University Musical Encyclopedia (V. 12, PT. 2)
by Louis Charles Elson (9781458990174)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE ART OF SINGING WORDS By Arthur De Guiciiard N spite of the very general habit and widespread custom of studying and practising vowels, usually in conjunction with compositions called "vocalises" (and even so, it is rarely the case that more than one vowel is employed?the vowel a) to the almost complete exclusion of consonants, it must not for one instant be imagined that the whole art of singing is contained in the pure emission of the vowel a, or, indeed, of all the vowels; very far from it. Properly employed, the vowel a is a very valuable vehicle for pure tone production, especially in those languages where vowels predominate. In Italian, for instance, this vowel plays a most important role, while consonants have a secondary position. Indeed, final consonants, which are found constantly in English (as sounds they form 93 per cent, of the finals) are, for the most part, wanting in Italian; hence the Italian love for and practice of vowel singing, to the exclusion of consonants. The study of deep breathing and of vowel formation has received some attention in the article on "vocalises." During the work outlined in that, some study will have been given to the sounds and values of consonants as initial letters. They must now be practised also as finals. It should be remarked that the jaw is open for all the consonants, except s, z, sh, ch, j and g (gem). The chief point to be remembered by singers in the enunciation (or articulation) of consonants is that the operation, in every case, must be performed with precision and rapidity: hard and quick. In the singing of words or syllables the sound is sustained upon a vowel of much greater duration than is used for speaking. To counterbalance the exaggerated vowel the consonant must also be exaggerated, both in a...

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