Dear Vocalisters:
Some have written about the differences between the "AH" vowel and
the "UH" vowel with techniques to teach both. But there are many
forms of the "AH" vowel in English. Notice the different use of the
"AH" vowel in the following words (please ignore the ending
diphthong) with an attempt to define via IPA immediately after each
example.
File = [a]
Shout = [script letter a]
Father = [script letter a but written upside down]
Fun = [upside down v]
Pull = [U]
All are, more or less, forms of the AH vowel and all are found in the
English language. And, very likely, allare pronounced a bit
differently depending on what form of English we each speak.
Italian singers use all of these forms of the AH vowel but only one
of them is the correct AH vowel for Italian and that is the [a]. If
these forms of AH are used well they create the effect of a
continuous singing line and the singers register changes are almost
unnoticeable. The changes in vowels they use are also not noticeable
but when analyzed from recordings the differences are evident. In
other words, they create the effect of singing only the [a] vowel but
this effect is created by the uses of many variations on that same
vowel.
The effect of the singing tone is paramount. Vowel distortion that
is evident and clearly distorted is, of course, not acceptable. And
there are singing techniques that encourage almost a single vowel
approach to all singing tone. Clearly this is not acceptable any
more than a singing technique the emphasizes consonants at the
expense of quality singing tone.
The singing demands of opera could, in some sense, be compared to the
speech demands of public oratory from early in our last century. It
is always a surprise to me when students read about the Alexander
Technique and they express their lack of understanding of how he had
to use his voice for his profession as an orator. Why didn't he turn
up the volume on his sound system, I have been asked. Indeed, he
could have done that today. And our singers can do that today. But
it would not be oratory, nor would it be opera.
By the way, speaking of oratory and the presidential elections, did
you know that Lincoln and Douglas, during their famous debates
regarding the slave issue, traveled around the country and shared the
same room and the same bed to save expenses? We no longer have real
political discourse in this country. Perhaps sharing a room/bed
would make this more possible.
--
Lloyd W. Hanson, DMA
Professor of Voice, Pedagogy
School of Performing Arts
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, AZ 86011
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