Читать бесплатно онлайн книгу On voice nature
Ayal Silversan
On voice nature
The holistic view of vocal training brings a pedagogical approach from “throat focus lock” to perception of a performer as whole, i.e. perception of the same as an entire organism or as a single vocal instrument. Such approach dictated a search of logic of a singing voice development depending on corporal expressions. The analysis of theoretical and practical papers in the area of body-orientated psychology lent a helping hand in finding out direct mutual connection between vocal mistakes and bodily barriers, tensions and blocks. The book is dedicated to natural revelation of a singing voice and releasing it from fetters of tense body. The publication will be of use for vocalists and everyone, who would like mastering his/her singing.
Corrector: Larissa Lupach
Illustration: Yegor Kosykh
Translation: Marina Smirnova
Voice is physical sound filled with human living substance, which makes the difference of our voice from a common noise and grants us an ability to express something more than just signals and signs. Via voice, those things are expressed that are impossible to create in the material world: the music, the poetry and the greatest masterpieces of literature. Due to voice, into this world, this soul beauty comes, which we can behold via art and performer’s mastery. What is it, an ordinary physical sound gets filled with, while transforming into a beautiful living singing? Where does voice take it birth? When and why did human beings start singing for the first time? To a search of answers to these questions, this book is devoted.
The first chapter dedicated to evolutional history of vocal can seem tedious; nevertheless the knowledge of singing origins is necessary for the phenomenon understanding of both voice and the very essence of singing activity.
Everyone, who is in search of his/her voice, has got an internal, sometimes hardly sensible image of its own ideal sounding. This is nothing more than your natural voice, which can come out open in its entire beauty. Step-by-step under action of many social factors, our natural voice is lost by us; it leaves us sinking deep in our body and hiding behind many-years physical and mental tensions. Taking those tensions away step-by-step and effectively, we’ll be able to liberate our voice enabling it to acquire its natural form and beauty.The process of vocal training consists of two main large phases: revelation (liberation) of natural voice and technical practicing in a vocal technique. The vocal technique is selected depending on individual psycho-physiologic and motivational features. A correctly selected technique is a passport to a successful learning how to run your voice, which means also professional success.
The way of revealing of one’s internal natural voice is a basic phase of so-called singing voice finding out by its training. It is necessary that the phase of the voice revelation would take precedence of a vocal training in its classical meaning as a performer’s voice “modeling” or “placement”. An absence of the phase of a voice revelation or its poor-quality working out is able to ruin the natural voice, make the voice disobedient and give a singer’s career up as hopeless. Unfortunately, the vocal art accumulates its experience at the cost of hundreds professionally unfit voices ruined on the reason of selection of a wrong vocal technique unsuitable for a student, negligence to revelation of a natural voice and its natural form. That is why, the phase of the natural voice revelation is very important, calling to responsibility and requiring a scrupulous work and colossal patience from parts of both vocal teacher and student him/herself.
This book is an outcome (of a kind) of the singing basics search via practicing and observations of vocalists from various genres starting with rock-music and finishing with opera. Every given here statement and exercise was repeatedly approbated and always they confirmed their effectiveness. You will have a tangible practical result if you would follow the simple principle: “to do” instead of thinking how to do it and what is it this or that exercise is meant for. Place confidence in yourself, your own body and in this case, your voice itself will reveal itself from inside.
The natural revealing of a natural voice through own body and power of own conscience is a keystone of vocal art, its original and most important phase, which cannot be overstepped or forced.
I hope and believe that after this book reading, you will open new horizons for yourself in the art of your voice control.
So let us start revealing your natural voice.
SINGING ORIGINS
The human being is the greatest creation of the nature. Over the period of billions years, events took place promoting our birth this or that way. These events covered huge spaces and times starting from the level of atomic particles and finishing with the scales of stellar systems and planets. Just imagine, how many efforts and events on unbelievable spaces took place, in order that at humans, self-awareness vestiges appeared. The Universe has been creating us for so long! So at the moment, we are a perfect fruit of its greatest creativity. The contemporary humans soaked up numerous experiences and wisdoms of all previous generations.
Everything we call “great discoveries” of science existed in the nature long before their discovering by humans. In essence, the mankind follows in footsteps of already existing laws foreseen by the Universe long before our emergence. Much yet remains to realize and discover in the countless number of nature laws in future. The evolution of the Universe and — as compared to it — incommensurably short evolution of humans has resulted in the emergence of both human psyche and human voice.
The human voice is an integral part of the human psyche and it played one of the key-roles in the human civilization emergence. The well-known saying from the New Testament “In the beginning was the Word…” reflects indeed the real starting point of the vocal history. In an inseparable way, singing is connected with speaking, in frame of which the human voice is used.
Undoubtedly, voice is the most ancient musical instrument on the Earth. So if to get back in the period of early paleolith (900–100 thousands years B.C.E.), sounds uttered by the mankind’s forefathers (fore-words) expressed their physical state and their reactions to external signals. That is to say that from its inception, a human sound as an evolutional product was intended for expression of fore-human’s state and his reaction to circumambient events. Those primeval sounds caused spontaneous acoustic and behavioral reactions at other fore-humans. Due to acoustic reflections, the uttering sounds fore-humans started individuating themselves among all the great variety of the chaotic world and then also apprehending themselves as separate objects of the environment. Step-by-step with use of sound reproduction, the fore-humans felt their individuality, which — as result — became the departure point of the emergence and development of the human self-awareness. The sound became one of trigger mechanisms of self-reflection (conscience). That is why, one’s voice is tightly mutually connected with his conscience and interlaced into the human psyche.
The communication need with their tribesmen for successful hunting and protection from dangers spurred forepeople into uniting and establishment of primeval clans (100 thousand years B.C.E. and earlier). Acoustical signals (vestige of human speech) started being used as means of information transfer for tagging themselves, their environment elements, their intentions, actions, etc.
With emergence of a prerequisites to establishment of first organized clans of the human race (100–40 thousand years B.C.E.) and under action of severe conditions of environment — the latter is the main evolutional factor in emergence of modern humans (Homo Sapiens, “intelligent human”, from Latin), — the need in use of acoustic reproduction as a main communication tool becomes a fundamental factor of fore-human society formation.
With emergence of congeneric/tribal forms of primeval communities, a frequency increased of contacts with other communities, which gave rise to emergence of consistent patterns of sound use. This way, the fore-peoples’ language started being more and more complicated and acquiring its own distinct rules and laws.
Speaking about the periodization of the human language (speech) evolution, it is worthwhile to say that the vector of its development goes from concrete to abstract expressions, from detailed description of world view to more simplified one. That is to say that by names and nouns, fore-people labeled every specific tree or stone and in those ages, there were absent such generalizations as “trees” and “stones”.
A fore-human perceived any event and object in his environment as sovereign living beings. In science, this phenomenon is called animism. While situations and conflicts occurring in connection with communications about territories, food and water division were possible to be settled with aid of fore-language, as for other phenomena (tsunami, climatic cooling-down, shallowing of water basins, earthquakes, dangers from part of fauna, etc.), they could not come to mutual understanding. The questions of the kind stayed unsolved and disturbing for the primitive people. The environment phenomena, actions and impacts of which resisted to their control and regulation, awaked an acute need in search of means allowing communication with these dangers in order to find a common language with them.
This way, a special social role emerged in primeval communities. Special people emerged, who were able to communicate with winds, dead people, earth spirit, sea, etc. They were shamans (in other territories voodoo priests, magicians, sacrificers, healers, etc.). They possessed an ability to “come to agreement” with environment dangerous phenomena with aid of vocalizations and humming of ancient words. Truly, they were first singers in the mankind’s history. Finally, their unlimited freedom in a search of communication means with the living environment became the prime cause of the voice use as a tool of a special communication with the nature, i.e. singing.
The main means of a pagan magician talk with the nature was singing. Via singing, the shaman went into a special state, being in which he understood the nature language. It was believed that such men were able receiving answer for any question: what danger threatened and whether wars and predators were close to their residence. This way, a voice started being used as a conscious and goal-seeking tool for achievement of socially important tasks. Along with singing, shamans used beaters and tambourines; by hitting those objects, they imposed a tempo.
Shamans/woodoo priests were widely spread in many primeval communities, where — according to the modern concepts — the cradles of the human civilization were situated: Africa and Asia, Northern and Southern America, Australia and Siberia. Well, judging from the fact that the shamanism phenomenon of ancient priests and magicians was extant, their “communication” with the nature (singing) was quite effective. Otherwise, this social role would be unjustified and certainly it would disappear on the early stages of the human civilization formation. Indirectly, it is confirmed by oral eposes, by legends and sagas of many nations of Siberia, North, Asia and the whole world.
A role of a shaman in communities was vast and significant starting with healing and finishing with asking mercy at gods of hunting and fertility. In ancient tribes always, a last word was left to a shaman. The shaman’s (priest’s) role could be inherited but if on these or those reasons a new shaman was not determined, he used to be elected. Notably, for an eletist, such special role was a heavy and responsibility-requiring burden. As an indication of an acute need in such social role, the principle serves of selectiveness practiced in communities.
Afterwards, during many millennia, the process continued of effective way search of survival and vital activities conducting. Step-by-step, ‘productive enterprises’ emerged and finally it resulted in formation of social layers united in large social groups. The primeval communities’ alliance promoted more effective protection from dangers. The stringed along with it wealth inequality led to the distinct insularity of social layers and ruling forces separation. The social groups’ hierarchization became the reason of formation of a new separate social layer of warriors. The matriarchal form of government gave way to the patriarchal one.
Leaving the primitive communal system behind, there started being built up at first tribal and then even larger scale communities and then states, too. This way the states of the ancient world emerged (IV–III thousand years B.C.E.): archaic China, ancient Greece, ancient Joseon, ancient Roma, ancient Armenia, Assyria, Sumerian state, etc.
Starting in II millennium B.C.E., more evident religion formation in its wide meaning for the mankind went on. There emerged ritual and ceremonial music (for deceased ones, coronation-related music, etc.). In this active period of mankind development, syncretic singing emerged. (This is a combination of singing, dance and music). It was used for denomination of coming to existence new social institutes. For example at working population layers, rhythmic strains were a help for effective fulfillment of their hard physical work. Ruling layers of society used singing in ritual animated ceremonies highlighting event significance and serving a symbol of having been blessed by supreme forces.
In Archaic China (2800–2300 B.C.E.), the music was a way of communication between Heavens and Earth. By archeologists and historians of ancient China, the feature is stressed of syncretism of singing and dance. The syncretism emerged solely due to the human labor activity. A musical accompaniment was a necessary attribute of feasts, ceremonies and ritual occurrences all around the Ancient World starting with Asia and finishing with Mediterranean. This is confirmed by graphics on fresco and embossing of Ancient World, where often people were depicted with musical instruments. On this stage of the mankind development, a human voice was used as an accompaniment of special social events and occurrences.
Also in the Ancient India’s religious book “Veda”, to singing, a separate section is devoted with texts and chanting ways descriptions. “While singing, eyes must be closed, a nose contracted, mouth muscles tensed very much and a neck pulled out”. Those were the first fixation attempts of singing technical characteristics.
In ancient Jeoseon (Korean Peninsula) (2333–800 B.C.E.), the music was represented by collective ritual actions connected with sacrificial offering and folk feasts on occasion of start and finish of fieldworks. Singing was one of the main components of the syncretic music of the age along with dance and drama.
In Ist century B.C.E. with Confucius’ philosophy emergence in Asia, there started absolutely another stage of development of music and in particular of singing. According to Confucius’ philosophical thought, the music is a nature mirror; two origins are concluded in it, “Yang” (heavens’ power) and “Yin” (earth’s power). Thus, the music must be natural as a harmony. Under action of Confucianism in Asia, a concept was formed that the music was an instrument of harmonic management of society and state. In 484 B.C.E., from more than 3000 musical works, Confucius himself selected 305 samples of songs and poetic creative works of ancient Chinese. The following name was given to this collection “Shijing” (“Songs book”). The philosophy of Confucianism and Taoism influenced significantly the musical-vocal culture of entire Asia.
To a concept of the music special role in the state and social life, people came not only in ancient China, but also in ancient Egypt and ancient Greece. In the ancient world definitely, the music expressed peculiarities of the political system. With the development of civilization and rooted system of the social hierarchization, the music started being divided on ceremonial music (for privileged noblemen) and common songs (folk).
A unique position in the history of the vocal art is held by the cultures of ancient Egypt and Greece. For example in VI–V centuries B.C.E. based on ritual for Dionysus, the god, the first theater emerged. It is worthwhile to say that to the mankind, the Dionysus’ cult wide-spread in ancient Greece granted the singing phenomenon in its pure form as a separate kind of art. For example, according to Aristoteles’ words, the tragedy genre ascended to Dionysus’ hymns, while the comedy genre to phallic songs (songs glorifying productive forces of the nature). Then in tragedies step-by-step, choir precentors started entering in a dialogue with choirs; this gave rise to drama emergence and to transfer from singing to the speaking form of art.
The works of the great ancient thinkers such as Pythagor, Heraklith, Plato, Aristoteles, Aristoxenus etc., exerted their influence on the music, too. They provided us with a clear singing significance understanding in the culture of the entire ancient world.
With start of the new millennium on the Earth, the struggle for power and territories resulted in internecine wars between more or less established states of that age. In connection with the fact, new rulers destroyed all previous traditions including musical ones, which were mental vogue images of prostrated rulers, otherwise-minded persons, etc. Especially evidently, it was seen in the years of Middle Ages (V–XVIII centuries B.C.E.). Here the music was a symbol of a certain power-holding culture-bearing dominating aristocracy, which was replaced with another one periodically by force. The music glorified a new ruler, his new rules and orders, new religions, etc.
Without going into details of historical facts of those days, it is possible to draw a generalized conclusion about the singing origins: in that period of time, singing as a way of communication between the nature (the environment) and the humans was lost. It started being more and more pliable to social requirements of ruling forces. The music took the role of a mental symbol of ruling aristocracy. In that period of time more and more, singing was used as glorifying of kings, rulers, emperors. This kind of music was formed as a means of communication between the people’s society and God in religious services. That is why an individual communication with the supreme forces via singing was replaced by polyphonic performance of religious chants, where of course individual voice features were not in need. In the established countries, a special kind of singing started being formed — Church-related one. For example such was Gregorian chant choir. The Church tended to unifications of its music, to abidance by rules of phonation, accents, etc. That is why, the chant became more generalized losing its original individual and prime-causes-related connections.
In parallel with the singing use in socially significant events and religious rituals separately, folk singing gained its momentum as a reflection of their everyday domestic affairs and labor. The emergence of the folk singing was promoted by the hard and monotonous physical work, which required uniform actions. Also singing added rhythmics and could relax people emotionally reducing the hardness and monotonousness of the work, which certainly increased the work effectiveness.
So a monotonous (steady) tempo got a fundament of singing. Despite religious institutions strove to monumentization of their images in musical pieces, they could not ignore the folk singing, which was a real and simple reflection of the human life. Into the religious musical traditions step-by-step, hymns, sequences, tracks, etc., started being introduced. Afterwards from this mixture, the polyphony takes birth (for example, in the singing school of Notre-Dame Cathedral).
Independently, the folk singing developed actively being represented by itinerant musicians — spielmen or minnesingers (love singers) in Germany, histrions in England, troubadours and jongleurs in France and their secular colleagues — minstrels. Namely the strolling singers-poets are considered to be the direct founders of the vocal art as a separate art.
In the epoch of Renaissance (XIV–XVI centuries A.D.), the use of music as an important social instrument moved to a new level. In Germany, there appeared Protestant chorals, songs of Geuzen (Beggars) in Netherlands, Hussars’ hymns in Czechia, Huguenots’ songs in France, etc. Unlike Middle Ages, where the songs composition art developed more often behind walls of religious institutes, over the period of Renaissance, secular orientedness got prevailed. This music was more flexible and close to folk. A spectacular example of those musical works are Italian song singing genres — laudas, frottolas, madrigals, French chansons, Spanish romances, etc.
In that period of time, instrumental music started its active development separately from singing. Musical academies and conservatories started emerging.
In that golden century of musical art in religious institutions, polyphony started its active development; music theories emerged.
The further history of vocal art is described in many scientific works. Starting from XVII century, the styles appeared of classicism and baroque. These styles in the art made a strong impact on the subsequent fate of the vocal art. Opera started being active positioned as one of the main musical and theatrical genres. In Florence, the first opera took its birth — “Eurydice”. This opera got a fundament of the further development of the theatrical art. Since then the opera art started its triumphant march all around Europe and then all around the world. Educational ideas and pre-revolution movements in France became the main catalyst of significant changes in musical-singing art in that period.
After a peak point of patriotic attitudes and prevail of Renaissance ideas, the period came of apprehension and trend to appeasement — the period of Romanticism. Composers of that epoch chanted the praises of common things being dear and intimate for everybody. Lyric poetry and love were the main topics of the epoch of Romanticism.
Here, value was attributed to individuality and a filigree ability of artificial images expression. In that period of time, attraction resurged to folk origins — to myths, legends and folklore.
In England, based on folk democratic ideas, drolls emerged, the folk ballade-operas, which were featured with solely entertaining nature, absence of a trend to an artistic depth, attraction to simplifying, maximal actuality and simplicity of plots. Then this direction outgrew into the American theater of minstrels.
With discovery of new lands (Northern America), approximately since XVII century AD, the new coil of vocal art development started; now voice was used as means for nation culture self-expression. Cultural mixing started its existence, which resulted in emergence of spiritual music, jazz, gospel, etc. The original and all-sufficient direction emerged in the music named jazz, which was promoted by the hard social situation of Afro-Americans in that epoch. The endless struggle and the combination of inherited mental freedom and social limitedness promoted the evident feeling of originality of their culture. Under action of European culture and religious views, the Afro-American culture coped with self-liberating and granting to the world its bright musical universe and along with it the special vocal technique.
The significance growth of economics in the countries development and connected with it human well-being improvement led to singing use as one of creation means of images-standards of social prosperity building up necessary reference points for masses. The light genre emerges promulgating mass consumer-oriented culture, which lacks special requirements of high artistry and intelligence. More and more attention is paid to the emotional component, which is the main engine of the consumers-orientated market. On this development stage, a voice is used only as means for achievement of certain economical goals. The human voice becomes an instrument of advocacy of standard images of self-expression, human freedom, individuality and self-realization in every directions of the music as a whole.
We got witnesses of vocal art rise from its very origins. We saw its gradual separation from the nature. We watched how voice and singing lost their natural intended purpose, their integrity and inseparability from human lives. Step-by-step, singing got be used as means of conscience control of a human being considered as a part of a mass/a crowd. But along with it, the human voice conserved its natural strength of impact onto
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