“The Science of Vocal Pedagogy” | Open Indiana

Pedagogy: The art, practice, or profession of teaching; esp., the systemized learning or instruction concerning principles and methods of teaching.—WEBSTER.

In considering this definition of pedagogy in relation to the profession of vocal teaching, most controversies which arise within the profession seem to pivot on the word systematized. The respected right of the vocal teacher is, and has been for centuries, complete freedom of thought regarding the choice of teaching philosophy and freedom of utterance regarding interpretation of such a philosophy.

The idea of teaching voice as a standardized system is abhorrent to all who teach the vocal art. The author does not suggest that voice teaching become a system, for the greater part of the singing experience is aesthetic in nature. Although aesthetic experiences and concepts embrace order, they defy the systems of obtaining that order. He does suggest, however, that certain areas of vocal instruction are not aesthetic in nature and that teaching within these areas demands an orderly presentation of fact, rather than opinion.

Vocal pedagogy by necessity is both aesthetic and scientific; its scientific entity is distilled from the pure sciences of mathematics, acoustics, linguistics, and anatomy, so that it may offer immediate utility to an uninformed laity. Within this book, acoustical and physiological evidence has been assembled from the reservoirs of speech and medical research and is so documented.

For its structural stability, vocal pedagogy depends upon scientific evidence scientifically expressed. Singers and teachers who interpret the act of singing as wholly aesthetic find it difficult to accept scientific terminology, for it is hard to abandon the feeling that the unfamiliar is absurd and illogical. Yet science and the art of singing are wholly compatible, for science supplies the vocal art with the stable semantic implement of phonetics, and its use must be perfected through a well-ordered educational process. This view of compatibilty is not yet completely embraced by the institutional or private voice teacher. However, this book is directed toward the realization of that end.

Vocal pedagogy is not an analysis of anatomical and physical phenomena; rather, it is an analysis of a complex psychophysical vocal act. An example of the complexity of such a process is evidenced in the following diagram which represents the firing order or sequence of decisions a singer must make at the precise second at which he utters all sounds within the flowing text of his song. Each of the following subdivisions involves ideas, concepts, images, and feelings necessary to the production of the vocal sound. The singer must first:

Collegiate courses of vocal pedagogy have greatly increased in number within schools and departments of music during the past decade. Doctoral degrees in vocal pedagogy are granted currently by four major universities. Most courses of vocal pedagogy are offered at the graduate level in other colleges, but many courses that are basically acoustical and physiological appear in undergraduate curricula. The teacher of these courses is faced with the problem of determining how much science, mathematics, and anatomy to include within a vocal pedagogy course for voice majors seeking a music degree. The answer to this question is to include only such acoustic, linguistic, and physiological facts as will be directly applicable and meaningful as studio tools for vocal diagnosis, or to provide the singer with transferable, factual information that will aid him in his interpretation and performance in song. The author has attempted to stay within the bounds of reality and practicality regarding the scientific and physiological background necessary in the development of the prospective voice teacher and performer. Necessarily, he has reinterpreted contemporary linguistic, acoustic, and anatomical evidence and divided it into practical units directly applicable to the singing act.

Linking Scientific Fact with the Art of Vocalization

Vocal pedagogy cannot survive as an independent educational entity if the physiological and physical facts which comprise its core remain subjects of sciolism (superficial knowledge). Researchers must constantly interpret these scientific facts so that they may become realistic pedagogical tools which may be employed by future teachers of voice.

An implement used to form a bridge between scientific fact and the art of vocalization must be both objective and subjective in nature, it must have stability and permanence, it must be universally employed in the singing act, and it must be adaptable to all conditions of research.

The word is such an implement. It possesses all of the attributes mentioned. It is objective, for it rests upon the solid science of phonetics; subjective, because it conveys the personal intimacy of meaning which is expressed through stress. The word is stable for it can change only as the social order changes; permanent, for life is dependent upon linguistic communication. The word possesses musical universality, for man must express the meaning of his song through the use of meaningful symbols.

Although song is intensified speech, the word as the information bearing element of speech conveys more meaning than the music for which it was written. Words, then, become the logical implement for scientific investigation and aesthetic interpretation.

In song, the word possesses the primary meaning of the utterance. When two settings of the same text by different composers are compared, one composer may have added a greater or lesser stylistic or emotional dimension to the meaning but the information bearing elements of the word remain unchanged.

All sensory illusion is conceived and expressed through words; thus, most cues for the interpretation of the meaning are embodied within the word. The musical structure surrounding that word may or may not exalt its meaning by suggesting a manner in which the word should be sung. When it does, the intent of the word is revealed to the singer through music cues, but most often the intent has to be designed by the singer and the sung text will then reveal the limits of the singer’s intellectual and emotional experiences.

An instance in which interpretive cues of meaning are obtained from the text is illustrated in the song, “Widmung” by Robert Schumann, Measures 25 and 26, Record 5, Bands 7, 9, 11, and 13. Directives for the interpretation of the phrase, “Du hebst. mich liebend uber mich,” are a retardando and a piano. When this passage is sung the voice must possess a tremulous emotional vitality to convey the full intent of the singer’s grateful adoration. The music supplies no directive of interpretation. The real cues for intent lie within the words and the singer must search the depth of his emotional experience for the expression of this most personal utterance.

The musical element has a tendency to disturb the structure of the word. For this reason the singer should make every attempt to preserve the word structure within the musical framework. To state this principle another way, to control the vowel is to control the function of the vocal utterance.

VOCAL PEDAGOGY AND THE PREPARATION
OF TEACHERS OF SINGING

When the college administrator faces the problem of employing a prospective voice teacher, he uses a music yardstick of evaluation which varies with his need and environment. For this reason academic administrators are divided into two well-defined groups.

One group accepts the professional singer as a standard. Members of this group believe that singing, or the act of singing, should be taught as a terminal skill, that a well-developed singing ability is the complete goal because singing requires public performance and public acceptance of the singer’s art. These administrators also believe that successful performers know more about this performing art than anyone else and that they will bring to their students the wealth of vocal knowledge gained through concert experience and private study.

The second group of administrators does not accept the professional singer as a standard. This group believes that the professional singer is apt to be a self-centered individual whose total effort in study has been spent in developing himself within the framework of his vocal problems. They realize that constant effort was necessary to bring his vocal skill to such a high degree of proficiency and that this effort has deprived him of the breadth of social awareness that is gained through the study of academic subjects so necessary in teacher training. They believe that this deprivation of social awareness will prevent him from seeing the “whole picture” when it comes to guiding a student toward a life goal, or in solving complex abstract, social, and personal life problems. They believe that the professional singer is apt to guide the student toward the study of voice as a terminal art with only one goal—the ability to sing well.

At first sight, the two groups seem to be divided on whether to choose teachers who know their subjects or teachers who know how to teach. The real problems are far more complex, and they include disagreement about the purpose and nature of vocal education.

Two facts are obvious. First, every voice teacher should know his subject, but a liberal vocal educator goes far beyond the subject he is to teach. Second, every teacher of voice uses some system or method, but how and where these systems are best learned or acquired is debatable At best, methods constitute a small part of the professional education of voice teachers.

The qualities that comprise excellence in teaching voice are not well understood. What makes the superb voice teacher? He may well possess qualities which are not easily altered by any college program that leads to an academic degree. Good voice teachers should be used wherever they are found, and voice teaching should be an open rather than a closed profession because, at present, no prescribed college program can assure teaching competence in the studio or in the classroom.

Some superb voice teachers have never been exposed to a professional course of education; others have never seen the interior of a liberal arts college. However, professional courses within educational institutions cannot be built upon such isolated cases. The majority of voice students, both the musical geniuses and those less musical, will benefit from a well-balanced program of preparation for teaching that includes a broad liberal arts education, scholarly knowledge of the subject he intends to teach extended by performance skills, and on-the-job teaching under competent supervision.

Scholarly knowledge means different things in different fields. To a voice teacher, it means the development of vocal proficiency and a thorough knowledge of the physiology of his instrument and its use within a teaching environment. It also means acquiring a liberal education that goes far beyond the task of teaching a person how to sing, for he must see his student clearly and interpret him and his life goals in the light of his endowment, his learning capacity, his sensitivity to text, and his intellect.

In all, scholarly knowledge means more than a collection of facts; it requires a grasp of an intellectual discipline. As an example, the understanding of vocal literature means much more than just a collection of facts about musical literature itself. It involves the complexities of profound texts, as well as the tessitura, vocal proficiency, and the intelligence of the performer.

Although scholarship is essential to good voice teaching, a scholar is not always a good voice teacher even in dealing with mature college students. The scholar is apt to possess less vocal ability than the performer and, because of this deficiency, to demand a lower standard of musical utterance for his student. The scholar may not possess the enthusiastic assurance that the performer radiates—a quality that helps to make him a successful teacher.

No matter how hard one tries to reconcile scholarship and performance, one must admit that the major quest of every voice student is, “How can I learn to sing properly?” This book suggests a positive design for a training procedure that will provide a scholarly, musical climate in which the student may achieve the greatest possible musical accomplishment within the social and cultural domains of Western civilization and, in the process, acquire the tools for teaching such a procedure.

The Science of Vocal Pedagogy