the aria form (cavatina/cabaletta) of the nineteenth century.

Jean-Baptiste Bérard (1710–72) in his L'art du chant (1775) agrees with the international historic Italianate school as he discusses breathing for singing. He argues for the outwardly raised rib cage, the descent of the diaphragm and controlled breath exhalation as indispensable for good singing technique. Bérard had studied anatomy and was probably one of the first teachers to propose a specific way of breathing for good singing. Great singers into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries used this method effectively. Pronunciation and articulation are also dealt with in his treatise. He admits that it would be easier if singing involved only simple sounds but then, of course, it would sound like instrumental music that cannot express the subtleties, emotion and ideas inherent in words. Bérard considers that all that is necessary to sing well is a correct raising and lowering of the larynx and good breath management. He believes that one raises or lowers the larynx for each degree of pitch or semitone, although he is quick to point out that these measurements are not to be made absolutely strictly.

In 1723 the castrato Pier Francesco Tosi (c. 1653–1732) published his well known treatise Opinioni de' cantori antichi e moderni, o sieno Osservazioni sopra il canto figurato which was translated into many languages, and into English by Johann Ernst Galliard (1680–1749) in 1742. Lik...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Dedication
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1 A History of Vocal Pedagogy
• 2 Ethics, Psychology, and Vocal Pedagogy
• 3 Science and Vocal Pedagogy
• 4 Voices, Tonal Ideals, Classification, and Technique
• 5 Performance
• Conclusion
• Appendix 1: Supplement to Chapter 1
• Appendix 2: First Impressions in the Voice Studio
• Appendix 3: Additional Performance Considerations and Contexts
• Appendix 4: Illustrations
• Bibliography
• Index of Persons
• Select Index of Subjects