Special thanks must go to the faculty and staff of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, along with that of the University of Mississippi Department of Music. Next, the author includes a copy of the program notes that were given to the December recital audience. Finally, the author presents an analysis of recital performance with directions for future growth.
I had never sung alone, apart from the time I had spent playing pretend games in the safety and solitude of my childhood bedroom. Because I was in the main vocal program, I was placed in a voice studio at the beginning of freshman year. Since neither of us participated in the vocal performance program, we were not faced with specific recital requirements.
Throughout the chapters, I examine the various aspects of my work as a vocal musician that led to my culminating recital. Next, I discuss the set of evidence procedures that I have developed as a result of my studio and academic study.
Lifestyle
As a freshman, I had very little understanding of what commitments singers had to make. In the first recording, my voice has a desirable quality of spin, heard in the freedom of vibrato. The first semester of my junior year brought a partial discovery of the necessary sacrifices that must be made to properly care for the voice.
These tweaks, along with continued technical training in the studio, resulted in a sound reminiscent of the fall of my sophomore year. It shows an improvement in tonal clarity over the previous spring. I had become a vocal "risk taker" reminiscent of the artist Dayme references in her book; the kind of musician who "isn't afraid to lose control to get it."17.
The fast running notes formulated in this section of the Rossini aria are extremely difficult. My lifestyle ensured that on the day of the performance I was indeed rested, stretched and.
Rehearsal Procedures
The keyboard had a useful balance of comfort and challenge that aided in the close study of new literature. Già so per pratica.” This track contains the most notes of any track in the program. While playing was extremely useful in the initial stages of learning a piece, it remained a useful tactic throughout the preparation process.
The second rehearsal procedure that was integral to the preparation of my material was speech. Basically, every other syllable in two sentences has the duration of only one eighth or sixteenth note. 23 Jason Robert Brown, “Still Hurting,” in The Last Five Years (Wisconsin: Hal Leonard Corporation, 2003) 4. International Phonetic Alphabet) symbols for the lyrics of each song, I spoke through them slowly to test the proper articulation of the foreigners and familiar sounds.
For example, Schumann's "Le Secret" contains many nasal sounds that do not exist in the English language. For example, the line "da chi spero, oh Dio!" in Rossini's aria it jumps from A 5 to C flat 4 and then to B flat 5.26 This transition has proven to be a challenge in my practice. You will find most of the mentioned research in the next chapter of this text in the form of program notes.
The two paragraphs in the program notes describing this part come from two pages of information I wrote during my studies and research. Gillespie, David Woods, and Frank York, Teaching Music in the Twenty-First Century (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc. 34 Choksy et al., Teaching Music in the Twenty-First Century, 43. match what they hear). .
Clearly, movement has proven to be a useful tool in the study of music. The movement I used in the practice room provided a consistent rhythmic scheme within which I could practice the unconventional melodic line. 36 Choksy et al., Teaching Music in the Twenty-First Century, 49. clapped during the oddly placed rests.
If you speak this line, you will probably string the words together without pause. representation of how the text appears in the context of the song:. Incorporating flaps into the spaces that felt strangely empty served as filler as I became more comfortable with the piece.
Literature and Program
Mabry instructs singers to “print enough information in the program to describe the essence of each new work.”44 Although she refers specifically to new music, I wanted to give my listeners a description of each piece in my repertoire, despite its modernity of it. . Therefore, the notes included some of the context I had learned about the origins of each piece. The notes also include translations of each of the songs sung abroad.
On the following pages the reader will find these notes as they appeared at my lecture. Gioachino Anotonio Rossini served as the reigning king of opera for most of the nineteenth century. In the second scene of Act One, we meet Isabella on a beach where she is shipwrecked.
This tenderness is reflected in Fauré's "Le Secret". While the mood of the piece is much more subdued, the softness behind the lover's voice is very similar. Et qu’au vent de l’aube sans bruit And still, in the wind of dawn, Comme une larme il s’evapore The name evaporates like a tear. Et l'emporte avec mon amour And that it carries my love away Aux plis de sa robe pâlie In the folds of its pale gown.
This influence is featured in Baby (1983) and Closer than Ever (1989), collaborations between Shire and lyricist Richard Maltby Jr. Shire wrote the music and lyrics for the number "Back on Base". The song is performed from the perspective of a woman whose sense of security comes from her love interest, the bassist. In the scat sections, the singer neglects normal vocabulary to engage in a more direct conversation with the bass.
He has won many Tony Awards, including Best Book (with James Lapine) and Best Original Song for Falsettos (1992), a two-part medley of his short musicals entitled March of the Falsettos and . Their latest project, a musical adaptation of Little Miss Sunshine, is currently playing at the Off-Broadway Second Stage Theatre. In preparing for my recital, it was important to me that the audience catch a glimpse of the theme that permeated every piece of literature and drove my work during my years at the University of Mississippi.
Preparation and Performance
Still, at the end of the week I received a deserved dose of reality in my singing lessons. As noted in the second chapter of this text, playing the piano contributed greatly to my initial understanding of the melody. Lightness in the coloratura helped with the placement of the high notes in the piece.
I was drawn to this piece because of the passion and excitement portrayed by the vocals and piano lines. After spending so much time with the Rossini aria, I had to focus on the correct pronunciation of the German text. By treating the text like a monologue, I was able to focus on the correct articulation of the unnatural sounds.
Take, for example, the word "proclaim" sung at the beginning of the second verse. I spent the next four weeks going over the material and familiarizing myself with the details of the play again. The end of the first verse and the beginning of the second verse contain more emphasized tempo changes.
The unusual rhythm combined with the independence of the vocal line from the accompaniment made this piece quite difficult. As time went on, I gained more confidence in the vocal line and a better understanding of the overall structure of the piece. As time went on, I became more and more comfortable with the details of the song.
The rhythm has become second nature, which serves as a testament to the talent of the composer. Because of the decrease in formality of this piece compared to the rest of my recital repertoire (excluding "Woe is My"), I struggled to determine where to send resonant sound. In the statement "I still hurt" at the end of the verse, the pitch wavers on the "I am".
For example, the word "fathers" in the first verse had to be sung with heavy use of the placement of "character." I am eternally grateful to the faculty of the university's music department and to everyone else I met during my studies.
