Let’s say it’s 19th century Europe and your good friend Franz Schubert invites you and a few friends over to read some poetry, have some drinks, talk politics, flirt—and, most important, revel in some German Lieder, hot off the press. With the composer at the piano and you singing, your collaborative musical storytelling engages the guests so fully that they—and you—are left feeling somehow transformed and more alive.
Fast-forward to contemporary America, where art song performance is on a precarious footing, relegated to the fringes of society.
Collaborative pianist Arlene Shrut, Classical Singer’s 2003 Coach of the Year and a faculty member of both The Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music, is on a crusade to counteract this trend. Her mission is to bring chamber music values to recitals, with a focus on the poetic roots of songs, and true drama.
In 2003, Shrut launched the New Triad for Collaborative Arts, an organization dedicated to introducing a revolutionary new approach for training performers to present song recitals and other live musical events as the moving and passionate experiences they were intended to be. She conceived the idea more than 30 years ago as an Eastman School of Music freshman, when she had an “aha!” moment during a program featuring Janet Baker and Martin Isepp.
“Even though I didn’t understand the languages yet, I had tears in my eyes and shivers going up my arms as they involved me in their performance,” Shrut recalls. “Every single one of those songs had something to do with my experience and my understanding of both the everyday and the infinite. New Triad was really a result of trying to understand how something so powerful could be reduced to an endangered species in the world.”
And so, in the spring of 2003, after testing its newly created core curriculum in a pilot seminar, Shrut and a panel of judges selected four singer/pianist teams, all recent conservatory grads, for New Triad’s Fall 2003 Song Salon Seminar. Focused on helping duos create meaningful performances for 21st century audiences, the seminar included courses taught by renowned professionals in music, theater, poetry, movement, and partnership psychology. Following are a handful of the principles that were integrated into the Song Salon Seminar.
Be Honest About Potential Pitfalls
When chamber music groups disintegrate, it’s usually because of conflicts that are interpersonal rather than musical, according to therapist and classically trained singer Michael Batshaw, who specializes in performance-related issues. Batshaw taught a course integral to the Song Salon Seminar called “The Psychology of Partnership,” which helped the duos explore and define the elements of their peak partnership experience.
The singer-pianist relationship can be especially difficult because each partner serves three roles: friend, family, and business partner, says Batshaw. To create a truly collaborative partnership, sit down together at the very beginning to discuss potential pitfalls. For instance, what are some things that are both easy and difficult for you to hear criticism about? How do you accept criticism—do you listen or block it out? And, are you willing to accept criticism in the areas you are sensitive about? If not, be aware of unwritten taboo subjects that can eventually devastate your partnership.
Also, talk about how you both deal with conflicts. If you were to disagree on an interpretation of a song, would you shut down and let your partner take over? Would you try to dominate the situation? When you reach an impasse, can you trust that you’ll come to a solution together, even if it’s not immediately apparent? If both partners are honest at the start about these behavioral tendencies, neither of you will end up feeling surprised and betrayed—and looking for another song partner—down the road.
Batshaw also suggests that both partners commit to expressing their needs. If you need your pianist to play a phrase differently, for instance, say so, instead of withholding it to avoid hurt feelings.
“Avoid the explosive conflict by not avoiding all the little conflicts that come up,” says Batshaw. “If you can work through conflict, that’s the only way you’ll become a great artist, because you can’t do it just by yourself. You have to be able to take it from other people.”
Develop Your Program around a Theme
In developing a song recital, consider using a narrative theme to organize your program. For example, the New Triad duos used the theme “Coming Home” for their Song Salon recital, which they divided into the following progression: the desire to leave, departure, experiencing the world, longing for home, and coming home. In a unique format, the four duos shared the stage during the entire recital, taking turns as each performed songs by composers as far ranging as Berlioz, Berg, Britten, Poulenc, Mahler, Rorem, and Schumann, and included works by New York City-area composers Tom Cipullo and Gene Scheer.
“Unlike in a traditional recital where you might have a set of German Lieder but would never stick in an American contemporary song or a French chanson, in a theme recital those juxtapositions are refreshing. What unifies the program is not the musical period or style but the thematic material, so it is really about what you want to communicate,” says New Triad’s stage director, Johnathon Pape, who is also a writer, teacher, coach, and frequent consultant for artistic projects within many disciplines. He worked with the duos to incorporate dramatic vision and intention in their performances.
To discover a theme for your recital, think about what you are dying to communicate and create a list of possible themes. After you choose one, brainstorm the repertoire that would best fit. But be forewarned: some songs you normally wouldn’t feel inclined to sing suddenly become very potent and desirable within the context of the theme.
Study the Poetry that Inspired the Composer
In formal training, we usually focus on all the wonderful musical moments in a song, such as dynamics, modulations, and emphasizing particular words.
“While those details are important, often we lose the basic meaning of the story as told through the words,” says Shrut, who taught a series of classes of her own titled “Musical Dynamics of Partnership.” To understand the poetry in a more profound way, in the “Macro/Micro/and Grid” class, she encourages singers to pull the poem out of the song, to study its punctuation, sentences, stanzas, rhyme scheme, grammatical structure, and scansion.
Also, consider the poet’s intentions, which may not be evident in the composer’s dynamics and interpretation, she says. Often the poem contains a direct address that should move into the foreground, for instance, or a parenthetical statement, or a secret that should be sung softer.
“It’s a way of honoring the poem that came before the music,” Shrut explains.
“Expressive Rehearsals” emphasized using your practice time with your pianist partner to connect with the poetry, as well as musically working through the songs. First, just speak the words while your pianist plays his or her part, so that you are fully storytelling without the crutch of using your singing voice. Then, click or tap the rhythm of the piece while your pianist actually speaks the poem, which will enable you to understand the rhythm and your pianist to grasp the timing of your vowels and consonants.
Shrut emphasizes the importance of both partners being equally present dramatically. The piano often provides subtext, including during preludes and postludes, so your piano partner becomes an equal dramatic partner in the storytelling.
Analyze Your Script
“Art is all about what things mean, or what we think things mean,” says singer, actress, and teacher Debra Wiley, whose course, “Dramatic Analysis and Interpretation in Song Recitals,” provided the duos with tools to interpret and perform songs from a specific context and point of view. One reason we often misinterpret songs, says Wiley: We don’t really read the poems, but just go by how the music feels, when in fact, every song is a specific character’s monologue, and we must glean clues about the character’s reality from the text.
To define your character’s reality so that you can then create it for your audience, Wiley suggests reading a piece at least three times: first as an audience, then as a detective, and finally, as a psychiatrist. With your piano partner, write down the “who, what, where, why, when and how.” Identify who is speaking, what she or he is doing, where the character is and what time of day it is, what happened just before that compelled the character to speak, and what is in the way of the character getting what she or he wants. A song is always somebody investigating a problem, experiencing something that starts one way and ends another, so look for what the character discovers.
After you write down “the five W’s and the H,” identify the piano’s musical clues that support your interpretation, since the music and drama tell the story together. Finally, exchange ideas with your partner—you may not instantly agree on one interpretation, but why not try the piece several times from different points of view?
As for how script analysis can alter your performance, Wiley explains: “You are no longer trying to convey an idea. Instead, now you have the most powerful thing you can have on stage—really feeling and convincing yourself of a reality, and as you convince yourself, the audience is convinced too. You have a context and are coming from a point of view.”
Feel the Origin of Your Gestures
No matter how much control we have over our vocal expression, once we’re on stage and have to use the whole body to communicate, we often feel at a loss. We may use too many or not enough hand gestures, or may not know what to do with our arms, or may just feel stiff. New Triad faculty member Alyssa Dodson is a movement coach and dancer who has performed with many distinguished dance companies. In “Connecting Through Body Awareness,” she focused on helping the duos portray the drama of their songs by eliminating stereotypes, such as one arm at the side rising slowly or both arms reaching forward. Dodson suggests thinking about what we are trying to convey with these gestures.
“If you can feel the origin of the gesture internally before it’s expressed through the arms, it could make the movement more meaningful to the singer and the audience,” says Dodson. “If you’re singing about a bird, what would it feel like to touch the bird? How would its wings feel? Would the bird be skittish? How would it feel in the palm of your hand? This gives a very different sensual quality, and adds another layer to the richness of the song.”
Take the Visual Into Account
Because music is such an auditory experience, sometimes we forget to consider how we appear. In another course, “Stage Deportment,” Dodson focused on increasing the duos’ level of elegance, personality, and relaxation on stage. First, be sure to make a clean entrance as a duo—walk on stage in tandem, make eye contact with one another, turn together to face the audience, and bow together. Determine ahead of time where you will make eye contact with the audience to share directly what you’re experiencing, and where you’ll create a private moment that the audience witnesses but doesn’t participate in.
Each song cycle has definite mood changes between each song, so plan your transitions too. While your pianist turns the pages between songs, move into the next character, which the audience will notice whether they realize it or not. If one song is about that tingly feeling of being in love, let your whole body reflect that excitement. If the next song is about grief, let a heaviness into your body—deepen your breath, ground your feet, and feel the weight in your arms.
Finally, remember that after your final note, your duo walking off stage is the last thing the audience experiences. Take a moment to let the audience recognize you. That’s part of creating a generous connection and, after all, if there is no generous connection, why sing songs?
