#ilse wolf

[na-volgen]

[vidcaps]

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Ilse Wolf

[gillianwormley]

Notes from a vocal journey #2 ... and a recording.

Ilse Wolf was a great mentor; vocal sessions in her Chiswick home were lengthy, she was so generous with her time. Always appreciative of my journey from Hampshire she invariably offered me a good cup of something and a biscuit or two, and we would chat before we set to work in her studio. There we would look at specific songs and arias and talk about technique as we went. I remember her flicking through the pages of a favoured book showing me pictures and diagrams about all things technique-related; some, where the print was quite worn-through from repeated fingertip explanations about airflow and the elusive notion of 'support'.

We would only look at repertoire from a technique perspective; work was detailed and, it seemed, highly critical. It was hard to take sometimes, hard to gauge how much progress I was making. Or not.

But of course, thirty years on I see the wisdom in her words and completely understand phrases and sentences in my scribbled notes which at the time seemed impossible notions. She introduced me to new repertoire of course, but I would also take more familiar songs too, which would be broken down in the same way:

Silent Noon p.1 (Vaughan Williams) 

"Your hands lie open" : move towards the end of the phrase and "long fresh grass" ... "the finger-points look through like -" : every consonant and syllable must be used ... "rosy" : BREATHE OUT!!

p.2

"The pasture gleams and glooms" : words and move forward, BREATHE OUT ready for "neath" (use the 'th') ... don't forget "eye", aheeee

p.4

"above" : open mouth and let the jaw slowly close for effect ... "so this winged hour" : breathe out on the 'so' and use the 'd' of "winged"

p.5

Shape "deathless dow'r" ... "inarticulate hour" : BREATHE OUT ... "was the song" : slowly close the jaw and keep the resonance.

I remember being most frustrated and feeling inept at the idea of 'breathing out' and trying to understand just what she meant by something that seemed... obvious.

It escaped me for many years.

But not anymore. She simply meant: sing on the breath, use the breath.

"The secret is .. OUT!" she would exclaim at me.

This recording of Vaughan William's beautiful song was made in 2001; and I can hear that I still had some way to go..

[gillianwormley]

Notes from a vocal journey #1

I met Ilse Wolf in 1982, at a Masterclass in Nottingham, where I'd been asked to sing as one of the participants. I can't remember what I sang - but I knew from the moment I heard her speak about vocal technique, that I wanted to pursue having lessons with her in her studio in Chiswick. 

I studied with Ilse for two years, flitting up and down to London from my home in Hampshire as regularly as I could manage - throughout pregnancy no. 2 and beyond the birth of my son. It was tricky but so worthwhile. These lessons were foundation blocks and I needed them.

Ilse would only look at technique. I wrote notes after each session when I got home - scribbled them down in notebooks as fast as I could before I started to forget the detail. Vocal technique was such a mystery, but I faithfully wrote down all her advice, all her tips, regardless. 

I've put in the time since then, thinking, practising, perfecting, questioning and performing. Persisting.

 Ilse's words still resonate perfectly:

"You have to find this technique for yourself. It's difficult. But you will know when things are happening properly.

It will feel good."

Ilse Wolf - June 1984, Chiswick

Want to know what happened next? Notes from a vocal journey #2 is just a click away..... Or you can make a more direct link with me here.

[gramilano]

Dame Janet Baker: I was a green and raw northern girl

At the Dorchester Hotel today, Dame Janet Baker will receive The Gramophone’s Lifetime Achievement Award. The Telegraph's Rupert Christiansen talked with the great mezzo – here are her words:

On coaching

“I have worked with a few people on technique, mainly to ensure that the roots of what I was saying were useful and correct, but it’s not something I would want to do again. I also did some masterclasses at the Royal Academy of Music when I first retired. But how far can you get with vulnerable and inexperienced young singers in 20-minute sessions? And for me there seems little value in conducting those sessions in public.

“What engages me is detailed one-to-one work on interpretation, with someone who has mastered technique and who knows the text and music inside out. Then it gets interesting: you can spend an hour on the three lines of recitative which preface a Handel aria, for example, and reach the point where every syllable is deeply understood by mind, body and heart. I find that deeply satisfying.”

On her beginnings

“I wasn’t from a wealthy or cultured background, and it was difficult finding out how the world worked. But I was lucky to meet the right people at the right time. When I was 20, I sang in a concert in York with the soprano Ilse Wolf, who had told me that, if I ever went to London, I should go to her teacher, Helene Isepp.

“I decided to take this big step. I was a green and raw northern girl, and I didn’t have any idea that I could have got into music college. So I studied with Ilse and Mrs Isepp privately, and fortunately Barclays Bank, where I had a part-time job, gave me a transfer.

“My parents were helping me to pay for lessons, but I felt very poor and alone, and I didn’t know what my chances of making a success of it were. But I also remember walking the streets on air with a tremendous sense of excitement and possibility, and slowly the pieces fell into place.

“Being taught outside the conventional academic system meant that I got a lot of personal attention from my teachers and never developed any bad habits.

“Then I joined the Glyndebourne chorus, where I began to learn stagecraft, and came into contact with a marvellous generation of wartime Austrian exiles such as Paul Hamburger and Hans Keller, as well as scholar-conductors like Anthony Lewis and Raymond Leppard. By osmosis from them, I imbibed the education I had never had.

“Something I found more painful was the realisation that the finest musicians weren’t, as I had naively assumed, always the nicest or easiest people to work with. I had to learn how to find those with whom you could collaborate and who would inspire you to your best.”

On her agent Emmie Tillett

“Although she always let me make my own decisions, Emmie was a stickler for ethics. Once you had signed a contract, she insisted you stuck with it – even if it was Karajan who wanted me for Salzburg. He never asked for me again after he was told that I was already engaged elsewhere. I’m only sorry he couldn’t see where that refusal was coming from.”

On stamina

“I don’t think people always realise what hard physical work singing is. I found it absolutely exhausting”

On talent

“Don’t confuse your God-given talent with your self. Talent is something you’re entrusted with: respect it. And don’t believe your own publicity!”

Original Article