One of the things Iām awfully quick to get into when working with young singers is language. I donāt mean diction.Thereās that, too, of course. But Iām talking about the actual linguistic and literary content of the text, particularly in art song.Ā
Something that continually flabbergasts meāand I mean this as neutrally as possible, without any hint of condescensionāis the fact that so many otherwise earnest and capable students of singing seem to be 100% alright with bringing to the table a level of text comprehension which is somewhere between hazy and non-existent. I encounter this all the time. Itās mind-boggling, particularly when their teachers and mentors donāt seem particularly concerned about it, either.Ā
Itās mind-boggling chiefly because I myself would never find the motivation to sing something at all, without the meaning first fixed firmly in mind.Ā
Without this bedrock, the singerās worldview is only this:
And I get that: thereās a relentless orientation toward theĀ āfinal product,ā and in my experience singers are rather more susceptible to this than instrumentalists, on the whole. Many of them will get all the way through the studio class or the recital without having the faintest notion that the poet has turned a subjunctive phrase in irony, or that a wry allusion is being drawn, if they can. And they can, so they do.Ā
The choice of shoes, carriage of the hands and arms, and the clarity of the vowel must be minded closely, but not the poetry. Teacher smiles approvingly. Nice performance.Ā
One of the surest signs that the actual, you know, substance and content of the piece are being glossed over a tad is when a singer, whether in his native language or another, gets the stanzas all crossed up:Ā āā«In einem BƤchlein helle, da schoss in froher Eilā / und sahās mit kaltem ā¦ Blu-ā¦-teā¦ ā«Ā
ā¦Ruh-roh. May we begin again?āĀ
This happens because the act of performance has been rehearsed without the meaning having been completely internalized first.Ā
For me, itās entirely natural for the absorption and rumination of the text to be well underway long before groundbreaking has begun with the music itself. Thatās the process Iām comfortable with and enjoy the mostāand itās exactly the same when Iām accompanying.Ā
Iām beginning to make peace with the idea that itās not so for everyone, though.Ā
With the singers I coach, I try as far as time permits to be as much language and literature tutor as repetiteurāthe goal being to get the students to see that the āfinal productā theyāre after must, if it is to be genuine and secure, emanate from their own personal relationship with the material and not from sheer rehearsal.
Itās crucial, I think, for a singer to be absolutely engrossed in the little black box that is their internal dialogue with the poetry. Crucial for them, if less so for the audienceāand so it is ultimately a matter of self-care, I think.
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