by Rowena Cowley

Diva Teresa Stratas tells a dramatic story of her illness during the mid-eighties. Distressed by her inability to continue to care for her father during the final stages of Alzheimer's disease, she became unwell and was diagnosed with a pernicious cancer which, doctors told her, would kill her within two months if left untreated.

Stratas went home, devastated, and contemplated the fate her doctors had described. In a few days, she had made a decision to look for healing in her own way, through prayer, meditation, diet and by using her voice to "vibrate intensely through the body." Stratas tells the story with the passion she brings to her stage and film performances. In time, she was healed.

This very personal story embodies the intimacy of relationship between the singing voice and its owner. Singers' instruments are truly their whole bodies, including intellect and character. In a sense, this is no surprise to musicians. But the intensity of this story points to some special characteristics of singers.

Craft and Art

Singers are unique among musicians in their need to create the instrument they will use as a means of artistic expression by adapting those parts of the body which function primarily in respiration, chewing and swallowing, and speech. They are also unique in their instruments' almost universal association with language.

Additionally, the body in question must be allowed to mature sufficiently in terms of the size of the larynx (which includes the vocal folds or vocal cords) and other musculature which supports vocal function. It must also be maintained in excellent health, and used optimally.

Another consideration crucial to singers and their teachers is that much of the musculature involved can neither be seen directly nor felt clearly (because of the lack of sensory receptors). Even the sense of hearing is somewhat unreliable, as the singer who generates the sound hears it differently from a listener.

Learning to use the voice, especially in Western operatic singing, is a major part of artistic preparation. How, then, do singers learn?

A little bit of history

The role of the voice teacher began as that of artistic mentor and expert listener. Writers on singing until the eighteenth century exhort singers to aspire to certain sound ideals and musical values. Chaucer, in The Canterbury Tales, gave a famous description of singing as favoured by the pilgrims:

Ful weel she soong the service dyvyne,

Entuned in hir noseful seme 'ly.

Technical references were few, and often expressed poetically: Monteverdi, discussing the high, middle and low registers of the voice, referred to the "three principle passions or affections" of the voice. Tosi, one of the first to write extensively on the voice, tipped the balance between technique and artistry heavily in favour of the delights and skills of ornamentation.

As the eighteenth century progressed, Enlightenment ideals promoted the development of systematic studies through many vocal "methods" (about twenty were published between 1763 and 1825) which addressed vocal technique in more detail, but continued to be based on the empirical model of the previous century. At the same time, scientists such as Ferrein contributed knowledge about the voice which was gleaned by experimental means.

In the mid-nineteenth century, two developments occurred. Both of them centred on the work of singer, teacher and scientist Manuel Garcia II. Firstly, Garcia's discovery of the laryngoscope enabled the first clear view of the workings of the vocal folds.

Secondly, his presentation to the Royal Society established his credentials as a scientist, and his writing on vocal function began an association of voice science and voice teaching which persists to the present day.

This association was, however, limited by the incomplete state of knowledge about vocal function. Naturally enough, some voice teachers leaned strongly towards maintaining what they understood of the empirical tradition, or adding to it in their own way. Jean de Reszke, for instance, taught singers the concept of dans la masque (in the mask), a description of singers' sensations which were presented as causes rather than the effects of healthy singing.

During this century, there has been increasing willingness among scientists and pedagogues to learn from each other. Since the first international interdisciplinary conferences in the 1950s there has been an exponential growth in knowledge about vocal function in singers and speakers.

Despite this, communication between related fields has been a persistent problem. Laryngologist William Gould described his moment of truth in 1970:

"We were sitting on the Opera steps at Barcelona, attending a meeting of voice scientists and laryngologists. To be frank we did not know how to talk to each other. We had no common language. We had no common exchange. There were a few voice teachers, and none of us knew what the other meant when he spoke professionally."

Since then, the interdisciplinary movement has changed vocal pedagogy in fundamental ways. Conferences and journals report on a body of knowledge which is becoming far more complete. The number of fields which contribute to this knowledge has been recently counted at thirty-six! Research is carried out jointly by singers and scientists. Vocal pedagogy courses routinely cover basic anatomy, physiology, and acoustics, and speech pathologists and surgeons are gaining musical qualifications.

Sophisticated instrumentation such as videostroboscopy and magnetic resonance imaging is allowing far better direct observation of vocal function, and detailed computer modeling of those parts which cannot be observed. Some of this instrumentation, such as the spectrograph, is used in the vocal studio.

Singers and teachers have begun to change the ways in which they think about and describe the craft of singing by exchanging terminology and concepts with medical professionals and speech pathologists, who are in turn learning from singers.

The field is truly international. Members of Australian organizations such as the National Voice Centre, the Australian National Association of Teachers of Singing and the Australian Voice Association are producing research, contributing to journals and promoting interaction with each other and their counterparts on other continents.

North Americans, Europeans, and East Asians cooperate in this work, which includes research into non-operatic and non-Westem singing.

Back to Ms Stratas

Our short history has pointed out that singers have used every means at their disposal to learn how to use their voices. Music and text determine the vocal demands made, and voice teachers have responded with a combination of empirical and scientifically based methods.

Teresa Stratas told her story at the opening of the 1998 conference of the National Association of the Teachers of Singing, or NATS, in Toronto, Canada. Voice teachers from the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia listened in stunned silence as she described what she believed was the power of her own connection to her voice. It was clear that her listeners were moved, and likely that most felt it was high time that this metaphysical side of singing was given the importance it deserved.

In 1998, it seems that there is an interesting state of affairs in singing and vocal pedagogy. Students and voice teachers, who have been dutifully adding the sciences to their already long list of supportive accomplishments (languages, theatrical skills), have been moving, it seems, back to their roots. The craft of vocal function serves the art of musical expression, and this year's crop of papers and master classes reflect that state of mind.

The Australian National Association of Singing Teachers recently celebrated its tenth anniversary with a conference in Sydney, which was held jointly with its New Zealand counterpart. Subjects ranged from music theatre to American art song, from Gilbert and Sullivan to Suzuki voice study. Opera and popular singers, choristers and soloists, adults and children were included.

Fine Australian musicians such as Simone Young, Yvonne Kenny, David Miller, and Toni Lamond presented topics ranging from the partnership of singers and keyboard (or orchestra) to audition techniques, and all sessions were related to the practice of teaching by presenting material in master class format. The importance of relationship to language was a recurring theme.

In North America, the NATS conference seemed to concentrate on personal reactions to voice performance. Voice teachers from the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia listened to recital performances by singers ranging from youthful choristers and recent winners of the Metropolitan Opera Auditions to music theatre and lecture recitals from mature singers. There were master classes, both on interpretative aspects of song, and performances of commissioned art songs.

Marshall Pynkoski, director of Opera Atelier, enchanted his audience with his two-hour, extempore lecture/demonstration on "period opera." His dancer's demeanour added to his authoritative command of the historical sources on which his ideas were based. Here was research backed by convincing, beautifully costumed vocal and dance performances by members of his company, and a demonstration of stage presence at its best.

Lecture/demonstrations on contemporary extended voice techniques and Broadway-style voice reflected a continuing awareness that operatic singing is not the only style teachers have to deal with. Teaching sessions on international phonetic alphabet included its use in Italian, German, Russian and... Icelandic.

Research results were presented in poster sessions. These, too, concentrated on annotated repertoire and musicological studies. There were, however, some papers which attempted to find connections between the needs of singers and the curiosity of science. Examples included quantitative studies of the sources of vibrotactile sensations in singers, and the qualitative differences of concept and terminology in vocal pedagogy and voice science.

The poster sessions were attended by about one third of the more than six hundred singers and voice teachers present.

Where does that leave voice science?

Voice science is at the forefront of arts medicine. Robert Sataloff, head of The Voice Foundation in Philadelphia, welcomes recent developments in the medical care of artists including instrumentalists and dancers. In his opinion, however, voice science is about twenty years ahead of other areas of arts medicine. He explains this in terms of a fortunate confluence of personalities and research energies, not to mention funding.

This year's conference of The Voice Foundation in Philadelphia presented a staggering array of basic research on the anatomy, acoustics, respiration, efficiency, and learning and consistency of the voices of children and adults, speakers and singers. It dealt with the healthy voice and pathologies of the voice, and how to stay in the first of these categories.

Australians Pamela Davis, William Thorpe and Janice Chapman, from the National Voice Centre, gave fine presentations. In the midst of dense scientific papers, singer and teacher Janice Chapman certainly got her audience's attention by singing the first few phrases of Tosca's "Vissi d'arte" while showing slides of measurements of her support mechanism.

Most of the research presented at such a conference is described as basic science, which attempts to answer research questions by experimental means. Results are most often quantified, although they may generate theory where quantification is not possible or where further work is required. By its nature, this research is concerned with isolating a small number of variables which can be studied independently.

The larger picture is covered, too. Sataloff, for instance, gave a fine lecture on the determinants of vocal health in professional singers. Sessions such as those on Alexander Technique, were intended to inform, in a general way, both scientists and voice professionals. Voice teachers, about ten percent of the conference attendees, gave masterclasses for singers, which were well attended by the scientists.

Why am I telling you all this?

Teaching and learning how to use the voice is an essential part of singers' preparation, and provides the underpinning of their artistic expression. In a field with a long history of pedagogy and performance, it is interesting to try to see the patterns which have emerged in the teaching and learning processes. Singers continue the time honoured empirical and musical approaches to their art, but have added scientific knowledge and skills to their arsenal.

There is, as most historical perspectives point out, somewhat of a reaction to the recent concentrated effort to solve the physiological and acoustic secrets of singing. Meribeth Bunch, a respected American author on voice teaching who has also taught anatomy to British medical students, suggests that while the relationship between voice science and singers and their teachers is valuable, singers need to continue to look for larger patterns which free them to express their art. Her own recent thoughts concern "presence, imagination, and perception in singing."

Part of the reason for the reaction is that neither the grand sweep of theory nor the small, quantifiable variables in science can speak to the holistic needs of singers and voice teachers. Firstly, singers must communicate meaning and emotion, and must find ways to teach and perform these essential tasks without waiting for the emergence of complete scientific knowledge.

Secondly, voice teachers need to look beyond quantification for many aspects of their knowledge base. The skills of educators are in common in many fields, but singers' specific needs pose a number of different challenges. There is room for a more qualitative approach to research in voice teaching, which will provide a knowledge base for pedagogic methods and engage teachers in their own processes in a way which enhances their work.

Perhaps the lesson of learning to sing in 1998 is not so different from the lessons it taught in the past. Despite the growth of conscious knowledge about the singing voice, it is still a path to personal expression, a vehicle for art, and as with most things in our lives it's best to keep these things in balance.

Australian soprano Rowena Cowley is Assistant Professor at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. She is completing a Doctorate in voice at Manhattan School of Music in New York.