Being out on the road again with
other professional singers recently, I was reminded once again (for the thousandth time)
that singing is a complete human pursuit. What I mean by that is, you can’t
just make a good sound, or just look good, or just act well, or just have good
diction etc… You have to do it all and at the same time. As a teacher, I’m too
often relieved enough when a student gets through a song without something
horrible happening or with just a handful of good sounds. And, of course,
learning this craft is a process and so I think that anything to be proud of
along the path has enough virtue to get one through the day. However, in truth,
you can’t remove one part of the equation and make it better and have a whole
performance work. It takes a village to make a performance – a village of
events – and each event can make every other event better. They feed on one another. Let me give an example. If you’re singing a word on a note and the
syllable on the note is an [a] vowel and your mouth looks like you’re singing a
good relaxed [a] vowel, then chances are you sound good AND you look good. It’s
a perfect storm of [a]! The problem is, even in a song like “Caro mio ben”
there are 21 [a] vowels, 26 [E] vowels (some of which are [e] if you’re doing
such things, 24 [i] vowels, 18 [o] vowels (again, some of which are also open),
and 5 [u] vowels and each has to look good and sound good no matter where they
lie on the scale. AND they all come before and after a myriad of consonants and
consonant clusters which can change the game completely. It’s a remarkable
tribute to the human brain that we can sing a song at all. Singing has to look
real to sound real to be real. And the more you’ll invest yourself in it, the
more it’ll all work.
For us, English can be the most efficient language in which to get all of this because we not only know what it sounds like but we also know what it looks like. That’s right; each language looks different not only in terms of mouth position but in terms of body usage too. Watch a Spanish talk show some time with the sound off (or one in another language if you can find one on cable). You’ll be amazed at how crazy people look. Bodies have their own language in different cultures as well
To wit, I have two videos for you. They are both complete performances though of incredibly different natures. Both are in English and are fairly casual in their way. The first is of John Raitt singing the soliloquy from “Carousel” and it’s a remarkable performance of a remarkable piece. There was nothing like it in musical theater before but when Rogers and Hammerstein realized the vocal resource they had in John Raitt (Bonnie Raitt’s father), they broke the mold and wrote this virtuoso piece. Don’t just enjoy it but analyze it and be amazed at what this man does on live television! He looks like what he’s singing, he’s always “in the piece,” he’s always supported and engaged, and though his rhythm is spot on, he’s singing words – not just pitches, rhythms and syllables. Also, notice his diphthongs. He’s trying to sing in a fairly country vernacular but his [aI]s and his [oU]s are fantastic.
The second video is of counter tenor David Daniels singing Purcell’s “Sweeter Than Roses.” He’s one of my best friends but he’s also one of my favorite singers. Notice how each word seems important and how the music seems to leap off of the words. There is crazy energy to the extent that it seems like he’s making it up as he goes along. Harry Bicket (a conductor with whom David often works and who has done a class for us before as well) once said, “Don’t just hang the syllables on the pitches but make the words seem to create the pitches.” This is a perfect example of this.
What else do you notice?
These really are two of my favorite videos I’ve ever seen. Please take the time to watch and enjoy them. I’m not providing texts to these videos as I don’t think you need them at all! I am including a link to the score of the Purcell song. I would like for you to watch David as he sings the song but I would also like you to listen to it again while watching the score to see just how little information is on the page. Whatever you hear - dynamics, speeds, emotion - is all David and his pianist. Also, just know that Purcell only wrote a bass line and a melody. The rest is arrangement.
Enjoy,
R
John Raitt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKCUapUEFkY
For us, English can be the most efficient language in which to get all of this because we not only know what it sounds like but we also know what it looks like. That’s right; each language looks different not only in terms of mouth position but in terms of body usage too. Watch a Spanish talk show some time with the sound off (or one in another language if you can find one on cable). You’ll be amazed at how crazy people look. Bodies have their own language in different cultures as well
To wit, I have two videos for you. They are both complete performances though of incredibly different natures. Both are in English and are fairly casual in their way. The first is of John Raitt singing the soliloquy from “Carousel” and it’s a remarkable performance of a remarkable piece. There was nothing like it in musical theater before but when Rogers and Hammerstein realized the vocal resource they had in John Raitt (Bonnie Raitt’s father), they broke the mold and wrote this virtuoso piece. Don’t just enjoy it but analyze it and be amazed at what this man does on live television! He looks like what he’s singing, he’s always “in the piece,” he’s always supported and engaged, and though his rhythm is spot on, he’s singing words – not just pitches, rhythms and syllables. Also, notice his diphthongs. He’s trying to sing in a fairly country vernacular but his [aI]s and his [oU]s are fantastic.
The second video is of counter tenor David Daniels singing Purcell’s “Sweeter Than Roses.” He’s one of my best friends but he’s also one of my favorite singers. Notice how each word seems important and how the music seems to leap off of the words. There is crazy energy to the extent that it seems like he’s making it up as he goes along. Harry Bicket (a conductor with whom David often works and who has done a class for us before as well) once said, “Don’t just hang the syllables on the pitches but make the words seem to create the pitches.” This is a perfect example of this.
What else do you notice?
These really are two of my favorite videos I’ve ever seen. Please take the time to watch and enjoy them. I’m not providing texts to these videos as I don’t think you need them at all! I am including a link to the score of the Purcell song. I would like for you to watch David as he sings the song but I would also like you to listen to it again while watching the score to see just how little information is on the page. Whatever you hear - dynamics, speeds, emotion - is all David and his pianist. Also, just know that Purcell only wrote a bass line and a melody. The rest is arrangement.
Enjoy,
R
John Raitt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKCUapUEFkY
David Daniels
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySXA9lP6yJE
http://ks.petruccimusiclibrary.org/files/imglnks/usimg/1/10/IMSLP64338-PMLP131084-Sweeter_than_roses.pdf
About John: I would like to be handsome as he is! It helps a lot!
ReplyDeletePlus, he approximates his singing to the speaking, and this seems simple but not really! It helps us to understand so much better everything he says, and his gestures in his performance also are so clear and natural. What a spontaneous singer!
David is a GREAT singer! His Englis is impeccable, and something I loved in his voice was that he could sing an all scale without changing the character of the vowel. Manly for a countertenor it might be very hard! Congratulations to him!