Greetings to Karen and everyone here!
Well said, Karen. I' ve heard your voice and know you to be singing from the heart. By the way, thanks for inviting me to join this wonderful group. What Dr. Clarke was saying may help, but, perhaps, not all the time. It does work - sometimes- but only to a limited degree. One needs to be IMMERSED in the emotions depicted. A truly sensitive artist will feel both music and text and move the voice in that direction. When I could't relate to a song in the past I would "intellectualize" and consciously interpret therefrom, but hearing my different recordings of the same pieces I could tell when I really sang fro the heart. I believe in engaging the student in some psychoanalysis - if one can - in order to find out what is inhibiting the expression. While the insecurity with technique may be the reason , this is not always the case as I have heard a lot of expressive singers who don't know anything about technique and some classical singers who have difficulty in some technical areas but are able to sing convincingly - sometimes even moving others to tears. When I gave a concert in another Asian country in 1994, I was equipped with only HALF of what I have now - but many in my audience - both Asians and Europeans ( every foreign embassy was represented by its Ambassador and its Cultural Attache) either cried or said they were moved by my singing - songs in a language they didn't even understand ! There is indeed a need to know MORE DEEPLY what is blocking a singer's ability to express or what makes her INSENSITIVE. Counselling will help. All the best, Joscephine
Karen Mercedes wrote:First, I suspect her difficulty with expressiveness may be directly related to her technical problems - or, more accurately, with her AWARENESS of her technical problems. She is probably being extra-cautious about not "messing up" technically, and this caution is inhibiting her in terms of expression.
The problem is that until she feels her technique is totally grounded to the point where it's pretty much second nature, she may well continue to be inhibited about expressiveness - fearing that even if you give her the "green light" to just "let go and sing", doing so might somehow "undo" her technical progress.
All this said, I think perhaps you may want to consider two "genres" of vocal music that may inspire her to be more expressive that you haven't thought of: sacred music and musical theatre.
I find that art song generally requires a more subtle form of expression. The emotional expression in lieder, melodies, etc. is probably on too small a scale to "register" with someone who is starting out "expressive-challenged". The same is true - and perhaps moreso - with folk music.
Operatic arias, of course - depending on the aria - can be wildly expressive, and indeed histrionic. However, they might also be somewhat frightening in terms of perceived technical demands - and thus would trigger the "fear of letting go" problem I suggested earlier.
Musical theatre songs, on the other hand, are NOT intimidating technically for the most part, and there are any number of them that can be sung beautifully with a "legit" technique (i.e., classical technique), while not pushing the extremes in terms of technical demands.
Indeed, I think your best bet is to "decouple" technical work from expressive work to as great an extent as possible. This does NOT mean having your singer forget technique - but instead, it means choosing repertoire that is technically easy to sing well, so that your singer can feel absolutely "sure" of her technique, and can focus entirely on expression.
Musical theatre songs are also good because they are in English. Even if a singer absolutely understands every word she sings in a foreign language, the innate ability to *emote* in that foreign language may simply not be there - at least not yet. Let's overcome the problem of being inhibited first, then worry about the problem about being inhibited in another language.
So I would suggest that you find some really expressive musical theatre songs - songs that even a corpse would have trouble NOT infusing with emotion - and have your singer work on those. Some good "scenery chewing" songs for "legit" musical theatre soprano that you may want to investigate: no technical tours-de-force like "Glitter and be gay" for the moment - for the reasons I've suggested about making sure that technical demands don't inhibit expressiveness. (I'll toss in a few operetta solos that might also kindle some emotion in your singer.)
"Simple Joys of Maidenhood" from CAMELOT
"How could I ever know?" from THE SECRET GARDEN
"Surabaya Johnny" from HAPPY END (Kurt Weill)
"I hate men" and "So in love" from KISS ME KATE
"It's all the same" and "Aldonza" from MAN OF LA MANCHA
"Far from the home I love" from FIDDLER ON THE ROOF
"Lover, come back to me" from Sigmund Romberg's THE NEW MOON
"Could I leave you?" from Sondheim's FOLLIES
"Your daddy's son" from RAGTIME
"Soliloquy" from ROBERT AND ELIZABETH
"If I were a bell" from GUYS AND DOLLS
"Just you wait" and "Without you" from MY FAIR LADY
"You'll never walk alone" from CAROUSEL
"Shall I tell you what I think of you?" from THE KING AND I
"Much more" from THE FANTASTICKS
"Is it really me?" from 110 IN THE SHADE
"Art is Calling Me (I want to be a prima donna)" from Victor Herbert's THE ENCHANTRESS
"Mad about the boy" by Noel Coward
"Someone to watch over me" from Gershwin's OH KAY
"My dearest dear" from Ivor Novello's THE DANCING YEARS
"As long as he needs me" from OLIVER!
"If he walked into my life" from MAME
"Tell me on a Sunday" from TELL ME ON A SUNDAY (aka SONG AND DANCE) by Andrew Lloyd Webber
"Mr. Snow" from CAROUSEL
"Somehow I never could believe" from Weill's STREET SCENE
"Nelson" from A DAY IN HOLLYWOOD
"Not a day goes by" from Sondheim's MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG
"Babette" from Cy Coleman's ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
"Anything but lonely" from Lloyd Webber's ASPECTS OF LOVE
"I know things now" from Sondheim's INTO THE WOODS
"A call from the Vatican" from Maury Yeston's NINE
Basically, what we're looking for are songs that your singer can really HAM UP - And you want to encourage her to HAVE FUN, LET GO, no holds barred, forget subtlety, forget dramatic realism - just go for the most extreme histrionic excess she can muster (which, if she is truly as inhibited as you imply, may actually result in just the right amount of honest expressiveness).
I also mentioned the possibility of sacred songs: these may work if your soprano is religious/spiritual. I'm NOT thinking of Bach arias here! I'm thinking of the crowd-pleasing sentimental sacred ballads, like "The Holy City", Malotte's "The Lord's Prayer", "On Eagle's Wings", perhaps some spirituals ("Were you there?", "My lord, what a morning", etc.), and even some of the more emotional hymns like "The Old Rugged Cross" and "How Great Thou Art". If you'd like something slightly more musically "high-brow", you might also try Gounod's "Le Calvaire (There is a green hill far away)" and "O Divine Redeemer", two very emotional sacred songs.
Karen Mercedes http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html ________________________________ I want to know God's thoughts... the rest are details. - Albert Einstein
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