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CONCEPTS OF INTERPRETATION |
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"Singing should be as easy and as natural as talking. And it is/' says Conrad Thibault. [605] Frieda Hempel recommends that the study of a song should begin "away from the music, working entirely from the text. . . . Recite it, as a poem." [239] Emilio de Gogorza reminds teachers that singers should be taught to declaim "before they are allowed to sing/' [134] "Learn the story of a song. Singing a song is telling a story in music/* [feanette MacDonald 363] "Leave the business of singing alone until you have thoroughly mastered the [spoken] text/' is Lotte Leh-mann's advice. Song is "a wonderful interweaving of word and tone. The text must be sung, therefore, as though it were created to be recited/' [3S8; 339] "Speak every word you sing." [Diwer 138, p. 37; Cristy 97, p. 42] "Song is easiest when it most resembles speech." [Bairstow, Dent and others 32; Sands 489] Vocal modulations and pitch changes are as free in singing as in speaking. The psychological motivation is the same in both. [Evetts and Worthington 167, p. 131; Marafioti 368, p. 151]
Owsley describes song as the "union of sustained vocal tone and words. . . . The problems of the singer, then, is to coordinate the results between the organs of phonation and those of speech." [441, p. 80] Remaining opinions of the speech-song exponents are epitomized in the following typical concepts:
1. "The desire to say something" influences the production of all vocal tones in singing. [Williamson 672]
2. "We must sing as we speak." [Proschowski 453]
3. Vocal modulations for speaking are acquired without difficulty at an early age. "The same should be true of singing." [Medonis 587, p. 1]
4. A good interpreter in song is also a good reciter. [Henschel 265]
5. "The [spoken] word is the primary essential of good singing." [Skiles 562]
6. The amateur singer should learn to read aloud. [Hill 272, p. 49]
7. "Good singing is good speech sustained." [Wood 685, p. 14; also Tapper 601]
8. "We should sing with the same abandon that we use in speech." [Smallman and Wilcox 566, p. 8]
9. Singers should practice reading poetry aloud for verbal expression only. [Drew 148]
10. In studying vocalises, think of speaking rather than singing the syllables, since speech promotes spontaneous vocal action. [Barbareux-Parry34] |
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