Whether it occurs in a opera house or on a rock concert stage singing is very much an art form Vocal performance is a distillation of many factors that shape and refine it Culture Influences the Voice ID: 543098
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Slide1
The Art of Vocal PerformanceSlide2
- Whether it occurs in a opera house or on a rock concert stage, singing is very much an art form.
-Vocal performance is a distillation of many factors that shape and refine it. Slide3
Culture Influences the Voice
-Every culture has its own style of singing.-What is considered beautiful tone in some cultures might be less appealing in others.
-Timbres sometimes reflect the sound of a country’s language.
-some languages slide up and down
-others have guttural sounds and even clicksSlide4
Vocal Timbre and Musical Style
-To express a variety of emotions in music and attain maximum impact, we must choose the most suitable timbre.
Bel Canto
-The term that designates the operatic singing style is bel canto, which literally means “beautiful singing”
-Bel canto – a style characterized by lyrical and flowing phrases, beauty and vocal color, and brilliant technique.Slide5
Blues Style
-Blues – a genre of African American music that often expresses frustration.-the vocal timbres from males and females from all age groups reflect a sense of sadness.
-the vocal quality is most often straight forward, folk-like singing that dips and slides.
-helps convey the blues feeling
B.B King – Everyday I have the Blues
https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4tL-zeVRbkSlide6
-Roots lie in the heritage of African American music.
-text and style originated in spirituals and work songs of enslaved African Americans.
-Blues lyrics are simple and direct
-express painful experiences that reveal the darker side of life.
-very honest, personal expressions address basic concerns in the lives of the poor and downtrodden.
-express loss and heartbreak and the reason for it.
-W.C. Handy – “father of the blues”. He was the first to popularize this jazz form.
-His family frowned upon music, but he worked hard to become a performer.
-Eventually, he composed, arranged, and collected a large number of blues pieces, then founded a music publishing company.
W.C. Handy – short documentary
https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQkLFTcdgH4Slide7
-Blues songs typically have many verses, each consisting of three lines.
-line 1 – states the situation
-line 2 – usually repeats line 1, making sure the listener understands/for building tension
-line 3 – resolves the situation, often dashes the self-pity that was built up in the first two lines.
Ex. Lyrics from “Snatch It Back Blues” by Buddy Boy Hawkins
https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=empu_3FLUPc
Gonna
lay my head right on the railroad track,
Gonna
lay my head right on the railroad track,
If the train come ‘long, I’m
gonna
snatch it back.Slide8
Improvisation
-Many blues songs became classics used by jazz artists as the basis for improvisation.
-Remember, the term improvisation designates a type of spontaneous musical invention.
-The practice has led to confusion about whether the blues is a form distinct from jazz and other types of music.
-Whether it is used as the basic form for jazz, rock, or pop music, the predictable, repetitive blues chord pattern provides the structure for highly individualistic musical expression.Slide9
12-Bar Blues
-Usually the blues is based on a 12-bar harmonic pattern that is repeated over and over.
-This simple framework gives musicians a means of expression limited only by their imagination.
-To recognize a 12-bar blues tune, you must be able to recognize the pattern of repeated harmonies that is based on 3 chords
.
Slide10
-The tonic or I chord is the first pitch of the scale (C).
-The dominant or V chord (G7) is built on the 5th
degree of the scale.
-
The subdominant or IV chord (F) is built on the 4
th
degree of the scale
.
-These chords are often made into dominant 7
th
chords (V7) by the addition above the root tone.Slide11
Blue Notes
-Blues started out as a fundamentally vocal form. However, blues musicians quickly added instruments, especially the guitar. – Ex. Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, John Mayer, etc.
-Guitarists, like singers, can ‘bend’ any tone they want sliding from pitch to pitch, creating what we call “blue tonality”.
-Blues singers also ‘bend’ or flatten certain notes of the scale as they sing. The notes they bend are called “blue notes”.
- Blue notes – selected pitches usually on the third and seventh degrees of the scale, whose intonation is altered at the discretion of the performer.Slide12
Contrasts in Vocal Music
-There recordings of voices that sound like instruments.-Sweet Honey in the Rock – female African American vocal group
-have been singing together since 1973
-name comes from a biblical story – the land was so rich that when the rocks were opened, honey flowed from them
-Bernice Johnson
Reagon
– started the group – influences by a wide range of musical styles
-won a Grammy for their antiapartheid song “State of Emergency”
-Apartheid was an official policy of racial segregation in South Africa until the early 1990’s.
-song protested the actions of the South African government and its disregard
for human
rights.
State of Emergency
https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGCAwU76XPs