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TRAINING THE SINGING VOICE |
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(When the gliding connection between two tones* is perceptible to the ear it is called a portamento connection. pEIenderson 243, p. 86]); b) the staccato or disconnected type, in which notes are cut short or apart by minute gaps of silence. [Kwartin 325, p. 93] Other types of note connection (such as martellato, appogiatura, filar-di-voce, etc.) are employed in singing and instrumental performance, involving variations and gradations of these two fundamental forms in various rhythms and intensities. According to Grove's Dictionary, a legato style of singing is always presumed in the notation of music unless indications to the contrary are given. "The ability to take breath with as little interruption of tone as possible is a first essential of (legato) technique." [708, vol. Ill] Various comments and hints on the two basic techniques of note (tone) connection are summarized in the following representative statements:
legato:
1. Vocal continuity (legato) is the singer's greatest asset. The "principle of joining" was one of the precepts of the old masters. Johannes Hiller, founder of the German Singspiel (1764) is quoted as saying, *4He who knows not how to join, knows not how to sing." [Henley 250; 264]
2. The Italian bel cantists emphasized pure legato singing "from first to last," thus assuring a steady flow of tone. [Klingstedt 320, p. 22; Hok 278, p. 22]
3. "A straight tone line" between two consonants assures the best possible vocal output. [Benedict 44]
4. Singing songs on vowels only win produce a perfect legato. Consonants can be "slipped in their proper places" without losing the tone line, pyers 89]
5. Strict legato singing excludes aH jarring, all sudden outbursts; it is a flowing river of sound in which "no sense of jerkiness is apparent to either singer or listener." [Wharton 655, p. 60]
6. Dissolve one vowel into another. [Brown 78, p. 23]
7. In pure legato singing, the successive tones are clearly separated . . . but closely joined to each other." [Margit Bokor 54]
8. Fee "straight line" phrasing, your vowel tone must never stop. [Greene 209, p. 316; Waters 647, p. 35]
9. Transitions from tone to tone are made "on a single vibrato." [Stanley 578]
10. True legato is "the instantaneous substitution of one tone for another," without a break. [La Forest 326, p. 180] |
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