On the art of singing / Richard Miller.

Previously published essays, in part revised.

Includes index.

WAR, NEWBERY,

Part I : On training the singing voice. Imagery and the teaching of singing -- Five principles for the successful teaching of singing -- Covering in the singing voice -- The open throat (La gola aperta) -- Breath management diction and the vocal legato -- Diction and vocal technique -- The performer as voice teacher -- Pedagogical clothing for the emperor and empress -- The tricky teacher -- Woofy baritones and tinny tenors -- McPedagogy -- What you need is more support -- Simplicity in singing -- Teaching hearing the voice -- Si canta come is parla -- How singing is not like speaking -- Thinking phonetically (values and pitfalls of the IPA) -- A parable of the foolish baker -- The choral conductor as teacher of vocal technique -- The law of contingency and vocal pedagogies -- To admire or to teach -- Patching the vocal garment -- Mysteries and miracles -- The flat earth school of vocal pedagogy -- Sharpening up some old pedagogical saws -- Open windows. Part II : On musical style and interpretation. Purely a matter of taste -- The two poles of Bel Canto -- Singing the mélodie -- Self perception and performance reality -- Liederwurst -- Seit ich ihn gesehen ... kann ich jedoch singen -- Words or sentences? Notes or phrases? -- Sentiment or sentimentality -- Singing the recitative -- Reality and art -- Pop music, non western European vocal styles and efficient vocal function -- How is legato achieved in singing -- Rhythm versus beat -- Large and small strokes -- The Gilda in the sack school of singing -- The demise of the studio Baroque vocal sound -- Vocal coach or vocal technician -- Vocal tea parties of the private and public sorts -- As the old Italians said -- The lively dying art of singing -- The sense of immediacy in singing. Part III : On preparation for the professional life. The seven pillars of performance success -- Wrapping up the performance package -- What to do on a performance day -- Warming up the voice -- The technique of marking -- The vocal contestant and the judges -- Twenty-one proven ways to alienate competition judges -- Beginning with another teacher -- Early and late bloomers -- creative practicing -- A stroll past the practice rooms -- What technical work have you done today -- The lonely soccer player -- How to really bomb a master class -- Developing independence in the student -- Is there a cure for performance anxiety -- Please tell me my fach -- The aging singer -- The wisdom of the body in singing -- Studio procedures -- Truth in advertising -- a critical look -- The practicality of creativity. Part IV : On the singing voice and vocal function. The singing teacher in the age of voice science -- On the invasion of vocal pedagogy by science -- The invisible instrument -- Have you read the literature -- Taming the terrible triplets of vocal tract : tongue / hyoid bone / larynx -- The three musketeers of tension : tongue, neck and jaw -- Gorillas giraffes lions and gazelles -- Male and female created he them -- In search of the tenth rib -- Teaching voices of the opposite gender -- Instinctive artistic singing -- Let's build a straw man : the technique versus artistry debate -- The misuses of scientific information in the teaching of singing -- Relax and sing -- Easily not lazily : tonicity in the singing instrument -- The effect of tongue position on spectra in singing -- The role of the jaw in singing -- The incorrupt jaw and tongue of Saint Anthony of Padua -- How big is the big sound -- Feeling hearing and seeing the voice -- Spectrographic analysis of the singing voice -- Vowel definition in a performance by Jussi Bjoerling of Vesti la giubba -- Spectral components of five cardinal vowels in the soprano singing voice considered by means of the sequential vowel diagonal -- A brief spectral study of vowel differentiation and modification in a professional tenor voice -- What the vocal arts laboratory can and cannot do -- The singer and the Otolaryngologist.