Back  to  the  future,  creating  new  paradigms  from  the  old  Adapted  from  talk  given  for  AOTOS  Conference  2014  

By  Meribeth  Dayme,  PhD    We  are  standing  on  the  edge  of  unlimited  possibilities  for  music  and  singing.  There  is  a  new  sense  of  adventure  and  creativity  entering  the  scene.  We  are  in  an  age  of  change  and  we  must  be  aware  and  open  to  it.  To  some  it  probably  seems  like  confusing  chaos  and  a  threat  to  the  status  quo.    It  is  a  threat  to  the  status  quo!    What  can  we  do  to  be  a  positive  part  of  the  change  and  at  the  same  time  stay  centered,  and  learn  to  dance  and  play  with  the  times?      

Part  1.  Where  have  we  been?  What  has  brought  us  to  our  current  stage?    1.    We  are  moving  from  a  singing  teaching  system  of  very  private,  limited  and  limiting  local  traditions  and  oral  tradition/  hand-­‐me-­‐down  information  of  over  400  years  to  a  very  different  picture  where  information  about  singing  and  music  is  available  immediately  and  globally.  Vocal  performance  is  changing  because  our  exposure  to  singing  has  become  global  and  offers  us  so  many  possibilities.         The  old  classical  system  of  teaching  gave  us  some  wonderful  singers  for  their  time.    It  also  gave  us  some  ideas  that  became  more  and  more  fixed  and  and  at  the  same  time  distorted  as  the  hand-­‐me-­‐down  information  continued—much  like  the  game  of  “gossip”  where  original  information  becomes  distorted  as  it  moves  from  person  to  person.    This  resulted  in  teaching  that  was  highly  reliant  on  what  was  thought  to  be  the  way  to  train  voices  for  the  music  of  the  time—such  as  church  and  opera.  Whole  methods  evolved  based  on  perceptions  of  what  was  taught  before  we  had  adequate  records  and  information.    You  could  even  call  them  “hear-­‐say”  methods  of  singing.    Sadly  this  continues  today  in  a  number  of  cases.     The  old  system  was  elitist  with  differentiation  of  music  of  the  court  and  high  society  from  that  of  the  “people”.    Singers  were  associated  with  the  court,  the  church  or  opera.    Oral  tradition  and  popular  music  came  from  street  entertainers  and  travelling  minstrels.    Interestingly,  I  have  seen  many  street  entertainers  singing  opera  today—especially  in  the  London  tubes.       Over  time,  singers  and  musicians  began  to  leave  the  security  of  royal  courts,  at  first  with  the  help  of  benefactors  and  patrons.  They  were  exposed  to  ever  widening  audiences.    The  most  popular  singers  of  the  day  travelled  from  town  to  town.    As  transportation  grew,  so  did  the  possibilities  of  new  audiences  for  singers.    The  new  awarenesses  of  other  cultures  and  tastes  began  to  show  in  the  singing  and  the  teaching  of  singing.    Famous  singers  developed  huge  followings  and  the  “groupies”  of  their  day.     Teachers  like  Garcia  had  a  great  curiosity  about  the  voice  and  he  was  determined  to  find  a  way  to  see  what  was  happening.    And  he  did!    He  spawned  a  new  generation  of  singing  teachers  who  wanted  to  know.  That  movement  has  reached  a  peak  today—almost  175  years  later.    How  could  he  possibly  know  that  vocal  pedagogy  would  become  a  valuable  part  of  singing  courses  in  universities  throughout  the  world?  Note:    colleges  and  universities  in  the  USA  have  had  these  courses  in  their  curricula  since  the  1940’s;  while  Europe  is  only  now  beginning  to  catch  up.    The  tradition  in  European  countries  has  been  to  favour  specific  methods  and  teachings  of  known  teacher/gurus.    As  a  result  teachers  there  have  been  reticent  to  trust  universal  pedagogical  information  until  recently.  Now  there  is  a  big  demand  for  it.     Meanwhile,  the  singers  were  still  singing,  with  or  without  the  knowledge  of  how  they  were  doing  it.    They  were  guided  by  their  perceptions  of  what  they  thought  they  were  

doing-­‐-­‐and  pleasing  audiences.  What  they  were  actually  doing  was  more  important  to  the  pedagogues  who  wanted  to  help  their  pupils  become  great  singers.     That  brings  us  to  the  question:    Where  are  we  now?  It  is  not  taking  us  175  years  to  change.    It  is  all  happening  much  faster.  (See  part  2)        Photo  for  Jean