> You appear
> to advocate this in preference to the dual one of
> both learning from the top down: the lieder training
> method, and the bottom up.
Actually, I am advocating having a young singer spend
5 or 6 years in the studio, concentrating on NOTHING
but technique (and perhaps language study, if they
have extra time) so that the technique is the first
thing to learn. Once the technique is under control,
the singer can begin to study acting, movement,
diction, audition techniques, phrasing, musicality,
history, and all the other aspects of a successful
performing career.
If by "bottom-up" you mean that the singer begins with
the voice, studies only the voice, and THEN (after a
few years of technical study) gives attention to the
other details -- then that is exactly what I advocate.
I find it is not a popular proposal, since many
singers are impatient (they want to begin performing
when young, in lieder recitals and workshops, before
the voice is under control), and many universities and
conservatories want to show their students performing,
and thus push them into developing "performing" skills
(and musicality, which is not a bad thing but it can
take away a singer's time/energy which should be
devoted to technical study) before the technical
singing skills are finished. If singers would just
realize that they have to invest some years into the
vocal aspects of singing before they are ready to go
out into the world, there would be FAR fewer
burned-out singers (since I see burn-out as a result
of a singer with imperfect technique who was trying to
perform before the voice was ready).
So, at the extreme end, I am a big fan of the Porpora
method (that old legend about how the great singer
Porpora's teacher let him sing only vocalises for 5
years, every day, in intense lessons, and then said to
him the oft-repeated equivalant of, "Go, my son, you
are now ready for the world."). Technique first -- no
performing, no auditioning, no study of any aspect of
music other than technique. Five years at the least.
Then begin to build other skills (whether it's "on the
fly," in a contract or apprenticeship, or by moving on
to grad school) necessary for a career.
Isabelle B.
=====
Isabelle Bracamonte
San Francisco, CA
ibracamonte@y...
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