Chiaroscuro
Garcia along with his friends and enemies lived in interesting times, Garcia an especially large portion of them. Events of the long span of interesting Music-History mirror events in every other hyphenated History we can discuss. Even the definitions of words we use in our discussions have been interestingly changing in every category. In “Chiaroscuro” we have an example of a linguistic mutation that I think can stand as an icon for what keeps happening to human communication. I expect this tendency will continue to affect our reading and discussion of History to the end of time.
When Garcia used Chiaroscuro, he was making reference to the use of Clear Timbre and Dark Timbre. This cooption of Chiaroscuro from the world of Great Painters was no doubt well understood in his day. Garcia is talking about a singer’s vocal sound being modified by the singer with Dark and Clear Timber to depict an emotional message within the context of a musical composition. The eventual misuse of this word as an icon for “The Ideal Sound” in a singing voice is lamentable for many reasons, but most of all because of the ignorance this usage fosters of the correct use of the tools “Clear Timbre” = “Chiaro-” and “Dark Timbre” = “-scuro”. That ignorance is, in some quarters, so complete that the very art of interpretation is declared unteachable.
The meaning of Chiaroscuro that Garcia and friends understood as parallel with the way the word was used in the world of great painters has a weakness that can lead to misuse. There is a time element involved that can be missed or ignored. Fine Artists used tools and technique to produce or apply Chiaroscuro effect to their works of art. The art consumer views the product of such application, like a painting, as being representative of Chiaroscuro technique. One could say, while standing in front of Giovanni Baglione’s “Sacred and Profane”(see it at Wikipedia): “That is great Chiaroscuro!” and be understood even with the time element thrown away. One might better say while viewing “Sacred and Profane”: “Can you see how effective Baglione was in his use of Chiaroscuro in this work?” Time was measured by the painter’s brush strokes. To the viewer time, is measurable in the dust collected on the painting’s gilded frame.
In Garcia’s use of the word the time element is alive, well and active. He says that one uses Chiaroscuro while creating interpretations. In a performance, as time progresses, the sound consumer hears Chiaroscuro play upon the voice of a singing artist. In the modern usage, time has progressed to the point of being hog tied: “The best Operatic voices have/display Chiaroscuro.” Mr. Miller might say: “As we listen to an Operatic singer we always here Chiaroscuro in his/her voice. It is always present. It is part of his/her vocal persona. What has time got to do with it!!? Maybe, as the singer gets older, some of the Chiaro or the scuro diminishes over time. Is that time involvement enough?”
It is totally understandable why instructors who use Dark and Clear Timbre for the purpose of building voices are not able to suggest these primary tools as interpretive necessities. They have bundled them together as components of static vocal qualities they think they have built into the student’s voice.
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