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 Vocal Technique
A Physiologic Approach

Second Edition
Vocal Technique
A Physiologic Approach

Second Edition

Jan E. Bickel, D.M.A.

5521 Ruffin Road
San Diego, CA 92123

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Copyright © 2017 by Plural Publishing, Inc.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Names: Bickel, Jan E., author.

Title: Vocal technique : a physiologic approach / Jan E. Bickel, D.M.A.
Description: Second edition. | San Diego,CA : Plural, [2017] | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016029616| ISBN 9781944883331 (alk. paper) | ISBN
1944883339 (alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Singing--Physiological aspects. | Singing — Instruction and
study. | Voice — Care and hygiene.
Classification: LCC MT821 .B53 2018 | DDC 783/.043 — dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016029616
 Contents
Preface. How to Use This Book Effectively vii
Acknowledgments ix
Singer Information Sheet xi

1 Some Answers to Questions Before We Begin Developing a Vocal Technique 1

2 Anatomy of the Singer’s Instrument: Design and Function 15
3 Establishing Correct Posture for Singing 31
4 Breath Management for Singers 45
5 The Physiology of Vocal Tone Production 59
6 An Introduction to Articulation and Lyric Diction for Singers 91
7 Developing Beautiful Tone Quality, Resonance, and Freedom 127
8 Keeping Your Voice Healthy 137
9 Beyond Vocal Technique: Becoming an Artistic Performer 165
10 Science and Technology in the Voice Studio 183

Appendix I. Musical Terminology for the Voice Student 191

Appendix II. Music Reading Skills for Beginning Singers/Musicians 195
Appendix III. Vocal Performance Evaluation 203
Appendix IV. Practice Record Sheet for Voice Students 207
Appendix V. Sources for Art Song and Aria Repertoire for the Singer 211
Bibliography of Selected Reference Materials 215

Index 219

v
 Preface
How to Use This Book Effectively
As a university voice teacher for more than 30 years,
I worked with many students with varying interests
regarding the technical aspects of singing. Most of
my students have had graduate school and profes-
sional singing goals in mind when beginning studies
at the undergraduate level; some have wanted to
become professional teachers of singing, and others
only to improve their vocal technique so they could
find more personal fulfillment from their endeavors
as singers. This book is appropriate for all of them!
I am of the opinion that a singer must know
and understand the anatomic and physiologic func-
tions connected with the speaking and singing pro-
cess in order to feel “in control” of that process. In
addition, this knowledge will enable the singer to
maintain optimum technical skill and vocal health
throughout a long singing and/or teaching career.
A singer who knows and understands his or her
own body will necessarily be a better singer and a
better teacher of singing. This book is based on that
premise. Knowledge is power!
This book is intended for use in in voice les-
sons or a voice class at the college or university
level. Portions of it may also be suitable for teaching
voice at the high school level, where students are
interested and dedicated to learning a strong vocal
technical foundation. As you read this book, do not
hesitate to utilize the exercises given here as well
as those assigned by your voice teacher. Practicing
regularly what you are learning in voice lessons or a
voice class is the only way to improve dramatically!
You must come to know your voice intimately in
order to utilize it to its fullest potential. You can only
do this with many hours of practice in the privacy
of your own home or practice space.
I have found, over the years, that vocal progress
is somewhat different than the progress made by
instrumentalists studying technique. Singers seem
vii
to make great strides as they initially learn about
and begin to understand the technical aspects of
the process, and then the growth process slows
somewhat while the brain and muscle connection
“catches up.” Do not be frustrated by seeming pla-
teaus in your learning. As the muscles learn to obey
the commands of the educated brain, the complex
inter-workings of the anatomic system will begin to
come alive and work for you. It takes time, patience,
and perseverance!
Use this book to gain as much knowledge as
you possibly can in regard to the technical aspects
of singing; that is, anatomy, posture, breath manage-
ment, physiology, articulation, and resonance. Use it
also to help you begin to learn to apply the impor-
tant International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to the
languages typically used by singers, and to help you
learn about good health and nutrition for all people.
Take all of these concepts and make them your own.
Apply as much information as you can to your own
situation and think carefully about how the informa-
tion can help you become the best singer you can
be. Then, be a discoverer! Go out and read more
books and articles on the subjects contained in this
book. Gather more facts and opinions, which will
help you in establishing your own personal vocal
technique.
Those who aspire to be professional singers or
teachers of singing should pay particular attention
to the health and nutritional aspects of this book.
You are your instrument, and being a professional
singer or a teacher of singing requires a tremendous
amount of energy and excellent health in order to
be successful. Begin now to study the appropriate
eating and exercise suggestions, and begin to make
them a habit for the rest of your life. A healthy body
is a necessity for a life in the professional world of
singing and/or the teaching of singing!
viii VOCAL Technique: A Physiologic Approach
Following a voice class or initial voice lessons,
you should expect to go on to study privately with
a voice teacher for many years. A class in vocal tech-
nique is merely a beginning to a lifelong process
that requires daily practice and study in order to
achieve success. After you successfully complete a
voice class at the high school or collegiate level — or
a year of voice lessons — you should, however, have
a strong foundation on which to base your choice
of voice teachers and vocal technique. There are
probably as many vocal techniques as there are
voice teachers, and choosing the right teacher and
technique for you is very important. Use the body
of information you gain from this book to make
decisions in this regard, but also continue to read
books on technique and interpretation, as well as
poetry and foreign languages. You will want to read
other books in the area of music as well if you wish
to become a professional musician. Begin now to be
a lifelong learner!
I wish you well in your vocal studies and hope
you gain much knowledge and insight from using
this book!
Jan Bickel
A Note to Voice Teachers
There are a variety of ways to use this book in your
teaching. If you use it for a voice class, I suggest
that you assign Chapters 1, 3, and 4 very early in
the learning period. Teaching posture and breath
management is essential to every other aspect of the
course. Since you will want to have your students
singing vocal repertoire throughout the entire learn-
ing period, it might be helpful to teach the informa-
tion in Chapter 6 — An Introduction to Articulation
and Lyric Diction for Singers, in sections; that is,
teach the general International Phonetic Alphabet
as it applies to the speaking language of your stu-
dents first, and then develop one language at a time,
beginning with English, Italian, or Spanish, and then
moving on to the more difficult German and French
languages. You may also choose to have your stu-
dents sing only in English and Italian in a beginning
voice class, and save the other languages for later in
their development.
I have found it helpful to teach posture and
breath management first, and then return to Chap-
ter 2 — Anatomy of the Singer’s Instrument: Design
and Function. If you use the correct anatomic and
physiologic terms when teaching posture and breath
management, your students will find Chapter 2 much
easier to understand and remember because they
will have heard much of the terminology before they
read Chapter 2. Then you can proceed to any of the
other chapters that seem appropriate for your par-
ticular students. Some voice teachers like to teach
the information on keeping the voice healthy very
early in the semester, which is a very good idea.
Please feel free to move around the chapters of the
book as they seem to fit your teaching style and the
learning style of your voice students. The chapters
do not necessarily need to be taught in the order
presented here. If you have questions, please do not
hesitate to contact me via the companion website
for this book. I will be happy to assist in any way
that I can.
 Acknowledgments
As I complete the revisions for the second edition of
Vocal Technique: A Physiologic Approach, I continue
to realize how many colleagues have influenced my
singing, my voice teaching, and the concepts I pre­
sent in this book. I am, of course, indebted to my
own voice teachers: in particular, Madame Sonia
Sharnova of the Chicago Conservatory of Music
and the Chicago Opera Company; Kathleen Kaun,
who worked with me at Northwestern University;
and Wilma Osheim of the American Conservatory
of Music. Their guidance and encouragement of
my own vocal technical and interpretive skills can
surely be witnessed in these pages. I am so proud
and thankful to have begun my voice studies with
Susan Stevens Daily at Saint Mary’s College at Notre
Dame, who discovered that I had a voice worthy
of the singing profession, and taught me to be a
holistic singer and a lifetime learner and discoverer.
I continue to use all of the vocal and musical con-
cepts she taught me as an undergraduate student,
and am so appreciative for her outstanding guid-
ance and support in my early music studies. She
continues to be a wonderful voice teacher and an
inspiration to me personally!
I am indebted to the many colleagues whose
presentations, seminars, writings, and quiet conver-
sations led me to put these words on paper. I have
benefited frequently from individual members, as
well as collectively, from the work of the National
Association of Teachers of Singing and the Voice
Foundation’s annual conferences in Philadelphia.
Although Dr. Robert Sataloff, MD, DMA, does not
know me personally, he has had a tremendous influ-
ence on my singing and my teaching of singers.
I thank him for his tireless efforts in reaching the
pedagogic community with his medical and vocal
expertise through seminars and print media. In addi-
tion, I have been strongly influenced by the work
ix
of Richard Miller and William Vennard. I have read
their works in depth and, even though I know it is
impossible to learn to sing well from a book, it is not
impossible to gain insight into the complex process
through their writings, and I am indebted to each
of them for their pioneering work.
I am also indebted to the students in my voice
studio, and my voice studio and voice classes at
Saint Xavier University, where I taught for 30+ years.
Their patience and enthusiasm regarding this book
have been most rewarding for me as a teacher and
a writer. My deepest thanks goes to my colleague
and friend, Martha M. Morris, Professor Emerita, and
former Director of Instrumental Studies and Music
Education, at Saint Xavier University. Thank you for
your unending support and encouragement in my
work as an educator, a singer, and a writer.
I am so fortunate to enjoy the talents of my out-
standing illustrator, Douglas Klauba. Thank you for
your generous assistance, your keen eye, and won-
derful artistic skills in making the technical concepts
perfectly visually clear for the teachers and students
who will use this book.
A very special thank you to my team at Plural
Publishing — Valerie Johns, executive editor; Kalie
Koscielak, my project editor; cover designer, Marissa
Young; and Jessica Bristow, production assistant.
Thank you all for your unwavering support and
your outstanding artistic work to make this book
the best and most beautiful it can be, and also to
Angie Singh, President of Plural Publishing, for your
continuing support of my work and the work of so
many other authors over many years!
To everyone who encouraged me to write this
book, to pursue publication, and to go forward with
revisions and the expansion of materials for this
second edition, thank you!
 Singer Information Sheet
Name ___________________________________________ Age _________

Voice Category 
_____ SOPRANO  _____ MEZZO-SOPRANO  _____ALTO
_____ TENOR _____ BARITONE _____BASS

1. Have you had vocal training? ___ Yes ___ No

a. class voice lessons ___ Yes ___ No
b. private lessons ___ Yes ___ No
c. within choral organizations ___ Yes ___ No
d. through a church choir ___ Yes ___ No
e. through a school choir ___ Yes ___ No

2. How would you rate your singing ability?

___ Excellent   ___ Good  ___ Moderate  ___ Poor  ___ None

3. If you have had private voice lessons, please list your last two teachers. List the number and
circle months or years as appropriate.
Teacher 1 _______________________________________ _____ Months Years
Teacher 2 _______________________________________ _____ Months Years

4. Do you sing
in a school choral ensemble ___ Yes ___ No
with a church choir or as a cantor ___ Yes ___ No
in a “rock” band or club ___ Yes ___ No
with another type of group: (please specify) ___ Yes ___ No
___________________________________

5. How long have you been singing? _______ Months Years (circle one)

6. Have you ever had any vocal problems such as the following?
Hoarseness (scratchy sound and feel) ___ Yes ___ No
Fatigue (voice tires or changes quality after singing) ___ Yes ___ No
Loss of range of voice (low or high notes) ___ Yes ___ No
Breathiness in sound (cannot produce a clear tone) ___ Yes ___ No
Pain in throat while singing ___ Yes ___ No
Difficulty in warming your voice up to sing ___ Yes ___ No
Trouble singing    ___ softly ___ loudly ___ making any vocal sound

xi
 7. What are your career goals as a singer?
___ Professional opera singer ___ Professional pop or Broadway career
___ Classical singer ___ Pop singer
___ Amateur performer (solo/choral) ___ Amateur singing for personal pleasure
___ Music Educator   ___ Elementary ___ Middle School ___ High School ___ College
___ No real interest in singing as a career

8. Have you had training for your speaking voice? ___ Yes ___ No
Acting voice lessons ___ Yes ___ No If yes, how long? _________
Speech Therapy ___ Yes ___ No If yes, how long? _________

9. Do you play a musical instrument(s)? ___ Yes ___ No

___ Keyboard ___ String Instrument (Violin, Viola, Cello, Bass)
___ Guitar ___ Brass Instrument (Trumpet, Fr.Horn, Trombone, Tuba)
___ Single Reed Instrument ___ Double Reed Instrument
___ Flute, Piccolo ___ Percussion

10. How often do you do vocal exercises? ___ Daily ___ Weekly ___ Infrequently ___ Never

11. If you practice singing, how long are your practice sessions? ___ minutes ___ hours

12. Do you warm up your voice before singing music? ___ Yes ___ No

13. Do you have allergies or issues that interfere with singing? ___ Yes ___ No
Explain briefly 



15. Do you smoke cigarettes or cigars? ___ Yes ___ No

Do you live with smokers? ___ Yes ___ No
Do you regularly inhale secondhand smoke? ___ Yes ___ No

19. Do you drink alcohol? ___ Yes ___ No

20. Do you drink caffeinated beverages? ___ Yes ___ No

21. What is your personal goal in studying vocal technique?




xii
 The second edition of Vocal Technique: A Physiologic Approach is dedicated
to every singer who reads this book. I hope you find the information in this book
and on the new companion website very helpful, and that you become and remain
lifelong learners, information seekers, and the very best singers you can be!
 1
Some Answers to Questions Before We
Begin Developing a Vocal Technique
I’ve Heard That People are
“Born Singers”— Can Anyone
Really Learn To Be A Singer?
Anyone who has a normally functioning speaking
voice can learn to sing! The physiologic require-
ments are nearly the same for both processes. Many
would-be singers are unnecessarily anxious or ner-
vous about singing because they lack experience in
singing. This feeling of anxiousness or nervousness
can be overcome easily by learning to carefully control
vocal tone production, developing “vocal technique.”
Just as an Olympic runner takes the basic skills
of walking and develops them to a high degree, a
professional singer takes the skills and coordination
process of speaking and develops them into those
needed for singing. If you can speak, you can sing.
As a matter of fact, learning to sing will improve the
quality and projection of your speaking voice. Many
lawyers and other professional voice users study
singing in an effort to improve their ability to speak
persuasively and dynamically in public.
What Is Vocal Technique?
Vocal technique is the specific learned process
through which a singer controls the coordination
of four physiologic systems (respiration, phonation,
articulation, and resonation) to create a beautiful
1
tone quality. When we speak of vocal technique, we
are primarily concerned with these four physiologic
systems necessary to the production of a cultivated
vocal tone quality. Thus, a singer acquires a vocal
technique through the study, development, and
coordination of the respiration, phonation, articula-
tion, and resonation systems involved in producing
vocal tone.
At first these terms may seem formidable, but
in actuality they are processes that are used every
day by human beings. By respiration we mean sim-
ply the act of breathing. More specifically, respira-
tion includes “the physical and chemical processes
by which an organism supplies its cells and tissues
with the oxygen needed for metabolism and relieves
them of the carbon dioxide formed in energy pro-
ducing reactions” (Mish, 2005, p. 1061). Much time
is devoted to this important physiologic process in
Chapter 4. Phonation can be explained simply as
the process of producing vocal sounds, especially
speech. The term takes its root from the Greek
phone meaning voice or sound. Thus, to phonate
is to make vocal sounds through the application of
breath energy to the vocal folds (in humans), caus-
ing them to vibrate. Articulation, as it applies to
singing and speaking, is the process whereby the
vocal sounds produced are affected or changed by
the position and motion of the articulators, the lips,
jaw, soft palate, and tongue as well as the position
of the larynx (voice box) itself. Movement of each
of these articulators changes the shape of the vocal
tract (the hollow tube connecting the larynx to the
2 VOCAL Technique: A Physiologic Approach
mouth and lips), which allows us to produce the
vowel and consonant combinations we recognize
as language. Finally, resonation is the process that
amplifies the sound produced through phonation,
using specific shapes within the vocal tract to cre-
ate additional sympathetic vibrations. In the case of
speech or singing, as the vocal tone passes through
the various portions of the vocal tract, it is intensified
and enriched by supplementary vibrations achieved
there. William Vennard, in Singing the Mechanism
and the Technic, states: “To the physicist, resonance
is a relationship that exists between two vibrating
bodies of the same pitch” (Vennard, 1967, p.13).
Thus, resonating the singing voice means learning
to control the shape of these cavities above the lar-
ynx as well as controlling the larynx itself to some
degree. More specific information on the extremely
important process of resonating the voice is dis-
cussed in Chapter 7.
The physical production of singing tone
requires the use of all four physiologic systems in
precise coordination with, and consciously and con-
sistently guided by, the ear and brain of the singer.
This is only the physical or physiologic aspect of the
technique of voice production, however. In order
for a singer to make vocal sounds worthy of the
concert, musical theater, or opera stage, the singer
must also engage the body’s psychological system
as well as allowing his or her individual personal-
ity to shine through, allowing the creation of vocal
sounds which achieve the highest form of artistry
while singing — the perfect engagement of all five
systems achieves vocal artistry.
How Long Will it Take to
Become a Good Singer?
The answer here depends on how disciplined you
are and what you wish to achieve. If you wish to
be a singer in a choir or to be able to produce
pleasant vocal sounds for your own enrichment, you
can learn to do this rather quickly. Everyone should
be able to learn to produce pleasing vocal sounds,
using a creditable vocal technique, within the time
period allotted for a voice class or a year of studio
voice lessons. If you wish to achieve a high level
of vocal artistry, you must also develop the inter-
pretive and imaginative side of the brain (the psy-
chological system) in addition to developing perfect
coordination of the four physiologic systems into
a highly skilled level of vocal technique. A student
of singing must first master the physical aspects of
vocal production and will then be able to move on
to study the artistic elements involved in achieving
this high level of vocal artistry. If a singer wishes to
achieve a level of competency that can be used pro-
fessionally in public performance, his or her studies
will continue until this high level of vocal artistry is
developed. This generally means going on to study
privately with a knowledgeable voice teacher and
continuing to develop many additional skills as well
as refining the vocal technique to an artistic level.
A world class singer possesses not only an excel-
lent physical vocal technique but has also achieved
a high level of musicianship, as well as interpretive,
theatrical, and language skills to make the sing-
ing process complete and more meaningful for the
audience as well as the singer. Mastery of the most
advanced stages of vocal technique is a prerequisite
for achieving vocal artistry.
Renowned vocal pedagogue Richard Miller
states in The Structure of Singing, System and Art
in Vocal Technique (1996):
Technique represents the stabilization of desir-
able coordination during singing. Technique can
be ‘computerized’ in the brain and the body of
the singer. No singer ever should be in doubt as
to what is going to happen, technically, in public
performance, unless illness interferes. Knowing
how the singing instrument works, and knowing
how to get it to work consistently, is the sum of
technical knowledge. That is why a systematic
approach to vocal technique is the most success-
ful route to artistic singing. System and art con-
join to produce the professional sounds of the
singing voice. (p. xvi)
Lotte Lehmann, considered one of the greatest
interpretive singers of her time, writes in her book
More Than Singing — The Interpretation of Songs
(Dover 1985):
Not only your voice sings — no, you must sing
with your whole being — from head to toe . . .
your eyes sing, your body, animated by the
rhythm of the music, sings, your hands sing. How
 1. Some Answers to Questions Before We Begin Developing a Vocal Technique
great is the power of expression conveyed by the
eyes and the hands! . . . you should learn to feel
what you are singing with every nerve. (p. 13)
Later in the introduction to her insightful book she
states: “Do not sing just a melody, sing a poem. Music
lifting the poem from the coldness of the spoken
word has transfigured it with new beauty” (Lehmann,
1985, p. 15). These are the words of a vocal artist
rather than a vocal technician. These are the words
of a singer who went far beyond the achievement of
masterful vocal technique, achieving what we have
learned to appreciate as world-class artistry.
In a voice class or initial studio lessons, the
emphasis is on the introduction and development
of the foundation needed for a strong and reliable
vocal technique to help you achieve a basic under-
standing of what the requirements are for master-
ing the physical coordination necessary to produce
beautiful vocal sounds. Following this introductory
material, you will hopefully choose to go on with
your studies — to work with a private voice teacher
as you continue to develop your own personal
vocal technique. If you do not go on to study fur-
ther, you will have gained a basic understanding
of what is necessary to achieve the most beautiful
vocal quality you are capable of producing as well
as having learned about the anatomic function of
the singing mechanism and exercises for training
and coordinating the physiologic and psychological
systems to produce the best possible tone quality at
this level.
Why Study Singing if
I Don’t Intend to Become
a Professional Singer?
The National Association of Teachers of Singing
(NATS) offers the following reasons for studying
singing. You should consider these and others before
you begin to develop your personal vocal technique.
1. Singing is a very healthy form of aerobic exer-
cise, which will help you tone muscles, purify
your blood, and develop your lungs.
2. Learning to sing properly will promote good
posture and give you a graceful carriage.
3
3. Learning to sing properly will improve your
speaking voice, making it fuller and richer.
4. Learning to sing properly will help you to
develop self-confidence and poise as you over-
come the difficulties associated with singing for
others.
5. Learning to sing properly — although it requires
patience, energy, and enthusiasm — is fun and
aids in your emotional development.
In addition to these important reasons, Stacy Horn
tells us in her article, “Singing Changes Your Brain”
(2013):
. . . singing is like an infusion of the perfect tran-
quilizer, the kind that both soothes your nerves
and elevates your spirits. The elation may come
from endorphins, a hormone released by sing-
ing, which is associated with feelings of pleasure.
Or it might be from oxytocin, another hormone
released during singing, which has been found
to alleviate anxiety and stress.
Anyone considering a career as a speech language
pathologist, or a music therapist will surely be
interested in the role that singing plays in recover-
ing stroke patients with nonfluent aphasia; these
patients are able to sing words they cannot speak.
Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT) is a very suc-
cessful treatment that uses melody and rhythm to
improve language capabilities by utilizing the ability
to sing in order to access the generally undamaged
area of the right hemisphere of the brain follow-
ing a stroke. This is a very important and ongoing
area of research, and anyone interested in pursuing
this area of study should definitely have a strong
understanding of the physiologic process of singing.
Additional reasons to study the art and science of
singing include proven research showing that chil-
dren taking music lessons show greater improve-
ments in IQ scores, enhanced listening skills, better
memories, and possibly better learning skills overall.
If you are an instrumentalist studying voice for the
first time, you will be pleasantly surprised to find
that, as one student stated: “my breath manage-
ment, tone quality, the upper register on my instru-
ment, overall intonation, and sight-reading ability all
improved quickly while I studied vocal technique,
4 VOCAL Technique: A Physiologic Approach
making me a better musician overall and a much
stronger instrumentalist.” In addition, if you wish
to be a conductor, or a composer, you will learn to
hear pitches in your head as you learn to sing in a
way that you do not as an instrumentalist.
The most important consideration should be:
“Do you want to be able to sing to the best of your
ability?” This does not mean you necessarily have
the desire to be a professional singer, but only that
you have a desire to be the best singer you can
be. If you have this desire, and enjoy learning and
singing, you are already on your way to becoming
a good singer.
How Do Fear and Anxiety
Affect the Voice?
Because you are your instrument, your physical
well-being as well as the emotions you feel will
affect the vocal sounds you produce. Later on in
your vocal studies you will learn to use this fact to
your own advantage, but for now, learning to deal
with unwanted emotions such as anxiety or fear will
be important to your study and improvement. No
one wants to fail or make a fool of himself or her-
self in front of peers or colleagues. This is not only
a concern for those at the student level but for the
entire human race regardless of level or age. In the
case of singing, we will remove this fear of failure
by improving our concentration on the elements
of correct vocal production and developing a vocal
technique that can be relied upon even when we are
nervous or under stress.
When you are afraid, your mind has a tendency
to wander from one subject to the next; “what if
my voice cracks?” or “what if I sing flat?” or “what
if I sing the wrong notes?” and so on. Let’s call this
the “what if” syndrome. These are all legitimate
questions that can be answered and removed from
your mind as you learn a correct and reliable vocal
technique. Once you have removed the “what if”
syndrome, you will be ready to concentrate on
developing your own vocal technique. Here are the
answers to some of the questions posed here to
allow more understanding as you begin your efforts
to develop a strong vocal technique.
What if My Voice Cracks?
Perhaps understanding why the voice “cracks” will
make this event less frightening. As the untrained
singer attempts to sing an ascending pattern of
notes, a sort of tug of war is going on between two
sets of vocal muscles, the cricothyroid and the thy-
roarytenoid muscles within the larynx. With each
ascending pitch, tension mounts, and more muscu-
lar effort and breath power are required to sustain
the higher and higher tones. When the limit of this
individual’s vocal muscular strength is reached, the
muscles give way or let go and the voice becomes
quite light sounding as it changes to an involuntary
falsetto. This is what we feel and hear as a crack. The
feeling is uncomfortable as it would be if you over-
stretched any muscle in the body, and the embar-
rassment comes from the loss of control of the tone.
There is nothing to be embarrassed about, however;
this simply means you were using too much of what
is commonly described as chest voice. This term is
discussed at some length later on in the book. For
now, we can describe it as a “heavy voice,” which
uses too much muscle in the vocal folds during the
phonation process. In your study of vocal technique,
you will learn to carefully bridge the head voice
(a more appropriate use of the vocal folds) with
the chest voice so that this cracking sensation will
not occur. The correct process will allow the vocal
folds as well as the cricothyroid and thyroarytenoid
muscles to gradually adjust as you move up and
down a scale so they can be used properly and
without strain. When you have learned to support
your voice properly and consistently with breath,
there will be no cracking. Until you have developed
this skill, however, don’t worry about your voice
cracking. This automatic adjustment on the part of
the musculature actually prevents you from injuring
the muscles in your efforts to sing.
What if I Sing Flat?
Excellent singing requires good intonation, the pro-
cess whereby we sing in tune or precisely on pitch.
Many things can cause a singer to be flat or under
 1. Some Answers to Questions Before We Begin Developing a Vocal Technique
pitch. If the tone is not properly focused with the
breath, the tone may be flat. If the vowel formation
is incorrect, the tone may also be flat. “Holding”
the muscles of the voice box or larynx rigidly will
make the tone straight or lacking in vibrato, and
can also give the impression that the tone is flat.
A straight or “vibrato-less” tone allows for no ring or
overtones in the voice, and thus produces a sound
that is under pitch or flat. Correcting flat singing is
a matter of learning a good reliable vocal technique
and is not usually a difficult problem to correct. It
is a problem that is cured by learning proper breath
management and good vocal technique, appropriate
coordination of the respiratory, phonatory, and reso-
natory systems. Perhaps the diagram in Figure 1–1
will help you understand the appropriate vibratory
relationship between a straight tone, a tremolo (wob-
ble), and an acceptable vocal tone with vibrato.
We can identify a pitch by letter name (for
example, the international concert pitch: A on the
treble staff). This pitch produced by any instru-
ment will vibrate 440 times per second. This sound,
as heard by the human ear, may be graphed in a
wave as shown. Acoustic scientists have proven
that sound does not travel in a straight line, but
rather in peaks and valleys, or what are called com-
pressions and rarefaction (as shown). Thus, it is
more natural for the vocal sound to have vibrato
Figure 1–1. Visualization of straight tone, vibrato
and tremolo. This diagram demonstrates the
visual difference between a straight tone (rep-
resented by the center dotted line between the
pitch lines), acceptable vocal tone with vibrato
(represented by the shaded wavy line within the
pitch lines), and tremolo or wobble in the voice
(represented by the unshaded wavy line that
travels outside the pitch lines).
5
(a slight pulsation of pitch, approximately six or
seven pulsations per second) rather than no pulsa-
tions whatsoever. In singing, vibrato is caused by
the intermittent supply of nerve energy to the sound
producing mechanism — the larynx. When the respi-
ratory and phonatory muscles of the vocal instru-
ment are in perfect coordination (a regular pattern
of nerve energy is applied to the larynx), the sound
travels in regularly patterned waves as illustrated.
When the same respiratory and phonatory muscles
are not coordinating perfectly, the sound produced
will be either straight, having no patterned waves
at all, or may produce what is called a tremolo. This
wobbly or tremulous tone allows the wave pattern
to go too far outside the normal wave pattern of the
particular pitch and thus forces the tone to be sharp
(above the pitch) at times and flat (below the pitch)
at other times.
Lack of singing experience may cause a singer
to be out of tune, that is flat or sharp. Because this is
the case, training the ear is as important as training
the vocal production itself. Courses in sight-singing
and aural skills are taught in some high schools, and
most colleges and universities. This is a good place
to begin to learn pitch-matching skills if you have
not already acquired skill in this area. Of course,
listening to other highly trained professional and
semiprofessional singers is extremely important for
all aspiring singers and will help here as well.
According to William Vennard, internationally
recognized vocal pedagogue and singer, “vibrato is
a perfectly normal phenomenon” and
acoustically, the vocal vibrato is a fluctuation in
pitch, intensity, and timbre . . . the ear ordinar-
ily hears only a mean pitch, which is in tune
with the rest of the music. The other pitches one
mistakes for timbre, and one is likely to call the
presence of vibrato “richness,” or “resonance,” or
even “overtones.” (Vennard, 1967, p. 193)
During your study of vocal technique, your
voice will gradually acquire a natural vibrato as the
various vocal muscles and physiologic systems learn
to coordinate appropriately. Don’t worry about too
much or too little vibrato in your voice for now.
Focus your attention on proper posture, breath man-
agement, and coordination of the muscles needed
6 VOCAL Technique: A Physiologic Approach
to create the coordination, and you will soon notice
a natural vibrato entering in an effortless manner.
Remember that vibrato is a normal function of the
voice and will be correct when the voice is freely
produced and coordinating well.
What if I Sing the Wrong Notes?
Singing wrong notes is usually an indication that the
singer’s concentration is not as strong as it needs to
be or that the song was not practiced and learned
when the singer was concentrating carefully. Devel-
oping good pitch memory takes time, patience, and
practice, just as developing a good golf swing or
learning to throw a curve ball requires repeated
attempts to achieve success. A singer must be sure
that he or she is concentrating carefully when learn-
ing a new song to ensure a perfect delivery of the
song in performance. You will need to concentrate
even more carefully as you learn and perfect your
vocalizes (exercises to develop the voice) so that you
are creating correct muscle memory as you practice.
Mistakes learned during practice time — whether
rhythmic, melodic, muscular, or otherwise — are dif-
ficult to correct once they are “programmed” into
your mind, ear, and voice. Careful and concentrated
practice time, as well as patience in learning the skills
of vocal technique, will help to rid you of potential
errors in performance. The key here is repetition of
the correct process so that muscle memory is built.
Using the process for learning a song provided here
will also aid you in this quest for good musicianship.
How Can I Get Over the Fear of
Making Mistakes in Public?
Here are four easy steps to help you get over the
fear of making mistakes in public. Begin to study
and practice using them immediately.
1. Concentrate
This means in your practice as well as your perfor-
mance. “Program” yourself to sing the material to the
best of your ability by learning it slowly, carefully,
and correctly, whether it is an exercise, an art song,
an aria, or a section of a choral work. Think carefully
about what you are doing and be organized in your
approach. If you can sing the phrase three times in
a row making no errors, we generally say you have
learned the phrase.
2. Prepare Yourself Well
Your vocal instrument is made up of bone, carti-
lage, muscles, and other living materials rather than
wood, silver, or brass. These living cells respond
to the commands of the brain and need practice
and exercise every day in order to become fluid in
the coordination process. In addition to your vocal
exercises, learn the words and music of your song
literature slowly and carefully. Remember, good
singing is a balancing act of many muscles with the
brain guiding every action. The brain must send the
proper signals and the body must learn the correct
patterns of response to each of those signals. This
learning process takes time, patience, and much rep-
etition! When you learn a song or an exercise, you
are really programming the correct muscular action
into your body both physically and mentally; you are
creating muscle memory, which is very important in
developing a personal vocal technique.
3. Take the Stage
You want to learn to sing or you would not be read-
ing this book, so let your audience know that you
want to perform for them and that you have some-
thing important to say. This attitude will give you
the necessary confidence in your own abilities as
a singer. “Taking the stage” means walking quickly
to your performance position with confidence, and
an assured smile that says: “I am well prepared and
ready to perform for you. Thank you for coming to
hear me sing.”
4. Expect to Do Well
What you think and feel definitely affects your
voice and your performance because you are your
instrument. Think positively. Practice visualizing
 1. Some Answers to Questions Before We Begin Developing a Vocal Technique
your success. You will be surprised at how much
this helps your sense of control and your ability to
perform. Athletes have been using the visualiza-
tion technique for years. Watch an Olympic skier
standing at the top of the hill: eyes closed, going
through all the motions of the course ahead with
precision and the exact finesse he or she intends
to use when actually moving over the course physi-
cally. This visualization technique is just as impor-
tant for singer/performers. Visualizing yourself on
the stage singing your vocal material to the very
best of your ability and then receiving graciously
the applause of the audience can have great benefits
both psychologically and physically.
How Do I Gain More Confidence
in My Ability to Sing?
Lack of confidence comes from lack of knowledge
or the feeling that you lack knowledge in a particu-
lar subject area. You naturally feel more confident
when you feel you know a good deal about the
subject. Singing is no different. You will be least
confident when you don’t know what your voice is
going to do, and most confident when you are in
complete control of your vocal technique because
you have a good understanding of how your voice
functions. When you have a good understanding of
how your voice functions, and have carefully prac-
ticed exercises to help you gain control over these
vocal functions, you will find yourself growing more
and more confident.
How Do I Acquire this
Knowledge and Control?
Learn as much about your vocal instrument and how
it functions as you can and attempt to acquire a
strong vocal technique, based on all the knowledge
you have gained. In learning this technique you
need someone in whom you have confidence as a
voice teacher, a well-tuned piano, a mirror, record-
ing device, metronome, and a great deal of patience
and perseverance. There are probably as many tech-
niques of singing as there are teachers teaching
7
them. It is important for you to find a teacher who
inspires you and in whom you have faith. Singing
is a very personal endeavor that requires a great
deal of trust on the part of the student. Thus, you
must look carefully for a teacher in whom you have
confidence and in whom you can place your trust.
Later on in this book you will find a listing of attri-
butes you should look for as you seek out an excel-
lent voice teacher. It would be difficult to develop
a strong vocal technique on your own; you need a
teacher to guide you as you learn to use your voice
properly. As you are probably already aware if you
have heard your speaking or singing voice on a
recording device, you do not hear your own voice
in the same way that others hear you. Learning to
sing means learning to trust someone else’s ears
and your feelings, that is, the sensations of vocal
tone vibration, certain muscular feelings, such as
those associated with expanding and maintaining a
lift in your rib cage, relaxation in the shoulders and
jaw, sensations of vibration in the nasal cavities, and
so on. Your voice teacher will carefully guide you
toward these correct sensations, and will help you
discover and acquire an excellent vocal technique.
You need a mirror in your practice area to
observe signs of muscular tension, your facial expres-
sion, posture and hand gestures, and your overall
presentation among other things. This is often one
of the most difficult aspects of learning a strong
vocal technique. Very few people are comfortable
watching themselves in a mirror. You will find it
easier if you do not make eye contact with yourself
in the mirror. Instead, be your own best critic; feel
as though you are standing outside of yourself and
objectively analyzing the technique, and not the per-
son you are watching. In subsequent chapters, you
will learn exactly what to watch for in the mirror.
A recording device is a valuable tool that will
enable you to hear yourself more accurately. You
can use your smart phone to record, but using a
professional recording device will help you to hear
the fine points of your vocal tone quality, timbre
and diction. Recording lessons and voice classes as
well as practice sessions will help you to remember
the purpose of each vocalize, and even the correct
notes and rhythms of the exercises; but more impor-
tantly, it will allow you to listen multiple times to a
lesson, learning something new from each listening
session. Listen for corrections made by the teacher
8 VOCAL Technique: A Physiologic Approach
as you attempt to sing the exercises and vocal rep-
ertoire. Frequently when a student is concentrat-
ing intensely on one concept, some very important
information or corrections may slip by unnoticed.
If your voice lessons and/or voice class sessions
are recorded, such moments will not be lost, as you
will hear the information or correction when you
replay the recording at a later time. A good habit to
form would be to record each class or lesson and
soon after, listen to the recording, writing down in
a notebook or diary important points from the ses-
sion, difficulties, exercises learned, as well as the
purpose for each, and corrections made by your
voice teacher. As you listen to your recording, you
may discover questions that you did not ask in the
lesson. These questions should be brought forward
in the next session with your voice teacher. The
body of information you gather by keeping this les-
son diary will prove to be a valuable resource for
you as you continue your studies.
When you are learning a technique, part of
your learning time should be spent sitting quietly
and studying the music and the poetry and/or lis-
tening to professional vocal artists performing the
literature. This time is as important for learning to
sing well as the time you spend actually singing. It
often gives the mind time to gain a deeper under-
standing of the various aspects of the technique as
well as the repertoire studied. Do not neglect this
important aspect of your vocal studies.
How Do I Know What and
How to Practice?
Remembering that your instrument is made up pri-
marily of muscles is important. Just as an athlete
would not attempt a difficult maneuver without
doing stretching and warm-up exercises, so the
singer must warm up her voice as well. The voice is
a delicate instrument, and should be used with care
and intelligence. Warm-ups for singers work as they
do for athletes, stretching and warming the muscles
to prepare them for work without injury. Many oto-
laryngologists and speech-language pathologists
recommend vocal function exercises.
Vocal Function Exercises, first described by
Barnes and modified by Dr. Joseph Stemple, are
“a series of direct, systematic voice manipulations
(exercises), similar in theory to physical ther-
apy for the vocal folds, designed to strengthen
and balance the laryngeal musculature, and to
improve the efficiency of the relationship among
airflow, vocal fold vibration, and supraglottic
treatment of phonation.” (“Vocal Warm-Ups” from
http://www.gbmc.org/vocalwarm-up)
You will find more specific directions and other very
interesting information regarding vocal function
exercises and “care of the voice” on the Johns Hop-
kins Medicine Voice Center website listed above.
I present below some basic information on how to
perform these exercises in order for a singer to keep
her voice healthy.
Vocal Function Exercises should generally be
done twice in a row, twice a day. They should be
produced as softly as possible with an easy onset
(initiation of sound) and forward placement of the
tone (avoid a dark, muffled vocal quality).
Exercise number one is performed by sustaining
the vowel sound [i] (as in me) for as long as
possible on the musical pitch F above middle C
for women, or F below middle C for men. The
pitch should be produced as softly as possible
with a clear tone, making sure that a full
inhalation of breath precedes vocalization. The
[i] vowel should be produced with a feeling of
“forward” resonance, allowing vibrations in the
cheekbone area as you sing. Sustain this [i] for
as long as you can on one breath.
Exercise number two consists of gliding, or
sliding, from your lowest to your highest pitch
on the word “knoll,” using the consonant [l] on
which to slide. Sing as softly as you can, but be
sure to feel vocal vibration in the upper facial
area. Try to move smoothly from your lowest
to highest pitches without any breaks and on
one breath.
Exercise number three is the reverse of the
exercise number two. Glide, or slide, from your
most comfortable upper pitch to your lowest
 1. Some Answers to Questions Before We Begin Developing a Vocal Technique
comfortable pitch on the word “knoll,” again
using the consonant [l] on which to slide, and
allowing the sound to be soft but clear and
resonant. Try to move as smoothly as possible
from this comfortably high pitch to your
lowest pitch.
Exercise number four consists of sustaining
each of the pitches beginning with middle
C, then, D-E-F and G as long as possible on
one breath, again using the word “knoll,” and
sustaining the vocal tone on the [l]. Leave your
lips in the correct formation of the [o] vowel in
order to feel the lips vibrating sympathetically.
On the Johns Hopkins Voice Center Home page
(http://www.gbmc.org/voice), you will find much
more information and a discussion regarding vocal
warm-ups and cool-downs. I recommend that every
singer use warm-ups prior to attempting exercises
for vocal development (vocalizes) and cool-downs
following a practice session or rehearsal in order to
avoid injury to the vocal folds. Your voice teacher
will give you very specific vocal warm-ups, cool-
downs, and vocalizes to help you gain control of
your vocal production; be sure to follow your voice
teacher’s directives in this regard as you develop
your vocal technique. Throughout this book you will
find a series of vocal exercises that can be used
to warm-up the voice. Eventually, you will develop
a specific warm-up procedure that works well for
you personally and which you will want to perform
every day of your singing life. For now, in addi-
tion to the vocal function exercises, your warm-ups
should include exercises that remove tension in the
neck, shoulders, chest, and throughout your body.
In Chapter 3, you will learn how to correctly per-
form “Head Rolls,” “Shoulder Rolls,” the “Rib Cage
Stretch,” the “Rag Doll,” and other exercises to make
sure you are inhaling fully and then utilizing that air
to full advantage. You will find a PowerPoint presen-
tation on the companion website that accompanies
this book entitled, “Practicing 101, or What should
I do in that 6 × 10 room?” Watch the PowerPoint for
more specific information on practicing efficiently
and screening for vocal problems.
As the athlete trains for years to gain control
and flexibility of his or her muscles, so the singer
9
must practice vocal exercises to build control, flexi-
bility, beauty, and power into his or her voice. Devel-
opmental exercises are given to you throughout this
book and may be supplemented by your teacher.
Practice each one carefully and regularly to develop
your vocal instrument. Developing and nurturing
your voice now will enable it to last for many years.
Initially, it is wise to practice for shorter, more fre-
quent periods of time; approximately 30 minutes
to an hour of practice at one time and one or more
times per day should be sufficient initially. You will
find that this time period will lengthen as your tech-
nique improves. Check with your teacher about any
specific practice requirements he or she may have
for your sessions. Of course, careful and concen-
trated practice will enable you to improve more
quickly. Practice should always be done when you
are well rested, healthy, and in a place where you
can concentrate completely on what you are doing.
Never attempt to practice when you are exhausted,
ill, or in some physical or psychological way indis-
posed. Your practice room should have a well-tuned
piano, a full-length mirror, a recording device, a met-
ronome, and plenty of fresh air and quiet.
Keeping track of your daily practice routine is
a very good idea, and will help you to practice more
efficiently. Use a weekly practice record sheet like
the one included in Appendix IV and share it with
your voice teacher on a weekly basis. This will allow
your voice teacher to gain insight into your practice
habits and to recommend changes that will improve
your singing more quickly (see Appendix IV).
Don’t Sit at The Piano to Practice,
Always Stand to Practice!
Your voice needs the full support of your body, and
standing to practice will help you to develop this
consistent support more adequately. You do not
need to play the notes of your vocalizes as you sing
them. It is much better to memorize the pitch pat-
terns, and give yourself only the first pitch for each
exercise. This will also help you to acquire the aural
skills necessary for excellent singing. Stand in front
of the mirror and check frequently for muscular
10 VOCAL Technique: A Physiologic Approach
tension, correct posture, breath management, and
mouth position as well as incorrect habits you may
have acquired without realizing; for example, stand-
ing with the body weight more on one foot than
the other, or opening the mouth to one side rather
than dropping the jaw evenly from both joints. Your
physical appearance is important for correct vocal
technique as well as for audience appeal on the
performance stage. Removing undesirable physical
patterns or techniques early in your vocal technical
development is much easier than waiting until these
patterns have become habit. If you have particular
problems or difficulties in your practice sessions,
get into the habit of writing about these difficulties
on your practice record sheet, and ask your teacher
about them as soon as possible. Correcting faulty
vocal technique early will prevent incorrect muscle
memory from developing as a part of your technique.
What Is Involved in
Developing Vocal Technique?
Learning to be a singer is different from learning to
play any other instrument because you must build
and develop your vocal instrument as you learn to
“play” it. If you want to learn to play the piano, you
purchase a well-built piano and find a teacher to
teach you how to play it correctly. This is not the
case for singers. Singing is a secondary function
of the larynx, the physical function of which is to
act as a valve to hold breath and keep food from
entering the lungs. The phonation process is one
that humans have developed. Therefore, a would-be
singer must work diligently to train the appropri-
ate muscles to respond to mental commands con-
sistently; this takes practice and patience. Efficient
vocal technique includes learning proper posture,
breath management, resonance, correct articulation
of vowels and consonants, projection, and more.
Each aspect of vocal technique is initially taught
separately and then all aspects must be coordinated
as perfectly as possible. It is important to learn each
aspect carefully and precisely; take time to be sure
your voice is responding to your mental command
and that you are concentrating fully on the task at all
times. Once you have developed a solid and reliable
vocal technique, you will know that every time you
open your mouth to sing, your voice will do exactly
as you command. No one can develop a technique
for you. You must do this yourself. Your teacher can
guide you in the correct procedure and help you to
correct your mistakes, but in many respects you are
your own best teacher. Practice what you learn in
the studio lesson or voice class carefully and every
day to develop the best possible vocal technique.
Repetition is of the utmost importance in devel-
oping muscle memory for excellent and efficient
vocal technique.
Language Development
for Singers
Professional singers generally learn to sing in five
languages or more including Italian, English, French,
German, Latin, Spanish and others, depending on
where you live and the works you choose to sing.
Being able to sing in a language foreign to you is
possible without studying the language in depth,
but you will find it much easier to express the text in
a foreign language when you have studied the lan-
guage more carefully. At the collegiate level, those
with English as their primary language and who
intend to become professional singers should expect
to study at least one semester each of Italian, French,
and German, if not more. These are the primary
languages for the operatic and concert stage. In the
United States today, many high school and college
students study Spanish; although studying any for-
eign language is excellent development for your
brain and aural skills, we do not sing very much
Spanish opera (Zarzuela) in this country. When you
choose your courses as a freshman in college, begin
your study of Italian, French, and German immedi-
ately, as these are the languages in which you will be
performing more frequently. For those whose native
tongue is other than English, as well as those whose
first language is English, be sure your English dic-
tion and grammar is of the highest quality. Become
familiar with the highest form of each language as
quickly as possible.
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 CHAPTER XV
Dance Tunes Grow Up—Suites—Violin Makers of Cremona

In our range of musical mountains, we see just ahead of us one of the

mightiest giants of them all, Johann Sebastian Bach, dwarfing
everything around it and we must resist the temptation of skipping
all the smaller mountains, for there is no musical aeroplane by
means of which we can fly across and land safely on Mt. Bach. This
grand old mountain, Bach, is such a tremendous landmark in the
growth of music, that when we reach it we realize that everything
that we have passed has been a journey of preparation. Bach is not
the only peak, for there are Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Chopin,
Schumann, Brahms, Wagner and others who stand out against the
musical horizon.
Before coming to Bach, however, we must bridge over the time
when music was still in its youth in the 16th and 17th centuries, to
when it became full grown and mature in the 18th. Music has now
come of age: it has perfected scales, notation, and developed form
and instruments; it is ready to go into the world and take its place
with painting, sculpture, poetry, drama and architecture as a full
grown art!
Nothing through which music has passed has been lost, but it has
been built like the great Egyptian Pyramids by adding one huge block
on top of another. It has gone from the noise of primitive man with
his drum, to the attempts of the savage to sing and to make crude
instruments, to the music of the ancient nations in their religious
ceremonies and entertainments, to the Arab singer who handed his
art to the western world through the troubadours, to the people of all
times and nations who danced and sang for the joy of it. It passed
from the Greek drama and music schools where definite scales and
modes were formed, to the early Christian Church which kept it alive
during the Dark Ages and gradually invented ways to write it, and
later to the “Golden Age” of the Catholic Church. It had seen the rise
of schools and the perfection of the polyphonic system give way to
the recitative and the aria, which in turn brought about opera,
oratorio, and instrumental music. It has seen counterpoint give way
to harmony, and yet the growth of music is not complete and never
will be, but constantly new forms will blossom out of the old.
The 15th and 16th centuries were vocal. The 17th was instrumental
and opened the way for so-called modern music, that is, for Bach’s
compositions and all that followed.
 Birth of Chamber Music

Gabrieli in the 16th century in Venice, sometimes wrote madrigals

for instruments instead of for voices, and he added instruments to
accompany the motets and masses (page 157); this led to composing
works for groups of instruments instead of playing madrigals that
had been composed for voices. The English often wrote on their
compositions, “fit for voices and for viols.” After they once started
playing the part songs on viols, the composers soon found out that
they could write more interesting and more difficult things for
instruments than they could for voices; this led to the writing of very
florid music for instruments alone. This florid part-writing, not
unlike the Gloss of the Arabs, and the improvisations of the soloists
in the early Catholic Church, soon became so overloaded with trills,
fancy turns and runs that it had to be reformed again.
In the 17th century, the lute, the popular instrument of the court
and the home for so many years, even centuries, suddenly found its
rival in the little keyboard instrument called the spinet and virginal
in England, and the clavecin in France. In Italy and France, as in
England, there were famous performers and composers for these
instruments, and many volumes of charming music were written for
it.
 Dance Tunes Grow up Into Suites

One of the first requirements of art works of all kinds is contrast.

The line and the curve are found in primitive art, light must have
shadow, one wing of a building must have another to balance it, and
a slow serious piece of music is usually followed by a gay one for
contrast. The Arabs understood this law of contrast, for in their
ancient songs we find the seed of a form that has been most
important in the growth of music. They made little suites by putting
two, three, four or more songs together; each song had its mode, and
one would be slow and sad, and the next fast and gay. The principal
music of the 17th century was the Suite, a group of pieces which had
grown out of the old folk dances. (Chapter IX.) The 17th century
composers, like the Arabs, feeling the need of contrast, strung several
of these dances together to form the Suite. So Suites were written for
clavecins and harpsichords, for violins alone and for organs, for
groups of stringed instruments and other chamber music
combinations. Some of these dances were in duple time, some in
triple; some were slow and some were fast; some were stately and
some gay. The different pieces forming a suite, had to be written in
the same key. These suites were known by different names in
different countries, such as partitas, exercises, lessons, sonate da
camera, ordres. In England the name suite was given to this form,
then the Germans adopted it, and later the great Bach wrote suites
which he also called partitas. In Italy, the suite was called sonata da
camera (chamber sonata) and sonata da chiesa (church sonata) and
out of all this have grown the very important sonata, symphony and
chamber music quartet, trio, quintet, etc.
Here are some of the dance forms used in the suite:
Allemande (duple time or measure: moderately slow), Sarabande
(triple time: slow, stately), Loure (duple time: slow), Gavotte (duple
time: moderately fast), Musette (duple time: moderately fast),
Bourrée (duple time: a little faster than the Gavotte), Minuet (triple
time: moderately fast), Passepied (triple time: a fast minuet),
Rigaudon (duple time: slower than the Bourrée), Tambourin (duple
time: fast), Pavan (duple time: rather slow), Courante, Corrente
(triple time: fast), Chaconne (triple time: moderately fast),
Passacaglia (like Chaconne, but more stately) and Gigue (sometimes
duple and sometimes triple time: very fast: almost always the last
movement of a suite).
The Italians of the 17th century wrote suites, and Italy still held the
place as leading the world in musical composition, just as it had in
the 15th and 16th. We find the names of Frescobaldi, Michelangelo
Rossi, Legrenzi, Bononcini, Giovanni Battista Vitali, Alessandro
Scarlatti and his son Domenico, and going over into the seventeen-
hundreds, Niccolo Porpora, Padre Martini, Paradies, and Baldassare
Galuppi, whom we know through Robert Browning’s poem, A
Toccata of Galuppi’s. Most of these names you will find on the
concert programs of today.
 “Serious” Scarlatti and Opera Writers

Alessandro Scarlatti (1659–1725) is one of the most important

Italian composers of the 17th century, and although he did not have
great success during his lifetime, his compositions have outlived
those of other writers, whose works were popular during his day. He
was called “serious Scarlatti,” and it was probably the very
seriousness with which he looked upon his work that made him write
without seeking public approval. Besides composing pieces for the
spinet and harpsichord, and symphonies, sonatas, suites and
concertos for different instruments, he wrote 125 operas, and over
500 cantatas, oratorios and church music. He was one of several
Italians who continued the work of the first opera writers. Francesco
Cavalli (1599–1676), Giacomo Carissimi (1603–1674), Luigi Rossi,
Marc Antonio Cesti (1628–1669), Francesco Provenzale (1610–
1704), Stradella (1645–1682), Caldara (1670–1736), Lotti (1667–
1740), Marcello (1686–1739), Leo (1694–1746), and others carried
the ideas of Scarlatti into the 18th century. Many of these carried
Italian opera into England, Germany and France, where it became
the model for their opera.
Stradella is quite as famous for his romantic love story, as he is for
the operas he left. This made an interesting libretto in the 19th
century for a German opera writer, Flotow, who was also the
composer of the well-known opera Martha.
 “La Serva Padrona” Points the Way

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710–1736), who died when he was

only twenty-six years old, was looked upon as a genius, and in his
early youth had written two works that were models for many that
followed, a Stabat Mater and a comic opera, La Serva Padrona,
which was played recently in America under the title of The Mistress
Maid. When this little opera was performed in Paris (1752) it caused
a very famous musical quarrel known as the “war of the buffoons.”
(Page 230.)
Jomelli (1714–1774), the composer of fifty-five operas, was a
Neapolitan but he lived in Germany for so many years, that he had
more influence on early German opera than on the Italian.
All the opera of this period, particularly the Italian, was very
loosely put together and was not opera as we have it today. Later
Gluck brought it to the point where it came of age.
 Metastasio—Maker of Opera Librettos

These writers of the 18th century used the librettos of a poet and
dramatist, Metastasio (1698–1782), who had a strong influence in
the development of opera not only in his native Italy, but in other
countries. He supplied texts for 1200 operatic scores! He understood
music so well, that he was a great help to the composers who listened
with attention to his advice. His life covered practically all of the 18th
century.
 A Celebrated Singing Teacher and Composer

When you read of Haydn, you will see that he played

accompaniments and acted as valet to the eminent singing teacher
Niccolo Porpora (1686–1767). This famous Italian had many pupils
in the opera houses all over Europe, and was considered the greatest
singing teacher in the world. One of his pupils in Dresden was the
young princess Marie Antoinette before she became Queen of
France. Porpora was a fine composer, and wrote many operas,
cantatas, masses, oratorios, and sonatas of which form he was one of
the inventors. Among his pupils were Haydn, Marcello, Tartini, Leo,
Galuppi, Padre Martini, Jomelli, Pergolesi, Caffarelli and Farinelli.
This list shows that he trained composers as well as singers.
 The Violin Makers of Cremona

Important changes, such as instrumental music coming into

fashion, do not happen without good reasons. We are so accustomed
to the violin, that we forget that there was a time when it did not
exist, but until about three centuries ago, there was none. We are
always eager to have new pianos, for the old ones wear out, but with
violins the older they are, the better! But they must be masterpieces
to begin with. All the famous violinists of the day like Kreisler,
Elman, Heifetz, etc., have marvelous old violins that cost fortunes,
and most of them were made by the violin makers of Cremona, a
little town in northern Italy, the birthplace of Monteverde.
The troubadours played the accompaniments to their songs on
stringed instruments called violes or vielles, which were the
grandparents of the violins. In the 15th century bowed instruments
were made similar in range to the human voice; these were called
treble or discant viol, tenor viol, bass viol and the double-bass, and
in England these went into the “chest of viols” (Page 198). Many
improvements were made in the shape, size and tone of the
instruments and by the middle of the 17th century the Italian makers
were ready to create violins, perfect of their kind, which have never
been surpassed. The secret of the tone of these instruments is said to
be in the varnish which the Cremona makers used, the recipe of
which has been lost, but we met a violin maker recently in Paris who
had discovered it in an old Italian book, and he has spent years in
trying to reproduce it. The old Italian varnish and the mellowing of
the wood with time are two reasons why age makes the old violins
better.
For several centuries, practically all the lutes and the viols that
supplied Europe were made by colonies of instrument makers who
lived in Lombardy (North Italy) and the Tyrol (South Austria). Two
towns in Lombardy became especially famous for their violins,
Brescia in which Gaspara di Salo and Maggini lived, and Cremona
which was the home of the Amati, Stradivari and Guarneri families.
In The Orchestra and Its Instruments, Esther Singleton says: “It is
thrilling to realize that in this little town, in three workshops side by
side, on the Piazza San Domenico, all the great violins of the world
were made and in friendly competition by the three families.” This
covered the period from 1560 to 1760. These men worked together
with just one object in life,—to turn out of their shops the most
perfect instruments that could possibly be made! With what care
they selected the wood! How they worked to make the tone of each
instrument as beautiful as possible! Now you will know when you
hear of an Amati violin, or a Stradivarius, a Guanerius or a Maggini,
that they are worth their weight in gold and are among the rarest art
treasures of the world. These were not the only violin makers in
Lombardy, for there were long lists of them, and there were also
many in the Tyrol. One of the most famous of these was Stainer who
lived at Innsbruck. “It is said that this old maker used to walk
through the wooded slopes of the Tyrolean mountains with a
hammer in his hand and that he would knock the trunks of the trees
and listen to the vibrations. When he found a tree that suited him, he
had it cut down to use in making his instruments.” (Esther
Singleton.)
These instrument makers made not only violins, but also lutes,
mandolins, guitars, violas, violoncellos, and double-basses. The
Italians were the first to develop the last two. The ’cello, as we call
the violoncello for short, was the child of an instrument named the
viola da gamba (translated leg-viola because it was held against the
leg), which for many years was the most popular of all bowed
instruments. We do not find many examples of the instruments even
in museums for they were made over into ’cellos when the latter
came into fashion. There is one viola da gamba in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, however, which was imported from France by the
Sisterhood of the General Hospital in Montreal before the conquest
of Canada, and was used in the convent choir many years before
there were any organs and pianos in the New World. The first ’cello
to attract attention was made in 1691 by a famous wood carver and
presented to the Duke of Modena. A member of the Amati family in
the 16th century was the first to turn the viola da gamba into a
violoncello. The ’cello and the double-bass were made more
successfully by Bergonzi than by the Cremona makers, although
Maggini, Amati and Galiano made very fine ones.
 The viola is a descendant of the viola d’amore. These and the later
violas, used in the string quartets, orchestras, and as solo
instruments, were made by a Tyrolese named Gaspard Duiffaprugcar
in the 16th century. His instruments are marvelous works of art. In
the back of one is a riddle in Latin: can you guess the answer? “I was
living in the forest; the cruel axe killed me. Living, I was mute; dead,
I sing sweetly.” When madrigals and motets were first played on
stringed instruments, the principal melody was given to the tenor
viol, the ancestor of the viola, even today called the alto or the tenor,
but after the violin came into general use, the viola was treated like a
step-child, for it is too large for a violin and too small for a
violoncello. We have Mozart to thank for discovering that the viola
had something beautiful and important to say as a solo instrument
especially in passages where he needed a tender, sad or melancholy
voice. You will read later that Beethoven, too, loved the poor
neglected viola. He, Berlioz and Wagner used the instrument to great
advantage.
In 1572 Pope Pius V sent Charles IX, King of France, a present of
thirty-eight bowed instruments made by the first Amati. During the
French Revolution, the mob broke into the palace at Versailles, and
all but two violins and a ’cello were destroyed! What a loss to art such
destruction was!
 Showing Off the New Instruments

With this development of exquisite instruments, came the desire to

use them and to write new compositions to show them off. These
instruments gave unlimited possibilities for technic and tone, and
created the school of Italian violinists and composers of the 17th and
18th centuries. If polyphonic music had still been in the lead, the
development of solo instruments would have been impossible, but in
trying to find new forms, the first opera inventors had broken the
backbone of polyphony, and had replaced it with monody, or single
line melody. Then, too, folk dances had taken the public fancy and
had been made into suites, which could be played on solo bowed
instruments with accompaniments, on spinets and organs, or on
groups of instruments. The sonata da camera was really a suite of
dances and was the first form used by these new composers for
violin. About the middle of the 17th century, instrumental
performances without any vocal music came to be a part of the
services of the Catholic Church for the priests were quick to see in
the violin playing, a refining influence. Here the sonata da camera
or “room sonata” was turned into the more serious sonata da chiesa
or “church sonata” gradually losing its dance character, and thus
became the seed of the sonata form of Haydn, Mozart and
Beethoven.
Giovanni Battista Vitali (1644–1692) is the first great master of the
violin sonata; after him, Torelli (1657–1716) added a new and
important kind of violin composition,—the Concerto. He called his
compositions, Concerti da Camera and Concerti Grossi, which
names and form were used by Vivaldi, Corelli, Handel and Bach. This
Concerto Grosso was a sonata da chiesa accompanied not by a single
instrument as was the habit with the sonata da chiesa and the
sonata da camera, but by a group of bowed instruments to which a
lute, organ and, later, a harpsichord were added.
At this time, all musicians were, as a matter of course, violinists,
just as today all great composers can play the piano. One of the
greatest of these composer-violinists was Arcangelo Corelli (1653–
1713), whose works are often played by violinists of our own time,
and have served as models for composers. He was one of the first to
try to write music that should show off the beauty and possibilities of
the violin.
The “Golden Age” of the Italian violin composers dated from 1720
to 1750, and was the time of Locatelli, Pugnani, Nardini, Veracini,
Tartini and Vivaldi who added oboes and horns to the orchestral
accompaniment of the Concerti Grossi. Corelli and Vivaldi were the
models used by the German school of violinists who appeared about
this time. Tartini was the musical authority of his century, and no
violinist felt sure of his place as an artist until he had been heard and
approved by Tartini. He was the composer of the famous piece called
The Devil’s Trill. Although Vivaldi was not looked upon with great
esteem in his own time, he was used as a model by Johann Sebastian
Bach.
Padre Martini, recognized by all Europe as the greatest authority
on musical subjects, lived in Bologna where he was visited by such
musicians as Grétry, Gluck, Mozart and one of the sons of Bach.
Padre, or Father, Martini was a Franciscan monk, a fine composer, a
learned historian, a master of counterpoint, and the owner of a
musical library of 17,000 volumes! He helped everyone who sought
him, and was loved by the entire musical world.
Once a year a great music festival was held in Bologna by the
Philharmonic Society and new works by the Bolognese composers
were performed. One hundred musicians took part in the orchestra
and the choruses, and each composer conducted his own work. It
was an honor to be present at this annual festival, and Italian and
foreign musicians came from all over Europe to attend it. Young
composers sometimes became famous over night here, for the critics
were all invited and serious decisions were made as to the value of
new music. Dr. Burney, a famous English musical historian of the
18th century, tells of meeting Leopold Mozart and his young son,
Wolfgang Amadeus, at one of these festivals. Through the kind
scheming of Padre Martini were they admitted!
Rome, in the 18th century was still the great music center, and
guided the religious music of the world. It had wonderful collections
of old music which attracted students from all over; it had seven or
eight very famous theatres, where opera seria and opera buffa were
given. (Today we call them grand opera and comic opera.) The
Roman public was very difficult to please and because of the severity
of their judgments, opera writers suffered every time their new works
had first performances. Just think how you would feel if you had
composed an opera, and by accident had put in a melody that
sounded something like one that Mozart, Wagner, Puccini or Verdi
had composed, if the whole house should break into shouts of
“Bravo, Mozart!” or “Bravo, Wagner!” or “Bravo, Puccini!!” etc. This
is what used to happen in Rome, but no doubt it was a good thing
because it stopped a habit the composers had in those days, of
helping themselves to each other’s melodies.
 Domenico Scarlatti

But here we must pause for a moment to tell you of the life and
work of Alessandro Scarlatti’s son, Domenico, who was born in
Naples in 1685, the same year as Bach and Handel. When you recall
how many operas the father wrote, it seems queer that his son did
not follow in his footsteps. The truth is that he did write operas for
the private theatre of the Queen of Poland in Rome, and also sacred
music while he was chapel master of St. Peter’s, but he became
immortal as a composer of harpsichord music. In the influence he
had in the growing up of piano music, he can be compared to Chopin
and Liszt, and is a founder of piano music style, an honor, which he
shares with the French Couperin and Rameau, his contemporaries.
The difference is that the two Frenchmen have a delicacy and grace
that recall their period of wigs and satins and laces, while Scarlatti’s
works have strength, vigor and daring that take them out of any
special period and place them beside the great piano compositions of
all time.
Scarlatti’s sonatas are sonatas in the Italian sense of a sound-piece;
they are not, like the suites, in several movements, but each is in one
movement, which forecasts the modern sonata form with its two
main contrasting themes and development.
The “serious Scarlatti” understood his son’s talent, for he sent him
at the age of 20 to Florence to a member of the powerful de Medici
family with this letter: “This son of mine is an eagle whose wings are
grown; he ought not to stay idle in the nest, and I ought not to hinder
his flight.”
Three years later Handel and Scarlatti met in Rome in an organ
and harpsichord competition, and while Handel won as organist,
even Scarlatti declaring that he did not know that such playing
existed, no decision was made as to which was the better harpsichord
player. This contest seems to have caused no hard feelings for the
two young men of the same age became devoted friends.
Scarlatti had a trick of crossing his hands in his compositions.
Who does not remember with joy his first piece in which he had to
cross his hands? But sad to relate as he grew old, he became so fat
that he could no longer cross hands with comfort, so in the last
compositions the crossing of hands is noticeably absent!
It is hard to know where an inspiration is next coming from, but
wouldn’t you be surprised were you a composer, if your pet cat
presented you with a perfectly good theme? This happened to
Domenico Scarlatti! His cat walked across the keyboard, and the
composer used his musical foot prints as the subject of a very fine
fugue! Maybe Zez Confrey’s Kitten on the Keys is a descendant of this
pussy’s piece.
The Scarlattis were the last of the great Italian instrumental
composers. For two centuries Italy had been the generous dispenser
of culture, and like an unselfish mother had sent her children out
into the world to carry knowledge and works to all the nations of
Europe. The sun of Italy’s greatness was setting just as it began to
rise in Germany.
 CHAPTER XVI
Opera in France—Lully and Rameau—Clavecin and Harpsichord
Composers

We left French Opera in 1600 when Henry IV married Marie de’

Medici. Ballets which resembled the English masques had been
performed when Baif and his friends had produced Le Ballet
Comique de la Reine, but no real opera had yet been written in
France. In 1645, Cardinal Mazarin, the powerful Italian prime
minister of France, invited a company of Italian singers to give a
performance of Peri’s Euridice in Paris. The French did not like the
opera, as they said it sounded too much like plain song and airs from
the cloister, and yet it led to Abbé Perrin’s writing a work in 1658
which he called the Pastoral, and for which a composer named
Cambert wrote the music. The Pastoral was a very great success, and
was repeated by order of Louis XIV, King of France. Ten years later,
Louis gave Perrin and Cambert permission “to establish throughout
the kingdom academies of opera, or representations with music in
the French language after the manner of those in Italy.” Their next
work, Pomone, was the first opera performed publicly in an opera
house, built purposely in Paris for them. The opera was so
enthusiastically received, that it ran nightly for eight months, and the
crowds were so great, that the police had to be called out. This
combination of poet and composer came to an end with Pomone, and
a new man acquired the right to give opera in the new opera house.
This man was Jean Baptiste Lully or in Italian, Giovanni Battista
Lulli (1632–1687).
 Lully the King’s Favorite

You may hear that the first famous opera writer of France had
been a pastry cook or kitchen boy, but no matter how humble his
start in life, he rose to the highest social position ever reached up to
that time by a composer in France. He became a great favorite of
Louis XIV, he was covered with titles and honors, he was on friendly
terms with all the nobility of the court, he was musical dictator of the
opera and in fact of all the musical happenings of the court. The
greatest literary geniuses of the period, such as Molière, Racine, La
Fontaine, Quinault, Corneille and Boileau, worked with him when he
wanted new librettos for his operas. He paid dearly for all his
privileges, because his fellow composers were jealous of his genius
and his opportunities, and they lost no chance to blacken his
character.
Lully was born in Florence, Italy, in 1632, but we can tell you little
or nothing of his parentage or of his childhood. A monk taught him a
little about music and how to play the guitar. When he was about
twelve years old, he was picked up by the Duke de Guise who saw
him with a group of traveling comedians, and was so attracted by his
vivacity, his singing and talent for mimicry, that he took him back to
Paris, where he placed him in the household of his cousin, Mlle. de
Montpensier. In her memoirs, Mademoiselle said that she had been
studying Italian and had asked her cousin to bring back from
Tuscany where he lived, a little Italian garçon de la Chambre, a sort
of personal errand boy. However, his guitar playing and musical gifts
soon lifted him out of a servant’s position and he became one of the
musicians of the great lady’s household playing at concerts, balls and
in the ballets. He learned to play the violin, and soon began to
compose popular dances. He remained a member of Mademoiselle’s
household until he was nineteen when he asked permission to leave
her service, as she had moved to the country, and he liked the gay life
of Paris better.
He had no difficulty in attaching himself to the King’s court, first
as actor and dancer in the ballets, and soon as “composer of
instrumental music.” Louis XIV was only fourteen years old, and was
evidently highly entertained by the capers of the young Italian who
was willing to play any rôle, dance any kind of a dance, or play the
violin “divinely” for his young monarch’s amusement. The King
remained Lully’s faithful friend always. Louis loved music, and
played the lute, the guitar, the harpsichord, and sang very well.
Feeling that he needed to know more, Lully studied counterpoint,
composition and learned to play the harpsichord, and whatever he
attempted musically, he acquired without difficulty.
In 1656, Lully composed music for a scene in a ballet, Psyche, and
from that time on, his compositions became the most popular of any
at court. Although he was born an Italian, his music was French, and
he even shared the French dislike of the Italian opera. In spite of his
love of acting in the ballets, of dancing, and of courting social favor
with the King and nobles, Lully was a thorough musician. When he
went into music he found that few of the singers could read notes,
but they learned their parts by ear. He soon changed this, and by the
time he died, all singers and players of orchestral instruments could
read well. In this reform, he did a great service to the growth of
music.
His first stage works were called comedy-ballets. One of his early
works was ballet music written for a performance of Cavalli’s opera,
Xerxes, which was performed upon Mazarin’s invitation at Versailles
(1660). He next was given the position of “Superintendent of Music,”
became a naturalized French citizen, and was married. Lully wrote 19
ballets, 12 comedy-ballets, and 18 operas, besides about 23 motets
for special occasions. His ballets included recitatives, airs, dialogues
and symphonies, which was the name given to music written for
orchestra. From 1672 until the time of his death in 1687, he wrote an
opera a year, and sometimes two!
The splendor and extravagance of the costuming and stage settings
of these ballets and operas of Lully are almost unbelievable! At times,
even the orchestra wore costumes of the period represented on the
stage. Lully conducted the orchestra for one opera in a magnificent
Egyptian dress. Louis XIV loved these elaborate performances, and
took part in some of them.
After the downfall of Perrin and Cambert, which many said was
caused by Lully, he became absolute ruler in all musical matters. He
used his power to close a rival opera house, and no opera could be