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CONCEPTS OF BREATHING |
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The several technical devices mentioned are those which singers often find it expedient to employ. For instance, the half breath is used in passages where there is not time enough for a full breath, to prevent depletion of the lungs. [Henderson 243, p. 30] Brown believes that the singer should be trained to take breath with lightning rapidity. To do this he interpolates an imperceptible pause on the last note of any phrase where it will not disturb the rhythm of the entering phrase. [65, p. 22]
Wood believes that the singer should practice breathing at all speeds and in all combinations, such as quick intake for a slow phrase and slow breath for an allegro phrase. [686, I, 19] "The singer will have to be able to breathe as slowly as four or five times per minute if necessary. Therefore this [breath] control must be developed/* says Combs. [119, p. 9] "Quick inhalation has to be acquired" along with slow, sustained breathing as part of the vocal training for singers prescribed by the Department of Education in Ireland. [294, p. 30]
Maurice-Jacquet makes the observation that great artists always take a breath some time in advance of the moment of attack. "The process is breathing, holding and singing/' [376] As a limbering up exercise, Hagara suggests taking many slow, sustained, deep singing breaths. [220, p. 113] Finally, Henley refers to the practice of the masters of the Golden Age. Short, quick breathing which was imperceptible, even to a close onlooker, enabled the singer of the Golden Age to breathe as often as desired during the rendition of an aria. It also helped to improve the control of a long breath. [254]
SUMMARY AND INTERPRETATION
THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS
A consideration of the foregoing principles and methods of teaching breathing in singing provides challenging evidence of the insufficiency and inconsistency of modern vocal teaching procedures and the need for clarification and research in an as yet uncharted pedagogical field. Numerous problems engage the interest of the investigator but few are adaptable to modern research methods. The human equation is strongly apparent throughout the singing profession. Teaching personalities subsist on the widespread use of pedagogical dogma that has its origins in the mythical reputation and teachings of the ^masters of the Golden Age. There is often abundant verbal testimony to the validity of this or that technique of breathing but very little historical, physiological or experimental evidence.
An analysis of the concepts of breathing used in training the singer's |
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