The Old Italian School of Singing: A Theoretical and Practical Guide

220 Pages·2012·3.101 MB·English

by  Daniela Bloem-Hubatka

The Old Italian School of Singing
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The Old Italian
School of Singing
A Theoretical and Practical Guide
DANIELA BLOEM-HUBATKA
Foreword by Ward Marston
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
Bloem-Hubatka, Daniela, 1946–
The old Italian school of singing : a theoretical and practical guide /
Daniela Bloem-Hubatka ; foreword by Ward Marston.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7864-6153-0
softcover : acid free paper
1. Singing—Instruction and study—History. I. Title.
ML1460.B56 2012 783'.0143—dc23 2011052316
British Library cataloguing data are available
©2012 Daniela Bloem-Hubatka. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, i ncluding photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without p ermission in writing from the p ublisher.
Front cover: Italian composer Gioachino Antonio Rossini (wikipedia)
Manufactured in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 6¡¡, Je›erson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
Table of Contents
Foreword by Ward Marston 1
Preface 3
Introduction 5
1. The Attack 15
2. The Breath 38
3. The Resonance 55
4. Mouth Position and Articulation 75
5. The Registers 89
6. Movement and Agility of the Voice 108
7. The Words in Singing 123
8. Interpretation 131
9. Expression 146
A Summary of Essential Directions for Historical Singing 161
Appendix 1. Jenny Lind Solfeggi 163
Appendix 2. Rossini Gorgheggi (Vocalizes) 166
Appendix 3. Cover: Airs Détachés d’Orphée et Euridice, par Gluck; Air: J’ai perdu 173
Appendix 4. The Singer’s Assistant “On the Formation of the Voice”; “General
Directions to Singers” 175
Notes 179
Bibliography 195
Index 209
v
I dedicate this book to all aspiring singers
who wish to sing in the natural manner
of the Old Italian School of Singing
Foreword by Ward Marston
Anyone who has listened attentively to recordings of the great operatic singers of
the past century cannot help but notice that singers of today sound radically different
from those of, say, one hundred years ago. As someone who has spent most of his life
listening critically to singers of the past, I am often dismayed to hear that today’s singers
lack what in the golden age would have been an essential component of basic vocal
training. You can imagine my surprise when I received a CD from someone living in
the Netherlands whose vocal production and technique is, to my ears, reminiscent of
an earlier style of singing. Her name is Daniela Bloem. She is a lyric soprano and voice
teacher who has spent the last thirty years researching the question of why singing has
suffered such decline. She believes that vocal pedagogy has largely lost touch with the
proper method of teaching the basic and essential principles of singing. I contacted her
asking about her repertoire and she gladly sent me additional recordings of a broad range
of music. She also sent the introduction to a book she planned to write on the voice.
We developed a warm friendship over the phone, discussing singers past and present.
A few years ago, Daniela Bloem made a trip to the States, and visited me for several
afternoons. Each time, she sang a variety of operatic material as well as lieder and art
songs. Daniela, in her mid-sixties, demonstrated that even after singing a strenuous
group of arias, her voice did not tire, which she attributes to her own training of her
voice in the old method. I am not a voice teacher, but I found her singing captivating
and her stamina remarkable. Her visit was very encouraging, because as a teacher, she
may be able to shed light on how to recapture the “lost” art of singing. She explained
that the teaching of singing has taken a wrong turn and that now, many singers are
taught incorrectly. She told me that her own vocal problems led her to investigate how
vocal technique had been taught in the 19th century. Then, she completely retrained
her voice according to those principles, which forced her to reject much of what she
had been taught in her formative years. Daniela has a firm grasp on exactly what is
wrong with today’s singers and she clearly has something vital to say. This book is a
distillation of her research into old methods of teaching, coupled with her personal insight.
Ward Marston is a pioneer in the field of audio restoration. He is a Grammy winner, a recipient of the Award
for Distinguished Service to Historical Recordings from the Association for Recorded Sound Collections, and
a winner of the Bicentennial Medal for distinguished achievement from Williams College.
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Preface
I started to write down my findings about the validity, truth and importance of
the teachings of the Old Italian School of Singing through my passion for singing as
well as teaching in the historical way. In my search for information I found that the
books of the old masters generally agree on the method of singing, thereby inspiring
confidence and trust by their instructions, whereas their more modern counterparts
offer a variety of often conflicting ideas on singing. I discovered that there were plenty
of books on singing currently available but none devoted to the historical Italian method.
I was encouraged by my audiences and pupils to become a crusader for this method of
singing. They all agreed it was of great importance that I write this book.
The problem with the historical instructions for singing, however, is that they
require a means of access to and a basic understanding of the old method in order to
grasp the full meaning of their message. That is the primary purpose of this book, to
give access to the old method theoretically and practically. Things that were taken for
granted in the past must now be rediscovered and explained, which will become clear
in the course of this book. I have therefore been obliged to present the historical method
in relation to modern teachings. There are many people who will not be surprised to
learn that the historical method offers an alternative that guarantees the vocal health of
the singer and scope for individual and creative performances.
I am well aware that the necessity to go into great detail describing the historical
method might give rise to the impression that this method is complicated. It must be
emphasized, however, that precisely the opposite is true; the historical method is sim-
ple and logical, following the physical laws of phonation in speech and song.
My approach to the material is based on extensive practical professional experi-
ence, performing as a soprano singer and teaching as a singing pedagogue in both the
modern and the historical way; my transition from modern to historical singing occurred
more than ten years ago. I have therefore been able to observe the difference in the
singing methods and their effects on the various aspects of singing from the standpoint
of singer and teacher as well as observing listeners- and p upils-r eactions.
The reason that I frequently quote the old masters rather than paraphrase them
in my own words is to give the reader the opportunity to observe for himself how con-
cise, clear and similar the old masters word their instructions. I have inserted copious
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