Remembering A Little Nothing
Once upon a time there were two tenors auditioning for a Major Midwest Orchestra. These tenors were not competitors because they did not have similar voices. They were, and still are friendly, in fact able to share a rising star manager whose office had organized the audition in which these two guys were participating.
These tenors, being tenors, were certainly aware of one another. But more than there being another tenor on the scene had little probability of penetrating their concentration on the job at hand. Selling! They were there to sell themselves to the Major Midwest Orchestra. These two were so different in character that the project of selling was like one tenor selling a Rolls Royce and the other tenor selling a Renegade. They will both get the job done, but not the same way.
These tenors were well familiar with the ambiance in which they would make their pitch for a contract at that Major Midwest Orchestra. They had arrived via the normal entrance, back door or stage door, to be nice, on West 65th Street in NYC. One tenor made his way directly to the active center of organization, off stage right, where the chronological audition list was in the hands of the person responsible for shoving all the singers onto the stage one at a time. The other tenor made a quick appearance and quickly departed after he discovered his estimated wait time before his pitch could begin. The tenor still on hand found a chair, almost the only chair available, and sat down in a strategic location. He had an unobstructed view of the piano and of the singer who had been shoved onto the stage of Avery Fisher Hall to audition. Given the fact that the singer auditioning at the time was not a tenor, the seated tenor soon forgot who it was that was making a pitch for a contract…. You know, with that Major Midwest Orchestra. He even forgot which Major Midwest Orchestra was the reason for the audition because he did not get a contract from this Major… sorry. I expect the other tenor, who was diligently warming up his Rolls Royce (RR) voice, has forgotten the entire affair, but the Renegade salesman never forgot.
In the fullness of time the warmed up RR tenor reappeared and proceeded to pace the rather small L shaped hall way that served as waiting area. Auditioning continued on the stage, the seated tenor continued to gather fodder for forgetfulness from the activities in the Hall and the warmed up RR tenor kept legging his way past the seated tenor as he measured the length of that L shaped hall way.
As time began to weigh heavily upon those still waiting, the pacing RR tenor seemed to speed up. Suddenly he stopped in front of the seated tenor and exclaimed: “Rocky, will you stop sitting there like that!? You’re making me nervous.” Yes, I was sitting there, but what I did at that moment I cannot remember. Memory is so selective.
Anyway, time past, singers finished singing, other singers were shepherded onto the stage and finally the RR tenor got his turn. I found myself watching the RR tenor put those very active legs to good use. Out onto the stage he went and he sang gloriously. Then I smiled and understood the challenge.
As often happens, the order of appearance of disparate acts/skits/performance artists can be a tremendous disadvantage to the act that follows. There is sage advice that still floats around in the theatre. Never follow a Kids Act or Animal Act. As soon as the RR tenor approached the end of the aria he was so magnificently singing, I was told to get ready to stand and deliver. When Neil Shicoff finished his aria, he set his sights on the door, stage right where I was waiting for my turn. I wish I could remember if/and/or what I might have said to him as he left the stage, but I do remember that his voice seemed to me to continue to ringing in the theatre as he passed me on his way to the stairway and 65th Street. Onto the stage I went to meet the challenge that Neil had left floating in the auditorium for me to face.
I don’t remember what I sang or how I sang, but I do remember the vision of the two individuals in the center of the auditorium. The one we were singing for and the other one, our agent, Matthew Epstein.
I guess I was heavily influenced by listening to Neil sing his heart out, because when Matthew got hold of me after the audition he asked me: “Why did you sing so loud? You sang louder than Neil!!” I will never forget that audition because of the features so far explained, but I have to say that I never quite believed what Matthew said about my singing that day.
The last and, at the time, most important feature to this story was that no contracts ever came to anyone as a result of these auditions. It turned out that the person I remember seeing seated next to Matthew Epstein in the auditorium had no authority to offer contracts from that Major Midwest Orchestra. We singers turned out to be a free afternoon entertainment. As far as I know that guy who sat with Matthew may never have worked for that Major Midwest Orchestra.
Life is full of satisfactions that cannot be anticipated, and that audition is more valuable to me now for the pleasure it has given me in memory, than anything a contract could have delivered as a consequence of it.
Read MoreHow do we mess up? Let me count the ways.
When in Rome enjoy the rain…. Sorry to complain, but I had to get the weather report out of the way first. The weather has been really unusual in Italy, and with reports from home sounding similar to local conditions, I’m beginning to fear that the Earth may drown before Al Gore can realize his dream of watching the World burn up. When I discovered the alternate shelter choice, in the photograph, on the Tiber river, I was inspired to ask if I could rent space. But, then it started to rain. I began to believe that the river might just get higher than I would find comfortable.
I am on day 4 of my second Roman Master Class with more students than a tenor should be asked to count. I am having so much fun watching surprise spread across singers’ faces who improve their results by following Garcia’s advice and then find that the singing process gets easier on the throat. The messed up way most of these students go about singing is often so easy to unravel that it feels like child’s play. That’s good for a tenor like me who would love to have a life full of play. The old days of stage-play have now changed to teach-play and I cherish the moments when a student breaks out in a big smile because of the joy felt at overcoming difficulties.
So where is the count? “We” includes me, so I guess I’ll start with my mess making.
I am still learning…… No, that is not included in the “mess up” list! I messed up when I came back to Italy…… HOLD ON!! That’s not a “mess up” either. It has to do with the way I organized my return to Italy. There is a very good adage that goes something like this: Every Army is prepared to fight the last war they fought. They almost never keep up with the times and anticipate the attack that will come tomorrow. History is full of proof of the value of this little saying. Let’s just say: I’m a tenor, and am no more intelligent than any army around. Coming back to Italy with the same basic program as last year plus added activity was not a big mistake, but I now recognize that I should have been much more involved in helping my friends in Montisi organize the Florence/Montisi portion of my work. I was happy to meet some really nice people and discover some promising talent, but the structural difficulties presented by the school in Florence proved more than I could anticipate. I’m happy to say my time was not wasted, but I know I should have been able to help more young people than was possible under the circumstances. Unlike an unprepared army that gets destroyed, a tenor usually gets, at least, a second chance to get it right. Next time, it will be different.
OK! I should talk about at least one mess not made by the writer of this blog. My most frequent complaint this trip has been singer’s ignorance of and misuse of Vocal Function because I find it to be incredibly common in the singers who came to me for help.
The use of breathy Falsetto as a stand in for, or reinforcement for Dark Timber is the strongest and #1 impediment to good singing I have seen this year. Indiscriminant, chaotic vacillation between the Falsetto and Chest Voice that the men showed me runs a close second place, with the suppression of the Head Voice in the upper register that all the ladies engage in contends strongly for that second place.
It is wonderful to find that almost every Functional Error sufferer I encountered in Florence, Montisi and Rome was vulnerable to suggestion, and came to at least some understanding of the issue with which they were confused. Most of these were able to put these vocal functional attributes to better use. When I left Barcelona back in January, I was worried about these very issues. This trip restores my hope that the use of Chest Voice and Falsetto can still be brought back to Garcia standards, even in the face of the apparently universal taste for the Dark Side of Vocal Pedagogy.
About second chances: I will be coming back to Italy to try again. The first part of the story is that on 16 September I will be in Torino to collaborate in a Master Class with:
Accademia della Voce del Piemonte
Via Piazzi n. 27
10129 TORINO
We will start on 16 September and work every day until 21 September. It marks my second opportunity to work with my friend Armando Caruso. It will be a pleasure to again be at the service of Armando and his collaborators. We all want to see the same thing. The best singing possible from every singer we meet.
The rest of the story will come later. The world of singing offers us “interesting times” these days, and I am fascinated by the future, for which, the present may be a fitting introduction. I find myself being called Don Quixote, and I know that there are apt similarities even though I refuse to put on armor and ride a horse. I also have no interest in wind energy. I do have interest in helping young singers discover the best qualities in the giftwrapped talent they received at birth, and it can be an uphill battle in these “interesting times”. My experience in Florence and Montisi testified to this fact.
If you have the time, are awake and want to hear a retired American tenor mangle the Italian language on an Italian Radio Show listen at 13:00 Rome time. That would be, for the tenors in my readership, 7:00 am New York time, 6:00 am Chicago time, 5:00 am Denver time and 4:00 am Los Angeles time….. Wait, I guess I’m a tenor too. To what location am I inviting everyone?
La Barcacia
Click the program name, and you will be whisked directly to Rome where you will be able to laugh with us.
Sorry that the tenors in London, Tokyo and Honolulu will have to fend for themselves to discover the correct time of transmission. I didn’t forget you all…… You know……. I’m a tenor too. I got tired of compiling the list.
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Montisi Morning
It’s great to be back in Montisi. Rural life is my favorite, and a quick stop in this little hill top town is just what I need between big town visits.
I just finished a Master Class in Rome exclusive to all but Santa Cecilia students and am on my way to Florence for a similar encounter with young people engaged in educating themselves in the vocal arts. Today marks the first morning of diminished cold virus symptoms that attached me as soon as I hit terra firma this trip. It is such good planning to give oneself
time to acclimate before having to go to work, but this cold gave me fits in Rome notwithstanding the three day recuperation period I built into my schedule. My first day in Europe I dedicated to my pillow. Yes I bring it with me. And it served me well. Sleeping would seem a great battle plan since I was able to meet my commitments in Rome even on the edge of losing my voice to laryngitis. My pillow was my destination when not engaged in my
employment.
Anyway I had every intention of writing new blogs about singing and voice and Rome and and…. Well, let’s just say I wanted to dispel any mistaken impression that I had lost interest in this blog site after putting it on line over a year ago. And here I am enjoying small town Italy in the company of Opera loving friends getting things ready for the Montisi Master Class.
Yesterday Silvia and I had fun working in the little jewel box theatre where the Montisi Class will take place. The piano on loan from Silvia’s friend had to be placed appropriately for the space, and I was there to watch the expert from Siena direct three local strong men as they helped him maneuver the baby grand piano down a set of stairs and into the theatre. After it was well situated in the mini-orchestra space between the front row
seats and the stage, the Montisi muscle men departed as did the expert from Siena, Silvia and I walked her dogs and back we came to do a little sprucing up before the main events of next week.
My symptoms had by yesterday reached a plateau. My voice was hanging by a thread but, at least, my constant enervation had lifted. A retired tenor has no business worrying about his voice, and
I adhere to that policy with great joy. But, to have to push myself forward from lack of energy is something no tenor wants to do. We want to be inspired and full of motivation. Today is a day of inspiration. The sun is up, the weather is perfect and I went out to greet my favorite views from the Montisi mount.
As you can see, spring has sprung on this part of the world and this tenor is happy to enjoy every sight and smell…. Yes, I did pass this little local bakery and was drawn through the front door by the aroma of
yeast and baking bread wafting through the street. I’m now happily consuming my purchase.
This afternoon I’m Florence bound. I hope to have something useful to publish in the next few days, but in the mean time I want to thank everyone for coming to read my blog.
May good health be your constant companion. Sneezing and coughing are no fun at all.
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Climbing Stairs
I always thought there was something more to scaling the registers than just “The Blend”. Renata was not helpful to my understanding, even if she was very helpful to my voice. She made me do a lot of running up and down the scales and boy did I have fun even though Renata was rather generous with her negative comments. She was quick to set me back on track when I wandered into the vocal weeds. I did what Renata told me to do without caring a whit about why she wanted one thing or another. 
Let’s be honest here. I was a kid who knew nothing about singing or Opera. I was just having fun, and voice lessons were party times for me. When High School days were over however, I got curious really fast about the value of all that stuff that I found fun. I was surprised that the vocal world, with which I became acquainted during my short collegiate career, had no interest at all in scale work.
I thought: “Isn’t anyone interested in the scales and arpeggios that Renata made me do?” My complaint is a far cry from the locution: “Oh dear! mayn’t I sing down the scale even once?” that Garcia Jr. is credited with saying to his father. The vocal staff at the two universities I attended had no interest in these things. It was many years later that I had an honest explanation for this modern lack of interest. It was during one of my Master Class efforts to promote Garcia technique in a major music school setting that I was given a big lesson. I was told by an insider that vocal instructors would be hard pressed to include my suggestions in their studio work with the voice students at hand. My new friend on the vocal staff of this major musical mansion told me a lot about the conditions and limitations with which every instructor lived, all of which made the study of scales and arpeggios very unattractive. Number one on the list of limitations was time. There just didn’t seem to be enough of it for such niceties.
Why, I would keep asking myself, did singing scales really matter to Garcia and so many teachers all the way back to Caccini‘s days? Maybe the old ways are irrelevant to today’s tonal idealists, but Garcia lamented the trend in the later part of his life:
At the present day the acquirement of flexibility is not in great esteem, and were it not, perhaps, for the venerable Handel, declamatory music would reign alone. This is to be regretted, for not only must the art suffer, but also the young fresh voices, to which the brilliant florid style is the most congenial; the harder and more settled organs being best suited for declamation. It would not be difficult to trace the causes of the decline of the florid style. Let it suffice, however, to mention, as one of the most important, the disapperance of the race of great singers who, besides originating this art, carried it to its highest point of excellence. The impresario influenced by the exigencies of the modern prima donna, has been constrained to offer less gifted and accomplished virtuose to the composer, who in turn has been compelled to simplify the role of the voice and to rely more and more upon orchestral effects. Thus singing is becoming as much a lost art as the manufacture of Mandarin china or the varnish used by the old masters.
“Hints On Singing” by Manuel Garcia1894 – Google Books page IV
His indictment of the world of singing of his day is not quite as severe as my criticism of today, but the problem was just as big back then as now. I lament that Garcia did not “trace” the “decline of the florid style” for us, because the world of today seems under the impression that tastes just happened to change. That “declamation” was the inevitable evolution of singing toward a modern ideal.
That argument we will have to pick at in other articles, but for today I want to get down to why scales and leaps are so good for you, what they should sound like, and why I believe they were imposed on the singer in the first place.
Doing scales as Garcia suggests is the boot camp of vocal technique. I have every confidence that Renata knew what she wanted to hear while she drove her students through the simple and the complicated note constructs she demanded we sing for her on various vowels. I never did escape my tenor limitations long enough to ask her exactly what it was she wanted to hear, but I now have a good idea from what I can remember of her lessons, from reading Garcia and the experience of finding my way through the life of a singer.
Scales are so basic to a musician’s life that they were taken for granted by everyone. Instrumentalists still have to do scales. The problem they face is obvious to everyone but, perhaps for the tenors who might be reading, I will explain it. It is one of the first difficulties a player has to resolve. Each Key Signature requires a different use of the fingers on the control surfaces of whatever instrument is being played. So scales are impossible to avoid if proficiency in every Key is desired. Back in the dawn of Vocal History even tenors did scales but I don’t think they used their fingers and from the tenor stand point, what’s a Key got to do with singing anyway? Please don’t take me seriously. Keys are important to singing, but “tenor thinking” would prioritize lots of things as more significant.
I believe that, back in the day, scale work was imposed on singers without anyone asking a single “WHY?” My faith comes from hearing musicians use comparative suggestions, and then finding that similar suggestions were written down by some very important music people as old as Quantz. Quantz suggests that the flutist imitate good singing. He also reports that the singers of his day were possessed of the presumption that they were better able to interpret music than instrumentalists. Quantz suggests that the presumed vocal advantage would be true, except for the deficiency of musicianship demonstrated by the singers with whom Quantz was acquainted.
The trumpet player that says: “There are musicians, and then there are singers.” has been around forever. It is no joke because the third shoe to drop would be; and then there are tenors….. I make light of a human weakness that confirms my faith. All the way back to the dawn of Vocal Time we can be secure in our assumption that humans were involved and have always been vulnerable to jealousy. Back when everyone in music had to admit that the vocal soloist was more valuable than the chorus member, I believe a revolution took place and it had consequences. I also believe we can “trace” the consequences back to a good picture of what actually happened.
In those early days, the voice which was dragged out of the chorus to become a soloist had to be placed in some sort of training. Everyone in the band had done scales. Do you think the singer was going to get a pass? No, the singer was going to have to do scales. There are good reasons to do scales, but not to memorize fingerings. The singer was going to have to mimic the instrument to prove proficiency in vocal training. We all know about vocal difficulties like “breaks” and “registers”, which scale work really makes obvious when the singer moves his/her voice up and down the C major scale bumping over the register breaks in both directions. But this would not seem to be the basis for the jealousy implicit in “There are musicians, and then there are singers.” That jealousy rests on something Garcia tells us…. If an instrument can do something, so can the human voice within the limits of its range. The dedicated singer can do scales just as well as any clarinet, violin, oboe, trumpet or French horn. In some cases the human can do better. In some cases the ability of the voice is so good that the singer can do those scales as well as the musician after just a few lessons. After months of practice room time, the violinist might be a little miffed to hear a new soprano at his school imitating his C major scales in the adjacent practice room. This would be enough to upset his ego, but that poor musician may have his instructor tell him the advice Quantz has for the flutist. Listen to that new soprano and try to follow the shading of emotion she displays with her voice as she sings her songs. In as much as she can make her voice follow the C major scale making a credible impersonation of the violinist next door, she can also change the color of her voice in almost any way she wants. The violinist does have some color latitude with his instrumental sound, but comparing the coloring abilities of the violin to the human voice is like comparing a switch blade
to the best Swiss army knife. 
When he admits he is overmatched, the musician is left to carp about the imprecision of the soprano’s intonation, lack of rhythm, missed entrances, overlong phrase conclusions all of which add up to that most general ancient/modern complaint; singers are just not musicians.
So what am I trying to say? In short…. I have been long winded today, haven’t I?… Sing scales like you know how they should be sung from listening to your friends from the orchestra play their scales. The violin sounds like the violin from the open G string to the highest note the player can make without leaving the finger board on the E string. The player needs to work hard to make a sound his parents will tolerate. You need to sound like you from the lowest note you can sing to the highest, letting everyone hear that you know just as much about singing scales as the best violin player, and always retain the individual, identifiable sound that God gave you.
The correct song for you is: “ Anything you can do I can do better”. Think of Betty Hutton as the singer and Howard Keel as the violinist.
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The Blend
Finding clues to your vocal identity is only one reason to organize the Chest Register. Your Chest Register, full of comfortable Chest Voice, is the foundation upon which your voice should be built. Garcia tells us that teachers should blend the Chest Voice of the Chest Register with the Falsetto of the Middle Register when working with you girls, and offers specific exercises with which to get the job done. However, I believe his advice presents us with a secret to uncover. He does not tell us what the end product of the work involved should sound like.
This lack of descriptive text is common place to his writings. It is not Garcia’s weakness. It is the weakness of language itself. There is no way to describe vocal sounds and effects without resorting to comparisons. Garcia fought this difficulty in his original edition by naming names and assuming that the work of universally applauded singers would be sufficient sources for examples to support the points he wanted to make in his Treaties. In his later editions, a lot of these names disappear. What good would it be for Garcia to cite the way a particular singer sang a note or phrase if the singer is unknown to the reader?
One must infer the intent of Garcia when he writes of blending one register with another. I lived in a singing world that seemed to assume that one only needed to avoid the “hiccup”, “break”, “register event” etc. to achieve the blending that Garcia wrote about. Garcia tells us that the blending work he advises will cause the “register event” to disappear in an ascending scale. The voice will start in the Chest Register passing seamlessly into the Middle Register and finally arrive, without disturbance, at the Head Voice. This passage from the bottom to the top of the voice has no sonic description in any of the literature I have read. If anyone can help this tenor with text I have not seen, please send me the bibliographical reference. Unfortunately, Garcia doesn’t even try to tell us what the well-executed scale from basement to weather vane of the voice should sound like except for the idea of unity and lack of disturbance of the sound. It is an important bit of information, and I believe that specific sonic result was the goal that Garcia Sr. had when he tortured Garcia Jr. with scale work:
The monotony of the first portion of this training evidently became very wearisome in time, for Señor Garcia would afterwards recall how one day, after being made to sing an endless variety of ascending scales, his desire for a change became so great that he could not resist bursting out, “Oh dear! mayn’t I sing down the scale even once?” The training of those days was indeed a hard one, but it turned out artists who had a very wonderful command over their voices.
The problem is, and always is the meaning of “is”. Sorry for the political reference, but I just couldn’t help myself. What do the words unity and character mean? I start with what Garcia says he is NOT going to say which I quote in “Why Garcia”. Notice “outstanding differences which distinguish the voices of various individuals” in the first quote, and further on “we will not concern ourselves with the different timbres which characterize and differentiate the voices of individuals”. Character is that which makes the voice identifiable. You hear a voice and you know who the singer is, because the voice HAS outstandingly different character from all other voices. Unity is based on the same assumptions. No matter the pitch, you can still identify the singer who owns the voice producing the pitch.
OK! You have your identity (voice print) settled in the Chest Register using Chest Voice. You should get out of the vocal basement with that identity unsullied by Falsetto as you make your way through your Middle Register. That ID needs to be just as legible to the ear as you finesse your way into the Head Register/Voice. That stable, identifiable character of vocal sound throughout the extent of your voice is the unity that I believe Garcia Sr. wanted his son to learn to protect. All the great ancient singers were subjected to similar torture/training as was Garcia Jr., and I believe it was for the same objective. Do I have proof of this? No. Is it logical? To this tenor it is.
The literature I have read is only just a little helpful in support of my theory. I would be most happy to receive any references from the period of Garcia and any that predate his adult life. I am especially interested in evidence that I am wrong. I have to challenge my detractors, if I be worthy of any, with the words of my friend Randy Mickelson: “Show me the books!” I assume the world to be full of people better read than this tenor, and hope someone from among this better educated class of non-tenors would be helpful enough to invite me to say my favorite line of Gilda Radner. That line would be the last two words in her clip.
Until then, I will stand on my Internet Soap Box, wave my Garcia Forever banner, and keep shouting over the noise: Blending the registers has nothing to do with blending with your friends in the chorus.
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