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From:  <peggyh@i...>
Date:  Tue Feb 12, 2002  7:55 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] 20th Century Songs

Elly wrote:
<<I have chosen "Sure on this Shining Night"
Issues have arisen because...well... this song is not a walk in park!!
At least not when you are used to singing more rapid songs that have
lots of fun runs to sing. This song depends on the length of the line
and it is creating a whole new set of challenges for me.
Does anyone have any experience with this paticular song? Any ideas on
visualisations I can use (or anything else for that matter) to get
better use of my air/energy?>>

I think "Sure on this Shining Night" is a song that appears easy, but really is
not. I don't think it can be successfully sung until the singer has a handle on
effective breath management. This makes it a great song to work on for that
issue - but success may not be immediate. So my recommendation is continue to
work on it - or put it away for a while and take it up again every 6 months or
so, and one day you'll find it easy.

I've also found that working this song with the accompaniment can be
challenging, because the accompanist has your melody, but at a different time.
So it's a good idea to learn the pianist's "tune" in your head, along with your
own. That way, you don't have to count beats (1-2-3), but you know when to come
in an how long to hold your notes by the tune the pianist is playing.

For other 20th century Americn art songs - there are SO many. Since you
probably already have the Barber book, you might find "The Daisies" a little
easier to negotiate right now. You might check out John Duke's songs. Schirmer
has an anthology, and also Southern Music has anthologies for high, medium, and
low voice - different songs in each volume. Duke has a more romantic style, so
you may find them easier to deal with. He sets terrific poetry, and knows how
to set English to music, so they are great to work on.

And invaluable additions to your music library are the Aaron Copland and Leonard
Bernstein collections of vocal music, along with the two volumes of Copland's
"Old American Songs". Also the collected songs of Charles Ives. Between those
and the Barber, you could be set for life!

Peggy

Perhaps some of you would have suggestions as to other songs from the
20th that I could explore??

As always, any help would be appreciated!

Cheers!
Elly










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