1. The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop
Historical support for teaching the ‘comfortably low’ laryngeal posture’ and the ‘closed timbre’.
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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

2. The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop
The Open Throat
Commonly called the ‘open throat’
Began in Italy in early 19th C
Muscles of the throat are constrictors
We can elongate the vocal tract
Can result in widening the pharynx and narrowing the epilaryngeal tube
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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

3. The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop
The ‘open throat’
Historically important concept
Practiced throughout the 19th C and in many contemporary sources
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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

4. The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop
The ‘open throat’
Often ignored in the 20th C in favor of various ‘placement’ and ‘support’ techniques
Fueled by the ‘no – effort’ school promoted by many teachers in reaction to the ‘local effort’ school of Garcia at end of 19th C
Recent reports describe the rational for teaching the ‘open throat’
11/29/2018
The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

5. Carlo Bassini (1812-1870) Bassini’s Art of Singing, 1856
“…for, if a singer should present himself at the opera in Paris and fail to give the renowned chest C in the “Huguenots” or “William Tell,” though singing never so well otherwise he would gain but few admirers and be quite certain of producing but little effect.”
This was not always the case. Bassini’s quote points to a transition between the old and the new – changing aesthetics and practice. To understand the story we go to Paris in the early nineteenth century.
11/29/2018
The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

6. Genesis: The Closed Timbre
In 1837 Duprez shattered the peace with a cannon shot across the stage. The singing world has never been the same.
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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

7. Henry Chorley, Music and Manners in France and Germany, 1844.
The French vocal style was nasal:
“That they sang through their noses, is as certain as that the Parisian opera songstresses terrified Dr. Burney and Horace Walpole, by their energetic screaming.”
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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

8. Henry Chorley, Music and Manners in France and Germany, 1844.
The French vocal style was characterized by liberal use of falsetto in the high voice:
“Many of them, too, were afflicted with that diseased tendency towards a falsetto, which, in our own country, has run the inordinate length of pushing innocent, portly, middle-aged gentlemen into warbling (more oddly to the eye than agreeably to the ear) the sublimest songs of Handel’s “Messiah”.
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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

9. The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop
French Traditions
Adolphe Nourrit ( )
Many premiers by Rossini and Meyerbeer
Rossini’s favorite – the original Arnold in William Tell
Student of the elder Garcia
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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

10. The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop
French traditions
Adolphe Nourrit ( )
Vocalism represented and earlier taste
Fine actor, refined taste
Falsetto dominated high voice
A member of the elite social circles
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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

11. The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop
Changing Traditions
Gilbert-Louis Duprez ( )
1837 – Paris
Replaced Nourrit as Arnold in Rossini’s Guilliame Tell
Do di petto
Learned the technique in Italy
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12. Guglielmo Tell: “O muto asil del pianto”. Act IV
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13. The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop
New expectations
Adolphe Nourrit ( )
Threatened by Duprez’s success
Left Paris for Italy
Studied the new technique in Italy with some success
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14. Henry Chorley, Music and Manners in France and Germany, 1844.
“Possibly in his less gloomy moments, he (Nourrit) believed that his day was not yet over; that he had still energy to recompose himself anew; that he would, in short, have a chest voice in place of his own nasal and brilliant falsetto di testa and learn that honeyed and long-drawn cantabile which his countrymen were beginning to praise as an indispensable treasure.”
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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

15. The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop
New expectations
Adolphe Nourrit ( )
Nourrit committed suicide in 1839 by throwing himself off of his balcony in Naples.
Suicide could have been related to long-term illness: hepatitis or alcoholism.
11/29/2018
The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

16. James Stark: Bel Canto: A History of Vocal Pedagogy, 1998.
“After Duprez, the ut de poitrine became a requirement for the Romantic tenor high C, then or now, for the success or failure of tenors.”
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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

17. The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop
Manuel Garcia II ( )
1832 appointed to Paris Conservatory
Central figure in 19th C pedagogy
Famous pupils:
Battaille
Stockhausen
Malibran
Viardot
Marchesi
Lind
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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

18. The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop
Manuel Garcia II ( )
Definition of registers
Use of laryngeal mirror in singing
Separated for the first time the concept of register quality vs. timbre quality
‘closed’ or somber
‘open’ or clear
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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

19. The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop
Voix Sombrée!
June, 1840 – Diday and Pétrequin reported to the Académie des Sciences on the subject of timbre and laryngeal position as related to Duprez’s do di petto.
Voix sombrée ou couverte (dark and covered)
November, 1840 – Garcia presented his theories to the academy
Garcia claimed to have been teaching the lowered laryngeal posture and ‘covered tone’ since 1832.
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20. The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop
Voix Sombrée!
Significant agreement upon ‘quality’, not terminology or method
Falsetto no longer acceptable
‘white’ or ‘open’ (voix blanche or voce aperta) quality no longer acceptable
A review of the pedagogical literature of the 19th C suggests that the lowered laryngeal posture was a common pedagogical goal.
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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

21. Julius Stockhausen (1826-1906). Gesangsmethode, 1884.
German baritone, conductor and teacher
Known as interpreter of the songs of Schubert and Schumann
Brahms wrote his Magalone Lieder, and the baritone part in his Requiem for him
Also known as a fine operatic baritone
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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

22. Julius Stockhausen (1826-1906). Gesangsmethode, 1884.
“The dangerous tendency of the larynx to rise to the position it takes in speaking must be carefully avoided.”
“…it is only with a fixed position of the larynx, and with the right use of the two chief qualities of sound, that a beautiful, well-molded whole can be produced.”
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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

23. Enrico Delle Sedie (1822-1907). Esthetics of the Art of Singing, 1885.
Italian born baritone
Sang Germont, Renato, Figaro at Covent Garden, La Scala
Taught at Paris Conservatory
“The soft palate rises in a direction opposite to that of the larynx, following the same regular order of gradations; viz: it rises with the height of sound, whilst the larynx, for giving to the voice a homogenous and easy tone should descend in the same order.”
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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

24. Enrico Delle Sedie (1822-1907). Esthetics of the Art of Singing, 1885.
“Having noticed the defects which result from the ascending of the larynx with respect to the high sounds, it is useless to insist any longer on this subject.”
“Therefore, the ascension of the larynx in high notes cannot be favorable for this emission of the vocal sound. I will not extend myself too much on a subject so often disputed, but will limit myself to expose the practical use of my theory.”
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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

25. Enrico Delle Sedie (1822-1907). Esthetics of the Art of Singing, 1885.
“When the larynx is so raised we may emit high sounds, but thin and shrill. It is true, that we are disposed to raise the larynx when we want to emit high sounds, but if we would closely observe the timbre, we would recognize that they are thin, contracted and shrill.”
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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

26. The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop
Charles Amable Bataille ( ). Nouvelles recherches sur la phonation, 1861.
French basso profundo
Student of Garcia II
Taught at the Paris Conservatory
Conducted extensive research on phonation using the laryngeal mirror
“Moderate lowering of the larynx has the certain result of giving the voice suppleness and power, thereby encouraging the enlargement of its natural limits.”
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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

27. The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop
Charles Amable Bataille ( ). Nouvelles recherches sur la phonation, 1861.
“This procedure, familiar to the great Italian school, has been given the term somber voice, and it has been associated with vocal emission. Duprez ‘naturalized’ this term in France during his operatic debuts, but the expression had already been in use in Italy for some time.”
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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

28. Edmund Myers (1846-1934). The Renaissance of Vocal Art, 1902.
Teacher, author of several books on singing
“For artistic tone, the soft palate must be high, the larynx must be low, and the throat and mouth allowed to form, not made or compelled. . . The larynx must be low in adjustment for the production of beautiful tone, but it must never be locally adjusted.”
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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

29. D. A. Clippinger “The Head Voice and Other Problems”, 1922.
Decried the ‘lowered larynx’ as an abomination!
First exercises were ascending scales on [o] and [u]
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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

30. The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop
G. B. Lamperti ( )
Opposed to many Garcia techniques
As recorded by William Earl Brown in Vocal Wisdom:
‘Covered tone’ is a misleading term. ‘Closed tone’ should take its place.’
‘In their inception all tones are dark to be opened or closed at will.’
‘All tones are closed until opened.’
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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

31. The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop
G. B. Lamperti ( )
‘Although you may acquire a wide range of voice, you cannot modulate the sounds until the resonance of your tones becomes round and rich, chiaroscuro.’
‘When a tone ‘opens’ the ‘focus’ of vibration does not change.’
‘Return to ‘closed’ quality is impossible if the tone becomes too ‘white’.’
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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

32. Oren Brown (1909-2004). Discover Your Voice, 1996.
Well-known teacher, author and pioneer in voice therapy
Julliard School
“It is impossible to develop the operatic or classical tone if the larynx is raised. A low larynx position can be induced by the feeling of a beginning yawn – no pulling down! The position can also be gained with the sensation of a raised soft palate.”
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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

33. The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop
William Vennard ( ). Singing: The Mechanism and the Technique, 1967.
Well-known voice teacher, researcher
Famous collaborators include Janwillen van den Berg – Voice production: the Vibrating larynx
“When the larynx is moderately low, the intrinsic musculature is free from extrinsic tensions. The ‘yawn-sigh’ tends to lower the voice box; indeed the yawn is the most usable of the reflex methods of lowering it.”
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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

34. Ida Franca, Manual of Bel Canto, 1956.
Soprano and teacher in New York
“To lead the vocal student toward the maximum development of his or her talent, one should start with the study of the voce chiusa (shut voice) as soon as possible, and take the utmost care that the beginner does not shut the mouth and hum.”
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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

35. Richard Miller, The Structure of Singing, 1986 Chiaroscuro!
There can be little doubt that in desirable “closed voice” (voce chiusa), a timbre that should prevail throughout the singing voice regardless of range, as opposed to “open voice” (voce aperta), there is a stabilized laryngeal position – relatively low – and a somewhat widened pharynx. These conditions together with proper vowel modification (aggiustamento) produce the so-called “covered sound” of the upper range.
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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

36. The ‘comfortably low larynx’
Insert Ingo’s presentation here:
Increases the inertive reactance of the vocal tract :
Increases MFDR
Increased energy in upper partials
Importance is more than timbre:
Keeps the intrinsics ‘free’
Julius Stockhausen to Oren Brown agree that the open throat is the only environment where the registers will coordinate.
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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

37. The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop
If you ignore it:
Can lead to misclassification: a true baritone with a ‘tenory’ timbre due to the shortened vocal tract.
Can limit a career to compramario roles when there is potential for a broader range of repertory.
It can prevent the voice from ever developing its professional potential.
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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

38. The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop
Methods
Keeping the ‘open throat’ in the high range goes against nature! The larynx will rise along with pitch unless trained to do otherwise.
Indirect control
Yawning, deep inhalation, ‘feeling hollow’
Vowel choice [ o ], [ u ]
Vowel modification (migration)
Careful monitoring of timbre
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The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

39. The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop
Methods
Direct Control
Observation: mirror, palpation
Physical manipulation
Whatever it takes!
11/29/2018
The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop