The saying: “The best things in life are free!!” could apply to You Tube. I am happy that many find entertainment in that Data Base of video. Those millions watching YT instead of TV support a trove of rare treasures that I get to troll through hoping to snag a few tidbits of Great Singing. You Tube is not the answer for young singers wondering why their voices don’t actually follow what the Professor tells them to do, but it is a partial answer to my question “Why?!!” that my mind screamed when I came across:
I do not try to explain greatness in singing; there are too many imponderables to attempt such a task.
Stark, James (2011-07-07). Bel Canto: A History of Vocal Pedagogy (Kindle Locations 222-223). University of Toronto Press. Kindle Edition.
Stark kind of answers my question with:
This is the price that one pays for steering a middle course.
Stark, James (2011-07-07). Bel Canto: A History of Vocal Pedagogy (Kindle Location 224). University of Toronto Press. Kindle Edition.
Since this is still my favorite modern book dedicated to the vocal arts, one might take issue with me criticizing the author for his apparent timidity. I will grant the politically partisan pedant the point that one should never mention the weaknesses of the people on your side, but just steam ahead dropping references to only those features of your party members that strongly support your position. I believe the “Whole Truth” on a subject is more important than winning any campaign. I guess that “Whole Truth” objective could be my campaign slogan. Stark must have a lot he could say about this “Greatness” thing, but he worked in the Factory where the only partisan activity tolerated these days carries the label Political Correctness. He could have trundled out his opinions, which I’m sure he has, about what it takes to make a “Great” performance, but at least a few of the other Voice Workers on the Factory floor would have objected. The PC ethical imperative “to make nice” seems to have risen to a higher priority than the Professor’s responsibilities to the student.
Garcia directed his efforts as follows:
*In the investigation which we are going to outline of the qualities most necessary to the student, we have in view the singer who intends to take up opera. Not only should he have the intellectual advantages which will permit him to satisfy all the demands of a severe criticism, but also, his constitution should enable him to withstand the wear and tear which await him in the practice of his art.* The most favorable intellectual conditions are a true passion for music, the capacity to grasp clearly and to engrave into his memory the melodies and harmonic combinations, *an exuberant spirit, joined with a quick and observing mind.* With respect to the physical conditions, we place in the first rank the voice, which should be fresh, attractive [sympathique], extensive, and strong; in the second rank the vigor of the constitution, usually matched to the qualities of the organ which we have just indicated.
*Thus should every individual be organized who wishes to rise to the rank of distinguished artist,* but let one make no mistake about it, the combination of all these natural gifts, however rare they may be, would not suffice by themselves to constitute true talent. The most favorable aptitudes need to be cultivated and directed in their application by a sustained and orderly labor. The singer who ignores the sources of the effects and the secrets of the art is only an incomplete talent, a slave of routine.
A Complete Treatise on the Art of Singing: Part One – Pages 1 and 2
Those bits of Garcia’s text that have a “*” preceding and following them are in his first edition, but disappear from later editions.
Stark and Garcia seem to have very different intentions. In Garcia’s description of the student that he would accept to teach we read of his intent to help that student rise to the rank of “distinguished artist”. One could assume that the “distinguished artist” would at some point have to display, for at least a short period of time, some “Greatness in Singing”. How would anyone attain to “distinguished artist” without a brief display of uncommon competence in the singing art? Mr. Stark is in fact at a true disadvantage because of the philosophical environment in which he drops his soap box before even beginning to tell us what he knows.
The critical method is to seek a rapprochement between historical and scientific views of good singing – that is, to extrapolate backwards in time our current understanding of the physiology, aerodynamics, and acoustics of singing as a means of reinterpreting historical vocal practices. Musicologist Carl Dahlhaus defined history as ‘memory made scientific’ (1983, 3); fellow musicologist Leo Treitler said, ‘understanding takes place in the fusion of the horizons of present and past’ (1982, 71). My purpose has been to attempt such a fusion in the history of vocal pedagogy.
Stark, James (2011-07-07). Bel Canto: A History of Vocal Pedagogy (Kindle Locations 181-185). University of Toronto Press. Kindle Edition.
Garcia wants to tell us what we need to do to attain to “Distinguished Operatic Artist”, and Stark wants to tell us how to reinterpret Garcia in order to find agreement between today’s “discoveries” and yesterday’s assertions. Well, Stark does tell us more:
The field of singing is alive with inquiry and controversy. As George Bernard Shaw wrote in 1886, ‘Though there must by this time be in existence almost as many handbooks for singers and speakers as a fast reader could skip through in a lifetime or so, publishers still find them safe investments’ (Shaw 1969, 127). (I and my publisher hope he is correct!) Authors on singing have ranged from geniuses to fools, and have included voice teachers, singers, critics, voice buffs, and musicologists.
Stark, James (2011-07-07). Bel Canto: A History of Vocal Pedagogy (Kindle Locations 197-200). University of Toronto Press. Kindle Edition.
Profit motive aside, Stark does us a great service by presenting many pertinent bits of history. His target audience: “voice students and teachers who may need a scholarly road map” should applaud him for his work, and I slap my palms together while wishing for more. What a shame that Stark can say he recognizes fools and geniuses on the list of authors to which he adds his name, but lacks the ability/courage to even allow that “Greatness in Singing” can be recognized by him or anyone else. Maps are great, but if you won’t declare or define your destination, what practical use does a map have? I hope his publisher does sell lots of copies of his book. But I wish he could have jumped the fence of PC, so beloved of The Factory, for just a sentence or two. I for one would love to have his idea of who might offer our ears some “Greatness in Singing.” Garcia didn’t shy away from giving out names.
Back to the best things in life. You Tube will confirm Stark’s words: “The field of singing is alive with inquiry and controversy.” The comments posted to each video by the lovers of singing would definitely inspire fear in the heart of anyone who wants to hide behind Political Correctness. There is nothing PC about some of the more colorful denigrations posted as comments on YT videos, and in many cases they are just plain provocative without any rational basis for the opinions expressed. If you can resist the mudslinging, you can use You Tube to further your education.
Please consider Elena Obraztsova.
Here we have the first video I found that I can call a gem of Greatness. I didn’t find this video by chance. I found it because I had just met this impressive person in Barcelona. Mr. Miguel Lerin a descendent of the dramatic tenor Francisco Viñas, whom Garcia would have known from at least 1891, invited me to be part of the panel of “Experts” in his ancestor’s commemorative voice competition. As I looked across the conference table at Ms. Obraztsova, I became convinced that I was observing one of the great singers of the world. Because I was an ignorant tenor I had some work to do to know if this first impression was reliable. You Tube was just the thing. Because my hotel was charging me for the internet connection I used to access You Tube, I cannot say that my education concerning Elena Obraztsova was free. But I can say that discovering this video was among many good reasons to pay the several Euros a day that the information stream was costing me.
I later found another rendition of the Bizet ditty on You Tube that is also a gem of Greatness.
Maria Callas sings this aria with Greatness of a different sort.
Here we have Leonard Warren with a great example of “Clear Timbre” singing:
The following is a great example of how the same voice can produce a wonderful contrast.
Greatness in singing is something that can be discussed and can be a goal and destination. No map is going to help someone wandering around wondering what Greatness might be. It has to be heard and seen. Garcia designed the map and he tells us the destination. His first edition gave us some names of singers he held up as examples. Nicolas Levasseur, Luigi Lablache, Giovanni Battista Rubini, and his own father, Manuel García, are mentioned on page 30.
These singers were perishable. They died without recording anything. In their day they could preserve peaches, but not performances. Today You Tube can preserve even the stuff we wish everyone would forget. YT is a great tool, and I will use it to help me fill in the audiovisual blanks that Dr. Stark and every other modern book writer seems comfortable leaving empty. We really need to see and hear the destination. Then we can use the map: Garcia’s Map.
I do not suggest that one should imitate any singer, great or not. Leave that to the comedians. I will get around to explaining why these gems of greatness are great. In the meantime go visit You Tube and look up other singers doing these songs. The differences between Great and not so Great are sometimes really easy to spot. Some can make you laugh or cry depending on your PC conditioning.
Every aphorism must concede to reality and some of “the best things in life” are not public domain. One of the best wells into which to dip ones’ research pail is located at the New England Conservatory . In the Firestone Library one can find some really important “Greatness in Singing”. I asked NEC for a blessing on my inclusion of the two examples of singing that originate from their archives, and with their approval, I’m happy that I am able to include one Great Singer, Leonard Warren, singing two examples of “Greatness in Singing”. The photo attached to this blog is a scan of the front panel of the box from which I got these little gems. It contained a VHS tape published by VAI that I purchased at Tower Records in Manhattan many years ago.