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234 TRAINING THE SINGING VOICE
special attention. "To sing all words with equal stress ... is bad singing." [413, p. 289] Variety of tone color is synonymous with warmth of expression, according to Luckstone. [360] Judd likewise insists that "understanding and sympathetic feeling" are necessary for the command of vocal color. [§09] Austin-Ball holds that, however beautiful the voice, it wiH become monotonous "if there is no variety of color in one's singing." [31, p. 40] Stanley adds that each phrase should be given its own peculiar rolor, according to the meaning expressed, thus "modifying each and every vowel sound in the phrase." [578]
Various factors in song analysis. Henderson and Palmer list the following twelve stages of study in the preparatory analysis of a song:
1) read the lyric (text) silently while listening to the melody;
2) commit the melody to memory, without the words;
3) determine the musical key and all its changes;
4) recite the words aloud, with meaning, until they are thoroughly
learned and understood;
5) divide the song into phrase and breathing units;
6) setde all doubtful points of diction;
7) determine the tempo and pace;
8) leam the dynamics;
9) work out melodic climaxes and special rhythmic problems;
10) lay out a plan of interpretation and learn it;
11) decide the predominant mood and all its various changes and
gradations;
12) leam to express the song with your own personality and style.
{242, p. 150]
Marsh gives only three steps for studying the interpretation of a song:
1. "Know the meaning of the story," with its verbal context.
2. "Know the rhythm and mood that the composer has chosen to
express in the story."
3. "Know the melody perfectly, note by note." [372]
"Introduce a song as a whole," says Wilson, "including words, music
and interpretation. Then the song may be analyzed and each element studied separately." [674, p. 5] Lawrence and Samuels both suggest that the best way to practice interpretation is to learn the meaning of the words separately from the tune. Then, while singing or humming the |
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