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TRAINING THE SINGING VOICE |
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As Grove's Dictionary explains it, "to sol-fa is to sing a passage or a piece of vocal music* giving to the notes (of the scale), not words, but the syllables Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si, Do." [708] The use of a set of syllables to denote the tones of a musical scale is considered by some teach-ers a convenient method of naming and identifying the various pitches in the vocal gamut without the use of printed notation. It is used to help vocal students form aural concepts of pitch-tone relationships and intervals, just as the printed staff and notation are used to form audio-visual concepts of tonal and intervalic relationships. By common usage, the printed note has become an almost universal means of conveying auditory impressions to instrumentalist and vocalist alike. But in certain methods of vocal training, the use of spoken or sung syllable names has partially supplemented the use of printed notation as. a studio exercise. Thus vocal exercises (mcalises) are frequently printed and sung with sol-fa syllables and any sequential combination of melodic tones may thai be described by means of syllable names.
Sol-fa training is more widely endorsed in England than in this country. Many writers of singing texts ignore it entirely as a teaching tool; some consider it obsolete and unnecessary. Those who endorse it are not always explicit as to whether it is used as a vocalise, ear training drill* diction exorcise, or method of learning to sing at sight. [Sands 489] According to Mursell and Glenn, "the value of the sol-fa system lies in its power of defining and bringing before the learner the tonality element in vocal music** [413, p. 165] Holl finds the use of solfege stimulating to the ear as wel as to the -eye. The pupil should always leam by the process of seeing the note; then hearing the note (mentally); then producing the note (physically). Thus the ear would be constantly antidpaiing and checking the singer's performance instead of merely listening to Ms performance. [»7§] (See also Chapter VIII) Scott declares that sol-fa "should be studied by every singer as a primary and fundamental thing." [504, p. 165] T^ ear °*tne sol-fa-ist is usually far keener. This is Hill's claim. Besides, the best sight readers are acquainted with sol-fa. [«7*, p. 4*] Lee also believes that sight-singing (sol-fa) study should go side by side with other forms of aural training for singers. [336, P-43]
Hagara* a vocal historian who writes about bel canto methods, finds solfeggio an important practice medium for perfecting the syllabic diction of consonants and their accompanying vowels. [220, p. 116] Shaw would have all vocal students thoroughly grounded in solfeggio training •"before words are used.*' This would counteract the tendency that consonants have of "interference with the tone producing mechanism/' [543] |
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