mike and others have recently written about style. I'd like to throw
in some of my own ideas on this topic. When someone who hadn't heard
my vocal quintet asked what style we do, I said that we sing jazz
(Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Chick Corea) classical (Satie, Debussy,
Chopin, Mussorgsky), movie music (Ennio and Andrea Morricone), folk
(my own "Russian Siciliana"), and hymns (many of my own
compositions), and that much of what we do, including the music of
the classical composers, involves improvisation. I went on to say
that in some sense my goal is to perform in a way that is free of the
compulsions of any particular style. What I personally don't enjoy at
all is a rock singer that sounds like a caricature of a rock singer,
an opera singer that sounds like a caricature of an opera singer, a
folk singer that sounds like a caricature of a folk singer, or a jazz
singer that sounds like a caricature of a jazz singer. To be able to
artistically perform a repertoire that involves music from a variety
of styles, as does that of my vocal quintet, I believe it is
important to just sing the music, and NOT take on a caricature. I
think that I've had some success in finding a way to do this and and
helping other singers to do so, too (see my CD "Live at Saint
Peter's"). And even if one wishes to stay within a style, I believe
that the best performance is one that is free of the compulsions of
the style.
I'd like to tell two stories of incidents in rehearsals that might
clarify my artistic goals and show how I go about approaching them.
Two years ago I was working with a soprano who would sing several
pieces for a perormance of my vocal quintet (she's not on my CD).
When singing one of my hymns I noticed that she sang the pitches and
rhythms correctly but it sounded all wrong, due to her compulsion of
singing like a caricature of an opera singer. I didn't know what to
tell her, so we moved on to the next piece, "So What" by Miles Davis.
On this one her part was very simple: After I played a phrase on the
guitar (the bass line), she would respond with two notes, a
dotted-quarter B above middle C followed by an eighth-note A (the
lyrics COULD be "SO WHAT!"). The first time I heard her sing that
two-note figure I was blown away by the beauty of her voice. I said
something like "THAT'S your true voice!". She replied that she wasn't
familiar with the tune and really didn't know how to sing it. I said
that that was the way I wanted to hear her sing my hymn and
everything else we did. We went back to the hymn, but it again was
full of her compulsions. I asked her to sing the first line of "So
What" and then immediately go into the hymn. I had her do this
several times. Each time the "So What" was perfect but it tool a
while for her to transfer that freedom to my hymn. She said that she
could feel that she was doing something extra with the hymn that she
gradually started to learn to give up.
Recently I was working with a singer on Schubert's "Ave Maria".
Everything was fine except for a slight but distinct sense that her
singing included some caricature of a classical singer. I didn't
immediately know what to suggest. I didn't think that asking her to
sing more relaxed would have the desired effect. Before our next
meeting I thought about how freely she sang Jobim's bossa nova
"Corcovado". I wanted to build a bridge fromm that song to "Ave
Maria", so I suggested that, as an experiment, we do "Ave Maria" as a
bossa nova: same key, same tempo, same chords, but a different
groove. Very quickly our bossa nova version came together and she was
singing much more freely. Without warning her I started to switch
back and forth between the bossa nova rhythm and Schubert's
arpeggios. Every time I did that we both might notice a slight
glitch, both in her singing and my playing. Gradually we were able to
eliminate the glitches, gliding smoothly between the grooves. After
our experiment, which was a lot of fun, we did it once more with
Schubert's arpeggios. What a difference the experiment had made!
Everything sounded so free. When we finished the singer said that she
felt it, too, and liked what she had found.
I urge all of you who would like to perform more authentically to try
the experiment of changing the groove of something in your repertoire
and see what happens when you go back to performing with the original
groove. I am very interested in reading the results of your
experimentation.
Have fun!
John Link
http://www.mp3.com/JohnLinkFeldenkrais
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