The Art of Vocal Performance: Embracing Diversity in Music

1. Chapter 6 Vocal Music

2. The Uniqueness of Voice • Voice part of individual’s personality; many factors shape and refine one’s performance • timbre, register, culture, style of music • Vocal Ranges

3. Marian Anderson • Grew up in Philadelphia singing in church choirs • Studied music and achieved great renown in Europe • Suffered from great racial prejudice back in US • Refused permission to perform at prestigious concert hall in Washington, DC • 1st Lady Eleanor Roosevelt arranged for concert to be held at Lincoln Memorial

4. Andrea Bocelli • Italian Tenor • Born in Tuscany and began singing at early age • Went blind after being hit in head by ball • Graduated from law school, but chose to pursue music career instead • One of several famous crossover tenors

5. Crossover – Opera and Pop • Trained opera singers moving into pop music market • Charlotte Church • Records sales topping 10 million albums • By age 14, had performed for many heads of state • Youngest solo artist to have a record in Top 30

6. Voices in Your School Community • Most high schools have choirs • Concert choir, show choir, jazz choir, gospel choir, etc. • Can bring school sense of pride, accomplishment, and enjoyment • Musical textures • Polyphonic – independent melodies that stand alone • Homophonic – melody supported by harmonic accompaniment • Monophonic – melody without accompaniment or harmony

7. Using Your Voice to Express Yourself • Some of humanity’s most profound thoughts expressed through music • Performing both exhilarating and demanding • Develop control and confidence • Must be certain of high level of musical quality • Great deal of practice and repetition until piece of music is mastered

8. Audiation • Musicians audiate before performance • Hear music in your “mind’s ear” • Composers think sounds before writing them down • Internalize pitches and rhythms of a melody

9. Singing A Capella • Singing without instrumental accompaniment • From Latin phrase meaning “as in the chapel” • Early days of Christian Church when no instruments allowed and singing only unaccompanied

10. The Art of Vocal Performance • Culture Influences the Voice • Each culture has own style of singing they find pleasing to the ear • Vocal timbres reflect sound of a country’s language • Function of music varies from culture to culture • Bel Canto Style • Operatic singing style • Italian for “beautiful singing”

11. The Art of Vocal Performance (cont.) • Blues Style • Vocal timbre reflects sense of sadness • Originated in African American spirituals and work songs • Simple and direct; expression of life’s painful experiences and the reasons for them • First popularized by WC Handy

12. 12-Bar Blues • harmonic pattern of 12 measures that repeats • Three chords based on the tonic, subdominant, and dominant • Chords numbered by the pitches of the scale using Roman numerals • chord I built on 1st pitch of scale, chord V built on 5th pitch, and so forth… • Assists improvisers since they always know what’s coming next

13. Registers – vocal ranges Range – the distance in pitch between the lowest and highest pitches of the voice Coloratura – the soprano voice that is light and flexible enough to perform rapid scales and trills Soprano – the high female register Mezzo-soprano – the intermediate female voice that sings in the lower part of the soprano range Contralto – a low female register with a full, rich, dark, and powerful quality Vocabulary

14. Countertenor – the highest male voice with a falsetto range and quality and a register in the female alto range Tenor – the high male range with a powerful, ringing quality Baritone – the intermediate male voice Bass – a lower male register with a rich, robust, resonant, and full quality Audiation – the capacity to think sound A capella – singing without instrumental accompaniment Vocabulary (cont.)

15. Bel canto – a style caracterized by lyrical and flowing phrases, beauty of vocal color, and brilliant technique Blues – a genre of African American music that often expresses frustration, sadness, or longing Blue notes – selected pitches, usually on the third and seventh degrees of the scale, whose intonation is altered at the discretion of the performer Vocabulary (cont.)