December’s sight singing column, “Relax—It’s Not Your Fault,” tried to make sense of a music education system that, undoubtedly with the best of intentions, regularly fails to provide many of its singers with sufficient reading skill to learn challenging repertoire efficiently or to hold an ensemble part with confidence.
It seems absurd to believe that a singer capable of learning Strauss and Mahler songs by ear, or of holding a difficult chromatic line in a close-harmony arrangement, might lack the aptitude to become a strong reader. In fact, as I noted in December, singers who possess this high level of musicality and drive, particularly when armed with a strong technique, can make very rapid progress when they finally connect with a flexible, pragmatic approach designed for their needs.
The not-so-good news is that singer-friendly programs are still in short supply and may take some time to locate. Until these genuine training opportunities come along, however, you can easily work independently to strengthen and consolidate the skills you already have. Over time, it may even begin to seem like fun.
This month’s column is devoted to the “great middle,” singers with some training and skill at their disposal who are able to read selected repertoire under ideal circumstances, but can easily fall apart under pressure. These singers often find themselves unable to anticipate and prepare for challenging passages or rebound from even minor mistakes. The activities described below are designed to simulate some of the demands of typical reading sessions.
Before beginning work on your own, it will probably be helpful to review some basic music literacy information, preferably before a conductor says, “Can you take it from the G-minor section?” I’ve highlighted three basic study areas below:
1. Musical Map Reading and Traffic Signs: All repeat structures, dynamic and tempo markings, essential choral/ensemble vocabulary, and specific articulations. (A pocket dictionary is very useful.)
2. Rhythm Terms and Concepts: Basic meter and natural accents; working knowledge of note values; and ability to tap out all straightforward sub-division patterns. (Advanced rhythm work will follow.)
3. Pitch Materials: Concept and structure of all major and minor scales, key signatures and their significance; ability to label, by letter, all bass and treble-clef notes and to recognize conventional interval skips
Most of this information is available from a variety of sources, from the least expensive (and often most useful) workbooks to all-inclusive tomes that may provide far more information than you need for efficient, pragmatic note reading. Just as a new driver has little need to obsess over the mysteries of the fan belt or the history of the automotive industry to learn how to drive in traffic, students are encouraged, for now, to limit themselves to information that enables them to move ahead.
Ensemble Skills and Musical Strategy
Many singers avoid choral singing whenever possible, for fear of damaging their voices, but I’ve found that mastery of ensemble techniques provides the quickest route to confident reading. Its emphasis on selective use of a wide number of skills within a rigid framework demands a considerable level of vigilance and flexibility.
Readers must prepare to navigate exposed entrances, adapt to tempo and sub-division changes, spot problematic passages that require specialized treatment, and refine tone and phrasing to blend with or yield to other vocal lines—all while mastering texts in many languages. Since it is this heightened state of musical concentration that elicits the highest level of response, ensemble singing is clearly an invaluable aid in developing a strategic approach to reading.
Let’s Get to Work!
For practice purposes, I’ve divided the following intermediate-level reading unit into three progressive study areas: Diatonic Reading, Functional Chromaticism, and Expressive Chromaticism and Expanding Tonality. The first two categories stress the confident application of ensemble skills; the third provides demanding and far more subtle pitch-reading challenges.
A brief listing of suggested repertoire follows each category, with an asterisk next to the work that has the greatest all-around usefulness. A CD of these highlighted pieces is also enormously useful, providing not only unlimited opportunities to strengthen your musical traffic skills but also an opportunity to learn how to find entrance notes from a full orchestral texture. If you have sung a piece before, try working on a new line compatible with your range (sopranos to tenor, basses to alto) to take advantage of the benefits of muscle-memory.
I. Diatonic Reading
Diatonic music confines itself primarily to tones of the scale in which it has been set, without reliance on more than an occasional chromatic alteration.
Despite some level of confidence with purely melodic materials that are harmonized conventionally, students at the early intermediate levels frequently need help holding an inner part, finding entrance notes and rebounding from minor mistakes. If you have been confined to solo materials, the choral works below will provide experience scanning for promising toeholds and clear points of re-entry, should you become temporarily derailed.
At first, you may read the listings purely rhythmically, taking note of all dynamic and expressive markings and articulations, using full technical support. Once you add authentic pitches, reading will, of course, be much more fun, particularly with your resident CD ensemble contributing the other parts. Haydn’s Creation presents alternating solo and choral textures within a single section, providing opportunities to take a solo or ensemble role. For more of a challenge, I’ve also included a few far more demanding but essentially diatonic pieces. Whenever possible, sopranos should try a second-soprano part.
Bach, J.S.: Erschallet ihr Lieder, Lobet den Herrn (challenging)
Haydn, Joseph: *The Creation (score and CD, English or German), The Seasons
Mozart, Wolfgang: Missa Brevis in G, Bastien and Bastienna (duets)
II. Functional Chromaticism
This designation refers to repertoire that, while still straightforward and diatonic within its sections, relies on periodic chromatic alteration to modulate to new tonal centers, most of which are strongly supported harmonically in surrounding parts or in the keyboard/ orchestral accompaniment.
Much of the more conventional writing in this genre is imitative and often seems predictable—but critical accidentals in transitional passages may require instant attention. Even one missed alteration may prevent you from taking advantage of strong harmonic support in the other voices, and even land you in the wrong key (oops!).
Students who will most benefit from this unit have already achieved some level of comfort reading repertoire that moves fairly slowly, but need to prepare for fast, accurate, efficient reading of melodic contours whose rhythmic drive, phrasing and intonation can easily be undermined by shaky entrances or lack of attention to critical accidentals. Before singing through each of the recommended materials below, scan for accidentals leading out of the original key, and note the resulting resolutions.
Before joining your CD ensemble for a formal practice session, try reading not only your line but also all other vocal lines that precede your entrances or fill out your interludes, first reciting each phrase of text in rhythm, fully supported, on quasi-pitches that approximate the rise and fall of the musical line. This pre-scan often prepares students for very convincing, strongly focused and accented performances once real pitches have been substituted.
While I have strongly recommended Handel’s Judas Macabeus for this section, a tremendous number of works, predominantly Baroque, exist at all levels to support this study area. The challenges lie primarily in maintaining musical vigilance and learning to spot important transitional signals, but may not necessarily make great pitch-reading demands.
Bach, J.S.: Ein Feste Burg, Motets and Christ lag in Todesbanden (challenging)
Handel, George Frideric: *Judas Macabeus (score and CD), Chandos Anthems
III. Expressive Chromaticism and Expanded Tonality
Repertoire in this category retains far less allegiance to the natural tensions and resolutions of the scales in which they are set, using chromatic alteration to expand upon conventional tonal possibilities. Frequently found in solo and ensemble music of the late 19th and 20th centuries, these materials provide an opportunity to strengthen the singing of all intervals in novel, highly challenging and often barely anchored contexts, relying on strong, underlying diatonic skills to remain in tune. For this reason, you should choose less rhythmically demanding repertoire for first attempts.
Audition or rehearsal repertoire from this category most often brings skilled professionals to my classes, distraught because they “can’t even sing a simple major third.” In music whose means of expression exists outside of a streamlined major or minor tonality, a “simple major third,” particularly if it is descending, can easily become a great deal more challenging.
A small sampling of this repertoire is listed below. Some of the pieces present a pastiche of diatonic and chromatic passages. Be sure to scan ahead to accommodate the change in compositional techniques.
Faure, Gabriel: *Cantique de Jean Racine and La Naissance de Venus (scores, and CD containing both)
Hindemith, Paul: Chansons (several levels)
Poulenc, Francis: Quatre Motets pour le Temps de Noel, Quatre Motets pour un Temps de Penitance
Schoenberg, Arnold: Friede auf Erden
Verdi, Giuseppe: Four Sacred Pieces
Humperdinck, Engelbert: Hansel and Gretel (extensive selection of each approach)
Don’t Drive Yourself Crazy
There is a very fine line between strengthening or reinforcing existing skills, and stretching to build new ones. Sometimes challenges bring connections, but if your attempts to sing the materials in this last section bring little but frustration, give it up for now.
If all goes well, I’ll be presenting a workshop at Classical Singer’s convention this spring that may provide you with some new techniques you can apply immediately. Until then, best of luck with your reading project and, again, just e-mail me at fleischerliz@aol.com if you have any questions.
