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CONCEPTS OF INTERPRETATION 231
the audience does not get the text. . . . Good tone quality is possible in English." [429] It is wrong to assume that English is not as good for singing as some other languages. "The trouble lies with the singer, not the language." [Skiles 562; also Parrish 442] "English can be as beautiful as any language if you dwell on the vowels," is Byers opinion. [89, p. 338] Greene claims that English has acquired a poor reputation only because translations are poor. Literal translations from foreign languages make for cramped and clumsy interpretations. He further advises that, in translating songs into English, it is necessary to give the poetic equivalent rather than the exact meaning of the text. In this way idiomatic usage is maintained and English singing is thereby enhanced. [209, p.
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TECHNIQUES USED IN INTERPRETATION
Memorization as a factor. Memorization is a mental process involving the ability to retain and reproduce, in full detail, a piece of music previously learned. (W) To the vocalist, this process of committing a song to memory is the basis of building a musical repertoire. A good interpreter always memorizes his songs in every detail. [Greene op. cit., p. 12; Waters 647, p. 104] Author opinion generally supports this belief. Fierce holds that the singer should memorize exercises as well as songs. [447, p. ix] Memorization also develops accuracy and self-assurance in singing. "You must be able to sing a phrase twice before you try to sing it once/* says Brown. [78, p. 116; also La Forest 326, p. 144]
Note connection: legato and staccato. Note connection is the conjunction or continuity of consecutive tones or pitches in a melody. (W) "Melody is a flowing of tone on a succession of varying pitches, punctuated by phrasing and propelled by rhythm." [Haywood 233] Melody is pitch in motion. [Ortmann 438, p. 7] In the last analysis, melody is really "heightened [vocal] inflection." [La Forest 326, p. 144] In its melodic aspects, the art of singing rests upon the ability to produce a succession of single vocal tones, either conjunctly or disjunctly, in an arrangement that conforms to a given musical pattern. [Harris and Evanson 230, p. xiii] The melodious inflection of the singing voice as it moves from tone to tone (each tone having a definite pitch, duration and volume) therefore involves a technique of note connection that is related to the process of interpretation. Two fundamental types of note connection are emphasized in the 29 statements gathered on this subject. They are: a) the legato of smoothly connected type, in which a tenuous but imperceptible gliding intonation is maintained, without breaks, between successive tones. |
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