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Subject: Re: Arias transposed
From: "jjh"
To: VOCALIST <vocalist>
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> Actually, transposition isn't considered acceptable in
> a lot of audition situations - this from sources far
> more reliable than myself.

The "no-transposition" idea would seem to be a good rule of thumb for opera
auditions, auditions for young artist programs, summer programs,
competitions, etc. If I were auditioning singers for an opera, I'd want to
know that their voices could handle the demands of the role. Also, do
smaller opera companies (or college opera programs, or summer stock, or even
community theater) have the wherewithal to come up with transposed arias,
not to mention transposing the orchestral parts, etc.? I would err on the
side of caution in an audition situation. Instead of sending students out
with transposed arias, I would try to find arias that are a good fit for
them, from operas that they'd have a realistic chance of being cast in.

When working with young students, however, I don't have any objections to
transposing arias. If they're working on an aria "for fun," as Karen
Mercedes mentioned. Even for a studio recital, perhaps.

I've been told that John Wustman transposes at sight for his students,
although I don't know for sure if he transposes arias, or only does this
with Lieder.

One more thought about transposition: a few years ago, I assigned an
undergraduate student to sing "Spirate, pur, spirate" by Donaudy (I know,
it's not an aria, but this thread reminded me of the incident), but in
working on the piece, we realized the written-out "trill" (Eb-F, back and
forth) at the end of the A section sat right on her lower passaggio. We
found she was much more comfortable singing the piece a whole step higher
(in F instead of Eb). It was just a better key for that student, at that
point in time. Her accompanist could not transpose this at sight, but we
knew people who would be happy (for a fee) to use a computer program to
generate a transposed piano-vocal score. However, when she wanted to sing
this at Illinois NATS, I was told by someone "in the know" that a
transposition would be considered a copyright violation, and could
disqualify my student if her accompanist got caught playing from the
transposed version. It was considered to be the same rules infraction as
using xeroxed music. So at NATS, she sang "Spirate pur, spirate" in Eb! It
was a good piece for her, it fit well with the other pieces we'd selected,
and so we decided not to risk it. Another sticky wicket of the
transposition issue--copyright infringement!

Cheers!

Jana
--
Jana Holzmeier
Dept. of Music
Nebraska Wesleyan University
5000 Saint Paul Ave.
Lincoln, NE 68504
jjh-at-nebrwesleyan.edu
402-465-2284