Bel Canto Principles And Practices

In Bel Canto, the first ever guide to the bel canto style, author Robert Toft provides singers with the tools they need to bring scores to life in an historically informed manner.

In this well documented and highly readable book, James Stark provides a history of vocal pedagogy from the beginning of the bel canto tradition of solo singing in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries to the present. Using a nineteenth-century treatise by Manuel Garcia as his point of reference, Stark analyses the many sources that discuss singing techniques and selects a number of primary vocal 'problems' for detailed investigation. He also presents data from a series of laboratory experiments carried out to demonstrate the techniques of bel canto. The discussion deals extensively with such topics as the emergence of virtuoso singing, the castrato phenomenon, national differences in singing styles, controversies regarding the perennial decline in the art of singing, and the so-called secrets of bel canto. Stark offers a new definition of bel canto which reconciles historical and scientific descriptions of good singing. His is a refreshing and profound discussion of issues important to all singers and voice teachers.

Performance practice is the study of how music was performed over the centuries, both by its originators (the composers and performers who introduced the works) and, later, by revivalists. This first of its kind Dictionary offers entries on composers, musiciansperformers, technical terms, performance centers, musical instruments, and genres, all aimed at elucidating issues in performance practice. This A-Z guide will help students, scholars, and listeners understand how musical works were originally performed and subsequently changed over the centuries. Compiled by a leading scholar in the field, this work will serve as both a point-of-entry for beginners as well as a roadmap for advanced scholarship in the field.

A Practical Guide to Develop Your Authentic Singing Voice Written by musicologist Dr. Karin Wettig, Bel Canto in Theory and Practice is for singers who want to dive deeper into the secrets of true bel canto (an Italian word meaning "beautiful singing"). Its practical advice and discoveries about vocal functions can be used by a hobby singer, choir member or soloist on his way to a professional career in pop, musical, theatre or opera. All the exercises are simple and well described with photos. If you are ready to breakthrough with your voice on stage, dive into these lessons and learn from the life story and personal discoveries of the author who says "After 20 years of voice practice, I have learned that awareness is the key and is my best teacher because awareness changes in 10 minutes what 5 years of voice exercises cannot do." Even non-singers who would like to develop more vocal expression power for their everyday life or business purposes will find lots of good tips. As you practice the exercises you will dive deeper into your personal natural vocal power and develop your true authentic voice over time. The whole body yoga approach and breathing exercises will strengthen your body (especially the rib cage and pelvis), develop a correct posture for standing, sitting and moving on stage and enable you to sing longer phrases easily and effortlessly. Your vocal cords and stiff tongue will relax. The low and high range of your voice will be bound together without the usual passage break and singing will become more powerful and effortless as the natural beauty of your voice shines through. Bel Canto in Theory and Practice also offers professional singers, who are curious to discover more about the secret behind the voices of opera singers like Maria Callas and Enrico Caruso, technical details about the structure of the voice box and an analytical approach to the function of the human voice and her relationship with emotion. The musicological approach of the history of singing and voice development in opera will give the reader a deeper understanding about the ideal of vocal beauty working throughout four centuries of opera creation and its deep connection to the renaissance of ancient Greece and Rome. After losing her voice following a traumatic divorce, the author searched for a way to get her voice back. When voice therapy didn't heal her, she looked for a cure through singing. She left her life behind to pursue her dream to be a bel canto singer and her journey to becoming a coloratura soprano began. Studying bel canto videos, spending nights and weekends in churches alone with CDs of Callas and others, and pursuing classes for opera singing and workshops in Europe, she dove deeply into the physical aspects of opera singing, while her musicological curiosity made her travel to the origins and sources of bel canto in the Renaissance. Observing minuscule body and throat movements brought her a breakthrough. After two decades miracles started happening: her teeth aligned, her chin and jaw movement became smoother, her stiff tongue melted. In the end, she enjoyed an upright posture, better proportions, 1.5 cm more in height, emotional balance, cured sinusitis and healthy self-esteem. Her efforts were rewarded with a brilliant coloratura soprano voice. "Behind every weakness hides a talent!" is her motto now. Asked for a transcript of her voice classes, she wrote her personal method down. That was the moment Bel Canto in Theory and Practice was born. Her students' voices radically changed during her classes within ten minutes of training. The result is this book: an intuitive, heartfelt, yet practical approach to achieving excellence in bel canto through effortless singing. Order your copy today.

"Die Technik des Bel Canto" (1905) -- Extended Edition.As the last of the great master-teachers of the "old Italian school" of singing, Giovanni Battista Lamperti taught his students virtuosic vocal techniques handed down from the great castrati of the 17th century: exquisitely rich chiaroscuro tone, seamless flowing legato phrasing, undetectable passaggi register transitions and the delicately poised appoggio breath technique that allowed the astonishingly rapid coloratura typical of baroque music. In the only treatise he ever wrote, Lamperti the younger shares with all students, teachers and enthusiasts of singing, the techniques and skills that made his students that greatest singers of their time: the arcane secrets of bel canto.

A compilation of essays written by renowned singing teachers as their testament to their great singing instructor, whose research and interpretations have given birth to a new era of vocal pedagogy known as 'Functional Voice Training.' The essays explain the four basic principles with which he works: the two-register theory, the necessity for pure vowels, the use of rhythm to encourage the muscles to react spontaneously, and the choice of dynamic.