Dre, again, item by item!
At 03:30 PM 6/16/00 -0700, you wrote:
>Dear John and list,
>
>--- John Alexander Blyth <BLYTHE@B...> wrote:
>snip(...)For myself, though I do strive for the
>highest
>> standards, nothing is truly
>> easy for me. One of the things I really like about
>> singing is the way that
>> it does require my full attention, which would not
>> be the case if I were
>> more vocally facile.
>
>Although I do have an easy voice, and many technical
>things - like support - don't require that much
>attention anymore since I start to do them
>automatically, singing does certainly require my full
>attention, and even more.
"Even more" is so true - there is nothing like a performance to get you
into overdrive! One of the things that makes artists of any kind valuable
is that ability to present something at a heightened level, and to allow
others to participate vicariously, perhaps awakening the artist in them.
>First of all there is the identification process: I
>want to be the person of the song, to feel like him,
>and not think of my own feeling, even if they are
>simular. This already is difficult, and it can change
>from song to song.
I *don't* want to identify with the protagonist of Winterreise, whom I sort
of think of as 'Heinrich' after the protagonist in 'Immensee', although it
would be so easy: I have experienced much that he has, and felt just as
sorry for myself. The first time I heard this cycle (FD's 1962 recording
with GM) at the tender age of 19 it stabbed me to the heart and I was
barely functional for two weeks. If I identified too much I would pack and
leave, on foot. No, I must remain apart as much as possible in order to
guide Heinrich and a few sympathetic listeners through what he feels and
how he feels it. At the same time I can't be phony or 'stagy' or no
identification will take place. And I must be able to sing, not grunt or
roar. And I must be able to keep ensemble with my partner the pianist, who
is herself the buffetting wind, the flickering Irrlicht or the sardonic crows.
>And then of course there are thousand places in a song
>where I agreed with myself and with my pianist how to
>sing them, where to breathe and how much, there is the
>diction etcetera.
Absolutely. and there must be compromise even when the pianist has more or
less the same views.
>The piano requires a special kind of attention: I have
>to listen to it, but cannot enjoy it too much, because
>then I cannot concentrate enough on the things I
>mentioned before.
Especially in Winterreise, where so much of the piano writing is
alternately bleak and bare, or rich with Heine-like irony. We are at the
moment re-learning how to use initial consonants as rhythmic springboards.
We have discovered that Gefror'ne Tropfen seems to work as a quickish
waltz, and that any repeated phrase is treacherous in wanting to slow us down.
>So singing not only requires my 200 % attention
>despite my 'easy' voice, but probably because of those
>requirements it generates - if all goes well - the
>kind of 'flow' experience, where 'die Fluegel des
>Gesanges' (the wings of songs) can take us 'in eine
>bessere Welt' (sorry for the contamination of songs).
>Well, I suppose almost all of us know both melody,
>text and most of all, the feelings from 'Du holde
>Kunst', whatever the Fach or the grade of
>professionalism may be.
Yes, music is a lifesaver for me too, my refuge etc. etc. You know.
john
>Best greetings,
>Dre
>
>
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John Blyth
Baritono robusto e lirico
Brandon, Manitoba, Canada
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