"Lloyd W. Hanson" wrote:
> Dear Barry and Fellow Listers; > > ur quote from Titze about the need for "abdominal muscles and > internal intercostal muscles to relax quickly to allow rapid > expansion of the lungs" is typical of the German school of breath > management. Titze was trained by Kurt Weinzinger, now deceased, who > taught him at Brigham Young University and who later was a colleague > of mine at NAU. He was a fine teacher who was more a coach than a > technician and who learned as an attandant with, I believe, the > Vienna State Opera. > > (snip)
> Your stated understanding of the Italian principles of Appoggio and > the Lotta Vocale is my understanding as well. I, however, do not have > any good experience with teaching a singer to release the lower > abdominal muscles in the inhale with the exception of a bass voice > when he must move from a note in his upper head voice to a note in > his lowest possible range with only a breath between these two > pitches. In this case, a quick release of the abdominal wall will > substantial lower the larynx and assist the singer in making such a > drastic change in pitch. > >
Thank you for your interesting response. One exception I must take is with the catagorizing of "belly-breathing" as specifically German school in origin and philosophy. I have always considered myself very Italian in technique and inclination. The teacher with whom I studied in Trieste (Italy) taught released abdominal breathing. My principle teacher as a student at BYU was Ray Arbizu (with whom you are probably familiar in Arizona) who claimed to teach Bel Canto principles and his mentor was William Vennard who also advocates abdominal and/or abdominal /intercostal breathing principles. The difference as I see it is the onset wherein the German school might more aggresively cause a breath surge from pulling the abdominals where the Italian school would maintain a more inhale feeling on the onset. I don't feel that either school would object to a downward release on inspiration while maintaining a raised and expaned thoracic cavity.
-- Dr. Barry Bounous Brigham Young University School of Music bounousb@i...
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