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ORIENTATIONS |
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in accurate scientific language, the present state of our knowledge concerning the training of the singing voice. A preliminary consideration of the causes of confusion in the vocal teaching profession and an appreciation of the purposes, procedures and values of this research might be helpful to an understanding of its findings. To this end, Chapter I presents an introductory discussion. Chapters II through X report the detailed findings of this study with interpretational summaries arranged in appropriate categories, and Chapter XI gives a final summation of outcomes.
Causes of Confusion in the Vocal Profession
The specific causes of confusion in the vocal teaching profession are many and varied. Even a cursory survey of literature on the subject reveals astonishing inconsistencies and conflicts of pedagogical opinion. From a general viewpoint, this diversity of opinion apparently arises from the fact that a multiplicity of specific teaching procedures is being developed by individual teachers without reference to the broader pedagogical principles underlying them. Most singing teachers readily admit that the field of vocal pedagogy stands badly in need of clarification; that sooner or later a pioneering effort must be launched that will help set up frontiers of rational thinking in this all too neglected educational area.
The following mass of critical comment, outlining twenty-one different categories of complaint voiced by authors, was compiled to illustrate some of the prevalent instabilities in the vocal teaching profession that led to the formulation of this study. All bibliographical citations are enclosed in brackets and are numbered so as to correspond to the numbered items in the complete annotated bibliography given at the end of this treatise.
inherent difficulties in the subject
i. Singing as an art suffers from its complexity. Many sciences are involved, such as psychology, physiology, acoustics, etc. [Drew 147, p. 160; Pressman 452]
2. The vocal function is not open to direct observation in life. "Observations made by reflected light [laryngoscope] tell only part of the story." [Evetts and Worthington 167, p. 411] The singing teacher, unlike the instrumental teacher, deals with unseen things and is therefore given to speculation and charlatanry, which not, only places his profession in ill-repute, but frequently ruins careers as well. [Witherspoon 677, p. 11] A singer cannot sing a normal tone with a laryngoscopic mirror in the back of his mouth. [Aikin 4] Cadaveric dissections do not function like living larynxes. [Curry 124, p. 50] Most pictures or charts of the throat |
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