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Music Preface |
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It has been my wish, in transcribing these songs, to include as many characteristics of singing-style as is possible, yet to keep most of the notations simple enough to be sight-read by the average amateur. If I have been successful in this, those familiar with the idioms can expect to make from these notations fairly adequate reconstruction of the music. To those not familiar with the idioms (and as a reminder to those who are! ) the following suggestions are offered, based on observations made during transcription of the songs from the recordings.
II
SUGGESTIONS FOR SINGING THE SONGS IN THIS BOOK
// should be remembered that these are neither rules nor directions. They are suggestions, based on acquaintance with these songs and others like them, as heard from the singers themselves and from direct sound-recordings.
1. Do not hesitate to sing because you think your voice is "not good>}— i.e., has not been "trained" These songs are better sung in the manner of the natural than the trained (bel canto] voice.* Do not try to "smooth out" your voice. If it is reedy or nasal, so much the better.
2. First try the tune through several times without attention to signs indicating extended tones and extended or inserted rests ( ^ , ^ , etc., and $ and ** , explained on pages xxii and xxiii). When you are more or less at home with the tune, you can then decide whether to add these irregularities to the simple structure you have just learned. You may find, in time, that they "come natural."
3. Do not sing "with expression," or make an effort to dramatize. Maintain a level of more or less the same degree of loudness or softness from beginning to end of the song.
4. Do not slow down at ends of phrases, stanzas, or songs. Frequent, stereotyped ritardandos are rarely heard in the singing of these songs.
5. Do not hesitate to keep time with your foot. Unless otherwise indicated, sing with a fairly strong accent.
6. Do not "punch" or "typewrite out" each tone. When two or more tones are to be sung to one syllable of text, bind them together rather
* J. W. Work, in his Introduction to Frederick J. Work's Folk Song of the American Negro (Work Brothers, Nashville, Tenn., 1907), wrote: "To sing this music effectively the singer . . . must not try to sing: that is, he must not try to impress people with his voice or voice culture."
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