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t6 TRAINING THE SINGING VOICE
and the artist who will play upon it [34, p. 76] Waller sums up the process and purpose of ¥oice building in three steps: "You liberate the voice; you strengthen it; you beautify it. Each one of these processes helps the other two." [630] Finally, Stanley stresses the importance of developing the musical and artistic abilities of the singer. Sometimes singers are successful in spite of poor Yocal equipment, because they possess exceptional musical, dramatic and artistic abilities. He adds, however, that the importance of the voice itself is not to be ignored. "Such singers would have attained greater success with better vocal equipment/' [577, p. 364] Herbert-Caesaii claims that a good teaching method is one that develops a uniformly good quality throughout the vocal rangey preserves the health of the vocal mechanism and develops the expression. of the whole personality in song. [269, p. 175] Wilcox lists correct posture, deep breathing, flexible tongue and jaw, purity of vowels, and "an emotional attitude of buoyancy and interest" as multiple objectives in voice teaching. [666] According to the New York Singing Teachers Association, the main purposes of training the singing voice are to develop "quality, range, power, agility and flexibility" in the coordination and control of all those vocal elements that enter into the art of singing, (e.g., breathing, tone production, diction and interpretation) [421, p. 35]
COORDINATION AS A PRIMARY PHYSIOLOGICAL FACTOR
Physiology is the study of the animate functions of the organs and parts
of the human body. (W) Since voice is a product of the functioning of the vocal tract, the science of voice training may be considered a specialized outgrowth of iu parent science, physiology. [Aikin 4; Passe 443, p. 45] It is not unusual to find, therefore, that discussions of vocal pedagogy are often related to concepts of vocal physiology. It is the concensus of 14 statements that intelligent voice teaching should be based upon a sound knowledge and understanding of vocal physiology. Owsley would have the vocalist make a careful study of such branches of physiology as the skeletal, muscular, nervous, circulatory and respiratory systems of the body. [441, p. 10] Muyskens outlines a physiological approach to voice culture through a system that first trains the larger postural and respiratory muscles of the body and then gradually trains the smaller 'Valving" muscles in the larynx, throat and mouth. [415] Shaw finds that to teach an understanding of the genera! nature of the vocal mechanism will help "to establish confidence in the mind of the singer."[537]
In studying the basic physiology of the vocal instrument, the teacher of singing is reminded that voice is a product of many coordinating muscular movements or synergies, each one governed by a time factor and a |
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