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While well-known by classical music lovers, Dvorak's 9th Symphony was, and is, one of my favorite symphonies. I used to listen to it obsessively in college, and always have the CD nearby if I need some inspiration.
The story behind the music is equally impressive. Dvorak was a Czech composer in the late 1800s who visited the USA. He ended up traveling a great deal in the US and found musical inspiration in the spirituals sung by African-American slaves. It also helped a great deal that one of his new American friends, an African-American baritone named Harry Burleigh, sang some of his mother's spirituals for Dvorak. With these songs in hand, Dvorak sought to create a symphony inspired by his visit to the "New World" and shaped by the spirituals he had heard. Dvorak's personal opinion was that the spiritual and Native American music would become the basis for an emerging American style of music. Harry Burleigh, perhaps motivated by Dvorak's attempts to integrate the spiritual into a symphonic work, became a very prominent composer in his own right. And guess what he is best known for? Taking his spirituals and converting them into classical songs that we now know very well. DWS Several years ago, a voice student said that I almost was like a doctor in how I worked with a student in my lessons. I feel a good teacher-student relationship is exactly like a strong doctor-patient relationship.
With a doctor, their job is to successfully diagnose and then treat a medical illness. With voice lessons, things are less serious but similar in approach. A good voice teacher listens to their student/'patient', diagnoses what needs to be addressed vocally, and develops a plan/'treatment' to solve said vocal issues. With a lot of discipline and hard work from the student, the voice becomes much stronger in a few months, and the teacher and student can move on to other topics for vocal 'wellness.' DWS PS My dad is a doctor, so perhaps my doctor-like behavior is simply passed on from him! A month ago, I listed the types of songs you should have in your audition package for both musical and opera auditions. I left out one important caveat, however: you need to consider if the song you pick can be 'sight-read' by the pianist for the audition.
Pianists for auditions have a tough job. They are expected to play well enough for every singer even though there is a good chance they will not have seen a third of the songs they need to play. We would never expect a singer to instantly sing 100 new songs in a day with fair accuracy, but we essentially are asking our pianists to do that...and most professional pianists do a great job. That being said, try to be kind to your audition pianist. For musicals, be careful to pick piano accompaniments that are relatively easy and are not 'too unusual' in their harmonic progressions. Your best bet is to bring your songs to your voice teacher and ask their opinion (or even better, a professional accompanist if they are available). For operas, you tend to have more leeway with piano accompaniments, but it is still wise to pick the majority of your arias from standard audition material. For the record, I have only had two auditions where the audition accompanist did a poor job playing for my audition...both were for operas, and strangely enough, I got hired for both jobs. So even if it is hard to sing with a struggling accompanist, it does not mean your audition will not go well! DWS Teaching how to sing is a combination of science and gut instinct. When I first hear a singer, I quickly can assess a student's abilities and ways to improve. However, each vocal topic has different solutions; furthermore, HOW the teacher says something is as important as the technique or solution itself. A teacher has to be extremely careful on what they say.
For instance, take a student who has a tongue that retreats back into mouth, which often produces an over-darkened tone. The easy, direct solution is to simply ask the student to sing with the tongue more forward. But there is a problem with this: some students will actually create more tongue tension with this solution! So a more circuitous route must be taken; asking the student to sing 'more forward' or 'brighten' the sound, or asking the student to use more breath support. Each one of these alternative solutions addresses the tongue, but often result in a far more satisfying sound than the more direct route. DWS |
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