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TRAINING THE SINGING VOICE |
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beginning student to hide imperfections more easily before an audience, thus escaping embarrassing public criticisms. [655, p. 34]
There is also some comment as to the danger of allowing the faults of daily speaking to creep into the singing voice. Drew claims that beginners would do well to practice with meaningless vowels and with the songs of an unfamiliar foreign language, to prevent colorless conversational traits from influencing the singing voice. [147, p. 162] Edward Johnson advises against singing "one's own language" because bad speaking habits invariably carry over into singing when the singer's own language is employed. [306] According to La Forest, "the higher ratio of consonants to vowels in the English language makes it a more difficult medium of song than either Italian or French/* [326, p. 143] Wolfe writes that "the singer must learn the foreign language to interpret a foreign song properly. . . . Good literal translations are rare and practically impossible. . . . Much of the intrinsic beauty is sacrificed in translations." [684] Wilcox deplores the lack of good English texts for foreign songs. He believes that when the public begins to demand good English translations, writers and publishers will supply them. But American teachers and singers must first stop the "silly custom of singing foreign languages to audiences who cannot understand them." [669, p. 40 and p. 45]
Arguments in favor of having singers study Italian as a first language are summarized as follows:
1. Vowel purity predominates in the Italian language. [E.g., Wilcox op. cit., p. 46; Gmini 99]
2. Study Italian "because of its superior euphony." [Owsley 441,
P-75]
3. The classic Italian arias are basic to all vocal training methods.
[Gruen 217]
4. Italian "brings out the voice and vowel to fullest advantage,**
[Kempf 313; Valeri 620]
5. Italian is free from aspirate sounds. [Brown 78, p. 7]
6. It is best for pure tone production. [Witherspoon 677, p. 18]
7. Italian "abounds in open syllables" and is therefore conducive to legato singing. [GuiTy 124, p. 106]
8. The Italian arias "are easier for the voice and lay the foundation for greater finesse." [Frieda Hempel 239; Hagara 220, p. 15]
A negative viewpoint toward foreign language study for beginners is led by Norton who claims that "a song has little value in any language if |
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