From: "DIANE M. CLARK (MUSIC DEPARTMENT)"
Subject: Re: Rude Awakening
To: vocalist
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

Karen M. wrote:

>>I know I
don't have the subtlety of personality to imbue into art songs the
personality that I can give an aria or musical theatre solo. Something
about being able to put on a character's persona like a second skin just
does something to release a lot of the self-consciousness (and the
physical tensions that are the byproduct of same) that I naturally have if
I just "stand there and sing".

I wouldn't dream of singing an art song without doing a character study, just
as I do for opera or music theatre. Every art song is a mini-drama, and it is
up to the singer to portray that character just as vividly as in any other
dramatic medium. Nothing is more boring than an art song (or other music)
where someone just stands there and sings. That's not what I call singing.
Singing is a dramatic art, no matter what literature is being performed --
from opera to barbershop! :)

|\ Dr. Diane M. Clark, Assoc. Prof./Chair of Music Dept., Rhodes College
| 2000 N. Parkway, Memphis, TN 38112, 901-843-3782, dclark-at-rhodes.edu
() http://gray.music.rhodes.edu/musichtmls/faculty/dclark.html