Mike:
The international school is a term used by Richard Miller and others to loosely define the vocal techniques that originated in Italy during the bel canto period and before. It is the kind of singing that is usually associated with good operatic singing and requires that all styles of singing be equally available within the technique of the singer. In this sense, it is very different from some other styles of singing which tend to emphasize one kind of vocal production to the exclusion of all others. The direction of German singing during the Wagner years, for example, tended to create a voice that emphasized size, strength and long flowing vocal lines at the expense of accuracy, flexibility, and long singing life.
The teaching of the bright/dark tone, or chiaroscuro, in the international school emphasized a slightly lowered larynx to obtain the space relationship suggested in the 1-6 ratio spoken of by Sundberg and others. The discovery of the Singer's Formant through spectrography only reaffirmed the vocal ring which this technique taught and emphasized.
-- Lloyd W. Hanson, DMA Professor of Voice, Pedagogy School of Performing Arts Northern Arizona University Flagstaff, AZ 86011
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