On Tue, 16 Jan 2001 buzzcen@a... wrote:
> In a message dated 1/16/01 6:58:42 AM Central Standard Time,
> dredeman@y... writes:
>
>
> > 'All music is about sex [...] and love and about feelings and [...]
> >
> >
>
> Yeah, Shostakovich 13 (Baba Yar) is certainly about sex and love.
Oh, God. I remember when I was coaching the role of Azucena a few years
ago. The voice-teacher-cum-coach who I was working with (it was his
"vanity" opera company doing the production of TROVATORE) decided to take
it upon himself to give me some technical pointers rather than simply
coach me. One of the things he told me, as I was trying to tap into the
emotions I needed to feel to convey Azucena's horror at her memories of
watching her mother burn at the stake, was that I needed to think about
sex, and that, in fact, a female singer should always be "wet". (Sorry if
that offends anyone.) He told me that the 10% of the singer's mind that
wasn't "in character" should be concentrating on sex all the time.
Believe me, based on other things he told me that made it patently obvious
that he had a very peculiar grasp of vocal physiognomy, acoustics, and Bel
Canto technique, I soon realised that his "singing is all about sex"
message was little more than quackery.
For some people - and for me at one point in my voice development - a
constant awareness of what's happening in the pelvic region when one sings
can be crucial. If it takes thinking about sex constantly to develop that
awareness - then, fine, use whatever tool works. But saying that thinking
about sex to remind one's self to support from below is the same as
"all music is about sex" is not the same thing. All music is NOT about
sex - and I'm sure there are hundreds of sacred composers and musicians
who would be grossly offended by the assertion.
KM
=====
My NEIL SHICOFF Website:
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/shicoff/shicoff.html
My Website:
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
-----
Es en balde, majo mio, que sigas hablando
porque hay cosas que contesto yo
siempre cantando:
Tra la la...
Por mas que preguntes tanto:
tra la la...
En mi no causas quebranto
ni yo he de salir de mi canto:
tra la la...
- Fernando Periquet
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