The Cambridge Companion to Singing

by Edited by John Potter

• ISBN13: 9780521627092
• ISBN10: 0521627095
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-05-29
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Ranging from medieval music to Madonna and beyond, this book covers in detail the many aspects of the voice. The volume is divided into four broad areas. Popular Traditions begins with an overview of singing traditions in world music and continues with aspects of rock, rap and jazz. The Voice in the Theatre includes both opera singing from the beginnings to the present day and twentieth-century stage and screen entertainers. Choral Music and Song features a history of the art song, essential hints on singing in a larger choir, the English cathedral tradition and a history of the choral movement in the United States. The final substantial section on performance practices ranges from the voice in the Middle Ages and the interpretation of early singing treatises to contemporary vocal techniques, ensemble singing, the teaching of singing, children's choirs, and a comprehensive exposition of vocal acoustics.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	vi
Notes on contributors	vii
Acknowledgements	x
Introduction: singing at the turn of the century	1	(8)
John Potter
Part I Popular traditions
`Songlines': vocal traditions in world music	9	(19)
John Schaefer
Rock singing	28	(14)
Richard Middleton
The evolving language of rap	42	(11)
David Toop
Jazz singing: the first hundred years	53	(10)
John Potter
Part II The voice in the theatre
Stage and screen entertainers in the twentieth century	63	(20)
Stephen Banfield
Song into theatre: the beginnings of opera	83	(13)
John Rosselli
Grand opera: nineteenth-century revolution and twentieth-century tradition	96	(15)
John Rosselli
Part III Choral music and song
European art song	111	(12)
Stephen Varcoe
English cathedral choirs in the twentieth century	123	(10)
Timothy Day
Sacred choral music in the United States: an overview	133	(18)
Neely Bruce
Part IV Performance practices
Some notes on choral singing	151	(7)
Heikki Liimola
Ensemble singing	158	(7)
John Potter
The voice in the Middle Ages	165	(13)
Joseph Dyer
Reconstructing pre-Romantic singing technique	178	(14)
Richard Wistreich
Alternative voices: contemporary vocal techniques	192	(12)
Linda Hirst
David Wright
The teaching (and learning) of singing	204	(17)
David Mason
Children's singing	221	(10)
Felicity Laurence
Where does the sound come from?	231	(17)
Johan Sundberg
Notes	248	(16)
Select bibliography	264	(15)
Index	279