Advice to Singers Part 5

[Music: 4--C major arpeggio in semibreves, beginning on C4 and landing on C5. C5 is held for six beats prior to descending in crotchets in a C major scale, and holding the bottom C4 for four beats.]

but sing it very slowly and deliberately, bearing in mind the production of the high notes.

As you begin to get all these notes firm and round, you may take these same exercises in D, D?, and E?, but be very careful not to force the upper notes.

[Music: 5--Interval practice by holding C4 for four beats and slurring to D4. After breathing, slur C4 to E4. After breathing, slur C4 to F4.

After breathing, slur C4 to G4. Continue this pattern until C5 is reached. Then, begin on C5 and slur to B4. After breathing, slur from C5 to A4. Continue this pattern until C4 is reached.]

Exercise 5 is one where the question of the breath and its proper management becomes of vital importance. The reader will observe the notes are bound together, and the student's attention should be turned towards pa.s.sing from one note to the other, without any appreciable difference in the _quality_--I do not say pitch--of the tone. Having inspired in the manner already explained, the singer will sound the _Do_ with a pure, sympathetic, not harsh or forced sound; and by _pressing down_ the breath, will _lift_ the voice on to the _Re_. When he has succeeded with the step of a second, he can go on to the step of a third, fourth, &c. The care must be to utilize the breath, always supporting the tone with the breath. If the sound wavers, then there is something wrong with the breath. You are either singing with too little, or are forcing the breath.

[Music: 6--Beginning on C4 and holding each note for two beats, go up by semitones until E4 is reached and held for four beats. Begin pattern again, but begin on D4?. Continue until A is reached.]

And so on.

[Music: 7--Beginning on C5 and holding each note for two beats, go down by semitones until A4? is reached and held for four beats. Begin pattern again, but begin on a B4. Continue until G4? is reached.]

And so on, descending the scale by semitones.

[Music: 8--In minims, sing C4, E4, G4, C5, B4, G4, F4, D4. Begin the pattern again starting a semitone higher on D4?.]

Practise No. 8 slowly and steadily, with perfectly even tone throughout, without any crescendo or diminuendo.

Let all the above exercises be taken successively, _forte_, _a mezzo-voce_, and _piano_, preserving exactly the same amount of tone throughout each pa.s.sage, and holding the notes with the same force with which you attack them steadily to the end, not letting them die away.

The trick of letting notes die away is easily learnt afterwards, but at present you have to master the far greater difficulty of holding notes firmly with unvarying tone. Practise these exercises on all the vowel-sounds already given. All such exercises are of course only variations of the diatonic and chromatic scales, so arranged as to prepare the voice for executing those scales evenly and perfectly, with equality of tone on every note; for till you can sing scales, you are not fit to sing songs of any kind.

=Duration of Practice.=--Always guard against over-straining and over-working the voice. Do not sing or practise for a longer time than half an hour without allowing the voice rest for some time. If you have three hours at your disposal daily to devote to singing, the most economical use of the time is to divide it equally between the morning, afternoon, and evening.

=Singing in Tune=.--Correct intonation is of the greatest possible importance in singing. Every singer should pay especial attention to this point. The heavier the voice, the more necessary becomes such attention, and therefore contralti and ba.s.ses are strongly advised to lose no time in facing this (to them) considerable difficulty. Deep ba.s.ses, indeed, are rarely perfectly in tune for any long time together, and some of the most famous ba.s.s singers have left behind them recollections of this painful defect. Therefore, whatever be your voice, do not take for granted that even the possession of a good ear will always ensure your singing in tune. Sometimes excellent singers, and good musicians too, will sing out of tune, perfectly aware that they are doing so, but, for a time, unable to prevent it from physical causes--relaxation of the throat, fatigue, indisposition, &c., under which conditions the muscles are unable to obey the will as usual. Do not, then, make too light of this matter, because you may think yourself quite incapable of singing out of tune; it is at all events wiser to be on the safe side. Therefore, never practise (nor sing, if you can help it) with a pianoforte which is not well in tune and well "up to pitch."

And be very constant in practising intervals, such as major and minor sixths and sevenths, so as to be able to strike them as perfectly in tune and as unvarying in quality as the notes of an organ diapason.

=How to Begin.=--Many people never make a good start when beginning to sing any piece. Now a very good remedy for a part of this evil is not to prepare yourself too soon. Use the bar immediately preceding that in which your part commences to gather up your faculties, and, to use a common phrase, "to pull yourself together;" then let the muscles of the body gently settle down. The ease and freedom acquired by this momentary call upon the system is very remarkable; and for the singer especially the hint cannot be too often acted upon.

=Variety Indispensable.=--An unchanging volume of sound is very soon wearying to the ear; and therefore a singer who scarcely ever varies the pitch of his voice will find that however loudly he may sing, his audience will have a feeling of dissatisfaction, as though they could not hear him distinctly--the fact being that their ears, being fatigued with the uniformity of the noise, cannot do their proper work, and the attention therefore flags. One great secret of being agreeably heard by an audience is to vary the body of tone (not the _quality_ of it, observe). As a rule singers are left tolerably free to do as they like in this respect. Composers of songs rarely give them any help in the matter. In fact, nowadays so many people compose "vocal music" without knowing anything about the vocal instrument for which they compose, that it is not wonderful that they ignore their power of helping the singer by properly combining duly marked _forte_, _piano_, and _mezzo-voce_ pa.s.sages, so as to ensure a variety of effect. Therefore, in most modern music, a singer has to take his own "reading" of a song, and to make it as effective as he can by varying the power of his voice. It might even be taken as a rule that every _forte_ pa.s.sage should be succeeded by a soft one. The voice should rise and fall, and be varied in its inflexions in that agreeable manner which is so marked in good orators and dramatic elocutionists.

=Chorus Singing.=--If you are studying seriously for solo singing, you must discontinue all chorus singing, especially during training. Singing in church choirs and choral societies must be abandoned. And this not because there is no good to be learned there, but because the little good is by no means commensurate with the great amount of harm which is acquired along with the good. To enumerate here all the evil habits so easily learnt would be impossible. Not the least of them, however, is the tendency to shout louder than your neighbour, to use yourself to the bad habits of those on each side of you; to produce a bad tone; to "chop" the pa.s.sages instead of phrasing them; to attack notes carelessly; to sing coa.r.s.ely; to depend on others; to get into a machine-like regularity of rendering the music. All these evil habits are the result of chorus singing; and while many of them are detrimental to the voice itself, it may be safely said that any one of these habits is fatal to good solo singing.

=Humming.=--Some people have a wretched habit of continually humming tunes. Pray do not get into this habit of singing unconsciously--than which nothing is more prejudicial to the voice. You should never sound a note without being perfectly aware of what you are doing, and that it is being done in the right manner. The faults acquired by "humming over,"

as it is called, are of the worst kind, and, moreover, they are far sooner acquired than eradicated.

=Studying Songs.=--Be careful, in studying a new song, not to waste either time or strength by a trifling and superficial treatment of it.

"Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well." First of all, _sol-fa_ the melody a few times in a full _mezzo-voce_. Then study it with rather stronger tone, paying attention to lights and shades, yet at the same time being chiefly occupied with the melody itself. Then make your breath-marks, and adhere to the same unfailingly. Then sing the melody once throughout, in order to find the weak places; having found which, you need no more practise the whole of the melody, but give all the attention to these latter phrases. Having mastered these, the melody will be complete. It will then be necessary to determine where the notes shall be made to _bend_ into each other, to add the _nuances_, a few graceful figures and effects which belong alone to the true artist.

=Imitation.=--By no means the worst lesson which you can have will be gained by imitation of some acknowledged first-rate singer, whose voice is of the same kind as your own. Before going to a concert at which any such artist is announced to sing, procure copies of his songs (if possible), and make yourself acquainted with the compositions first of all. Then go and hear how those works are rendered by the singer who is to be your model; listen with your copy in your hand; make notes of any points which strike you, and while the impression made upon you is still fresh, go home and imitate them as closely as you can.

=General Musical Study.=--If you want to be a good singing artist, many more things besides singing should be studied. You should be sufficiently acquainted with the pianoforte to play your own accompaniments, even of the most difficult songs, well enough to get an idea of them. Then a knowledge of harmony, counterpoint, and orchestration is of the greatest value. The study of the best scores, orchestral and vocal, should not be neglected, and further, the student should make himself or herself otherwise familiar with the rise and progress of the art, by reading all the best books on the subject, whether historical, critical, or biographical.

ON STYLE, EXPRESSION, &c.

The study of language, articulation, and deportment, the gradual formation and building-up of the singing voice, and the incessant practice of scales and exercises, are in reality only the necessary preliminaries to singing itself. Singing, or the proper use of the voice combined with the due enunciation and expression of the words, is nothing unless due attention be also paid to style, to the fit and effective execution of the music selected, due regard being paid both to taste and tradition.

=Traditional Styles.=--Although the groundwork of all good singing is the same, the music to be sung varies greatly in style. There is church music, oratorio music, and opera music, as well as ballad music; and a certain nondescript--half recitative, half declamation--which is of modern growth, gives pleasure to many people (both performers and audience), and comprises the greater number of modern German "songs."

=Modern German Lieder.=--This latest development of vocal performances, of which I desire to speak with all due respect, has no traditions whatever, but it has a style, decided, though (in my opinion) bad. It has, however, one merit: it imperatively demands that the singer should understand the meaning both of words and music, for the whole thing depends on expression and modulation. The composers of these works generally do their part fully in the way of modulations and accompaniment; but as they frequently forget to supply anything in the shape of a melody, the singer must do his best to touch or move his audience by his expressive delivery of the words in the musical inflections which (with this cla.s.s of composers) occupy the place of a "tune." However, if you admire this kind of music, and have been properly taught to sing before you attempt to execute it, I have not a word to say against it: so long as you use your voice legitimately, this style of music can do you no harm, and if you study dramatic expression and elocution properly, you may doubtless produce an effect very pleasing to others who admire it. But the danger of such music to the untrained voice and untaught singer is very great indeed; and I do not hesitate to say that the frequent performance of it by such an one _must_ result in the ruin both of voice and style.

=The Cathedral School.=--The one point in music wherein England has just reason to boast of her past, is the existence of a distinct cla.s.s of music composed for her church service, and that music of a high order of merit. Distinctive in character, this church music--"services" and "anthems"--has created for itself a distinct school of singers, and, by tradition, demands a distinct style of performance. I have elsewhere stated that the "Cathedral School" of singing is "detestable for solo work," and so it is for any solo work except cathedral solo work, where the operatic or oratorio style of singing would seem to us, who have always been familiar with the traditional and one accepted style, out of place, and irreverently suggestive of the concert-room. It is difficult to describe upon paper the peculiarity of this style of singing, and it could only be learnt by imitation in its own home, the cathedral. Its chief characteristics are a sort of pa.s.sionless "statuesqueness," a steadiness of tone akin to the notes of the organ, which is its only fit accompaniment, an absence of all attempt at personal display on the part of the singer. Its faulty tendencies are towards deficiency of expression and slowness of "attack;" these are apparent, generally, when a "cathedral" singer appears in the concert-room; but in church, the pervadingly reverent character of the performance takes off the impression of coldness and tameness in the individual singer, while the ear, accustomed to the slight difference in time with which the various organ-stops "answer," does not notice in the singer that want of "crispness" in the time which the accompaniment of an orchestra reveals at once.

Unless you are really intending to sing professionally in a church or cathedral choir, the study of this style will not be of much use to you; you will find its good points equally insisted on in the oratorio school of singing, while its defects should be avoided in any. For =English part-singing= there is, however, no training so good, its traditions being exactly those of the finest old English secular part-music--the madrigals of Wilbye, Weekes, and Purcell, &c.

=Oratorio.=--By oratorio singing--speaking of it as a distinct style--I may say at once that I mean the school of Handelian singing, of which the traditions are distinct, and which has only been slightly modified to suit the more modern oratorios of other composers. Of course, Mendelssohn cannot be sung exactly like Handel or Bach, but the general style of delivery should be the same, and till you can sing Handel, you cannot hope to be able to sing Mendelssohn. The ability to sing Handel, Bach, and Gluck, I believe to be the sole foundation for a pure style of singing either in opera or ballad music: the music is such that it cannot be trifled with--the difficulties cannot be evaded, but must be mastered--while the exquisitely smooth and vocal character of these great masters' music trains the singer to an evenness and solidity of style which is most valuable in any music that may be afterwards attempted. Moreover, the songs of Handel form an admirable school for the training of individual taste and judgment in the introduction of ornaments, the variety of phrasing, and other minute details of finish.

Not that you may exercise your individual taste in introducing ornaments into Handel or Bach--far from it; but the songs are written with the express intention that certain ornaments should be introduced in particular places, and the style (and in many cases the notes) of these ornaments has been accurately handed down to us; therefore, in learning this traditional manner of singing such music, the student is trained to a knowledge of the appropriate place for the introduction of ornamentation and "grace"--the appropriate character of such embellishments, and the appropriate opportunities for introducing them.

For instance, most of Handel's songs commence with a movement which is intended to be repeated at the close of the song, the middle part being generally a movement in some relative key, which is not repeated. The traditional style of giving such songs is to reserve ornamentation for this repeated first part, and thus to avoid the effect of sameness which would result from adhering in the "repeat" to exactly the same rendering of the music with which the singer gave it at first. Such ornamentations were taken for granted by the composer, and it was only because of a tasteless abuse of this privilege of adornment on the part of foolish singers, an abuse which became an unbearable nuisance, that in after years Rossini adopted the plan of writing into his music florid pa.s.sages which should supply the singer with ornaments which were good of their kind and which were put in in appropriate places, rather then trust his airs to the mercy of inartistic "decorators." Handel, and the composers of earlier times than Rossini, omitted the ornamentation, so as not to hamper the singer, for, as has been well said by an old writer on the subject: "The same execution that would from one singer afford pleasure, might from another excite disgust: the compositions of old masters have no written cadences to a repeated pa.s.sage, for this very reason, no doubt. But it is understood, and indeed expected, that the singer of talent should display his own taste by the introduction of such fanciful and graceful ornaments as may be best calculated to exhibit his voice to advantage, and thereby heighten, instead of lessen, the effect of the composition."

The same writer, in explaining the reason for the introduction of such ornaments and changes, goes on to remark: "In conversation, though we frequently repeat words and even sentences, in expressing any particular subject, yet we might as naturally expect to see a person laugh without a smile, as give such repet.i.tions without some variation in voice and manner.

"The first part of an air is often written to be repeated. In justice to the author, when that is the case, simplicity of style should be inviolably preserved; but, on repeating the strain, free scope may be given to the imagination, taking it for granted that no person would be vain enough to attempt the introduction of his own fanciful graces, unless sufficiently master of the science to feel the propriety of going so far and no farther."

Perhaps I may make the meaning of all this clearer by giving a few specimens of these traditionally accepted adornments in repeated pa.s.sages.

[Music:_First time._

ri - mem - - bran - za, Puoi di nuo - vo, &c.]

[Music: _Second time._

ri - mem - bran - za, Puoi di nuo - vo, &c.]

[Music: _First time._

dol - ce ri - mem - bran - za, &c.]