EB 9494 – Hoos de Jokisch, The 7 Basic Elements of Voice Training by Breitkopf & Härtel

Barbara Hoos de Jokisch

BASIC ELEMENTS OF VOICE TRAINING

Franziska Martienßen-Lohmann’s vocal exercises

BARBARA HOOS DE JOKISCH

THE 7 BASIC ELEMENTS OF VOICE TRAINING

Franziska Martienßen-Lohmann’s vocal exercises

Translated from the German original by Eleanor Forbes

Edition Breitkopf 9494

Printed in Germany

EB 9494

ISMN 979-0-004-18974-0

1st German edition 2020 Die 7 Grundelemente der Stimmbildung

Revised German edition 2021

Translation: Eleanor Forbes, based on the revised German edition

Cover: Regina Bense, HapelDesign, Berlin

Notation typesetting: Ansgar Krause, Krefeld

Typesetting and layout: Agnetha Elsdörfer, Breitkopf & Härtel

Printing: Beltz Grafische Betriebe GmbH, Bad Langensalza

www.breitkopf.com

Chapter I: Functional area 1 – Stimulating phonation

1. Breathing

2nd

1. “Coachman’s command” – Lip trill (26) | 2. Ksch exercise (28) | 3. Ti-te exercise (30)

Chapter II: Functional area 3 – Shaping the sound

exercise – Memmingen (48) | Securing the resonance space for the vowel (48, 50) | Legato exercise ne-mo-nga-mo (50) | Kni-kna, gli-gla exercise (50) | Exercises with n m ng (52) 4th

Pure vowels and the umlauts ä ö ü, “bridging vowels” (54, 56) | Special exercise for intervallic leaps and alternating vowels (56) | Agility (58)

Resonance and Articulation

Chapter III: Functional area 2 – Producing the voice

and 6th

“The function of registration is at the centre of all work. It is the crucial point around which everything else secretly turns.”

5th

1. Low range of the female voice: specific chest register exercises and lower passaggi

Accessing the chest register (78) | Bim-bam exercise (78) | Alternation exercises (80, 82)

2. Low range of male and female voices ......................................................

Vowel balance in the low range (men 84, women 86)

3. Upper range of the female voice: head register and upper passaggio ...............................

L exercise (88) | Soft upper range (89)

4. High female voice: register shift from head register into whistle register

5. Upper range of the male voice: special exercises for the passaggio

Calling exercise (96) | Pointing exercise (96) | Te-ne-ne exercise (98)

6th

1. Piano | Lu-o (100)

Vowel crescendo (104) | Sighing

Preface to the English edition

Who was Franziska Martienßen-Lohmann (1887–1971)? In Germany, the “grande dame of vocal pedagogy” is regarded as one of the 20th century’s outstanding teachers. Thanks to her publications and her extensive teaching career, her influence on the vocal pedagogy of her day was significant. Even today, authors quote from her six published books; more than a third of her pupils (over a thousand) became successful performers or teachers.

How could this teacher have such an impact? Favourable circumstances – the productive spirit of optimism at the beginning of the 20th century – encountered Franziska Martienßen-Lohmann’s open mind and multifaceted talent. Having studied singing with the Dutch baritone Johannes Messchaert, whose teacher was a pupil of Manuel García II, she became part of a famous line of singing teachers in the bel canto tradition. She absorbed the empirical knowledge of this tradition, carried it forward into the new century and combined it with her interest in the new science of vocal physiology. She held professorships at four German colleges of music and led successful international masterclasses for forty years. Combined with her exceptional linguistic skill, she produced an impressive lifetime output in theory and practice (see biography, p. 134).

I came into contact with Martienßen-Lohmann’s books as a young student; they accompanied me throughout my studies in music education and vocal pedagogy at the Berlin University of the Arts. I was repeatedly fascinated by her accurate phenomenological descriptions, the logic of her thought processes and her fine sense of humour. It was not until after my career as a concert and oratorio singer and many years of teaching that I decided to write a doctoral thesis on Franziska Martienßen-Lohmann. I had set myself the goal of researching in her books – against the background of her life and times – her philosophy of singing and the development of her intrinsically logical theory of the voice.1

However, there is very little in Martienßen-Lohmann’s writings about her practical way of working, except in her fourth book. Although she firmly rejected any type of restrictive, one-sided method, she was not averse to the idea of publishing her vocal exercises:

There would of course be an enormous temptation to develop everything thoroughly in a methodical manner. But there are already far too many methods with enough excellent material from which each person can extract the honey they require for their beehive. Because the intelligent singing teacher will never simply adopt a complete system; and for the less intelligent the variety is already confusingly large. For the pupil,

1 Hoos de Jokisch, Barbara, Die geistige Klangvorstellung. Franziska Martienßen-Lohmann – Gesangstheorie und Gesangspädagogik. Wiesbaden: Breitkopf&Härtel 2015.

a written-down method can never take the place of creative, in-person lessons. … Should it truly be the case that practical examples of exercises are nonetheless desired, they should not be included in the description of the fundamental experience, but be in a separate practical part. ….2

Instead of a printed version, she wrote down the appropriate exercises for each pupil in their personal notebook. A few of these precious notebooks are in her archive in the Berlin State Library. Since she never wrote the practical part she had intended, all her exercises appeared to be scattered and the whole collection therefore lost forever. Yet in recent years there has been an increasing demand among contemporary voice teachers and students for a clearly written compendium for the training of the classical singing voice.

Shortly before finishing my thesis, and by an unexpected twist of fate, I had contact with one of Martienßen-Lohmann’s last pupils, Reinhard Becker (1929–2021). He was able to look back on fifty years’ teaching experience using Franziska Martienßen-Lohmann’s exercises, and after retiring from the college of music in Cologne/Wuppertal he continued to teach privately into old age. He had taken part as a pianist and singer in Martienßen-Lohmann’s masterclasses in Lucerne and therefore possessed a comprehensive compendium of exercises for all voice types. The planned interview turned into an intensive teaching relationship: in the next seven years Reinhard Becker taught me Franziska Martienßen-Lohmann’s exercises – and handed me the task of carrying her legacy into the public realm.

The 7 Basic Elements of Voice Training evolved as a workbook through cataloguing the exercises systematically and writing comments on them, all the while supervised by Professor Becker. Breitkopf & Härtel agreed to publish it, and Friedhelm Pramschüfer supported the laborious development of the layout with great patience.

How is the workbook structured? In order to provide a practical approach to using the collection of exercises, I decided to apply the model of the three functional areas of the voice, which is used internationally and to which Martienßen-Lohmann herself referred:

As we know, our entire singing organism consists of three areas …: the breath, the throat and the vocal tract. These areas have been described as voice-inducing, voice-giving and voice-shaping.3

2 FML 1923 (1989), Vorwort pp. 2 and 3f.

3 FML, Ausbildung der Gesangsstimme 1937 (1957), p. 18.

It is thanks to Martienßen-Lohmann that the principle of balance, the alignment of opposites, has been identified as the principal characteristic of classical voice training. Accordingly, the primary task of voice training is to bring into balance the typical dualisms within the tripartite vocal organism – thereby paving the way for synergy and vocal development. For this reason, the workbook consists of three initial chapters with six basic elements, and a fourth chapter devoted to the particular vocal skills which are the result of comprehensive synergy. Graphic tables summarise the diverse forms of balance in the three functional areas – allowing us to marvel at the logical complexity of the voice teacher’s task!

Each chapter of the workbook is introduced with an explanatory text. The fundamental principles in each exercise section are summarised in a box, and short practical tips for performing the exercises are provided on the adjacent page. Incidentally, Martienßen-Lohmann’s principle applies: There are no good exercises, there is only a good way to practice.4 However, if the exercises are to be effective, most of them need to be practised at a relatively slow tempo, because the vocal organism needs a certain amount of time to adjust to the individual sounds.

What makes Martienßen-Lohmann’s exercises special is that they are neither a hotch-potch of single exercises nor a closed system requiring them to be practised in a specific order. Instead, they are a type of multifunctional construction kit, with elements which can be combined with each other. The sets of exercises with their many variations develop from a basic form and can be altered and extended according to the situation and the pupil’s training level. The exercises should never just be “done”; it is important to understand their purpose. All users of the exercises are hereby invited to engage their creativity.

After publication of the first German edition of the workbook in early 2020, the response was so great that a second edition was prepared a few months later. I was repeatedly asked about an English edition of the workbook during my international workshops and lecture engagements on vocal pedagogy topics. With this translation by my colleague Eleanor Forbes – who studied for a time with a pupil of Martienßen-Lohmann and knows the exercises well – the request is now fulfilled.

Before beginning the translation, however, we discussed the question: why translate into English a collection of singing exercises reaching back to the early 20th century in Germany and based solely on German speech sounds? Several factors influenced the decision to commit ourselves to this task.

1. German repertoire. Almost every classically trained singer will be required at some point in their career to sing German repertoire, whether lied, oratorio or opera. Pronouncing the text correctly without an accent is of paramount importance here. To this end, it is crucial that the individual sounds are not habitually produced according to the singer’s first language. With this workbook we want to make it easier for singers who do not

4 FML 1956 (4 1988), in the section “Vom Üben”, p. 413.

speak German to develop accent-free diction in singing. Symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) are provided as a guide.

2. Voice training through speech sounds. However, the exercise collection is more than just an aid for the practice of German pronunciation. Franziska Martienßen-Lohmann’s particular approach involves building and consolidating the vocal organ itself by using the sounds of speech. Artistic performance benefits enormously from already setting up the voice for the German speech sounds with appropriate exercises during the warmup. We therefore took the decision to leave the individual syllables and texts of the exercises in German throughout the book. Literal English translations are provided for the purpose of comprehension, but they should not be sung. We recommend that the singer learn the German words and think the English translation as the subtext.

3. Bel canto training with intermediate steps. MartienßenLohmann’s system of vocal training is ultimately the logical implementation of Italian bel canto ideals, but in a different idiom. By using all the vowels and consonants to train the voice, she offers German-speaking singers the necessary intermediate steps that the Italian singing tradition does not require, due to the fact that it is already based on energetic, everyday Italian speech.

4. Integrative vocal pedagogy. For Martienßen-Lohmann, working with registers is the central aspect of voice training – and in this she corresponds in principle with the functional methods which emerged later. Her approach can therefore be regarded as a synthesis between sound-oriented and function-oriented methods. She thereby lays the groundwork for a forward-looking perception of vocal pedagogy as integrative, combining all methods into one on a higher level.5

5. Universal – individual – transcending genre. In her holistic system of voice training, Franziska Martienßen-Lohmann’s objective was to bring the universal laws of physical build, resonance, phonetics, etc. into line with the individuality of each singer. Her concept of voice was geared towards a vocal archetype which could be transferred into different languages and modified for use in musical genres other than Western classical singing, and which would be independent of national and historical affiliation. With self-critical foresight, she writes about her conception of singing: That which is time-dependent drops away, that which is valid remains.6

Solo singing in the Western classical tradition, later known as bel canto, is one of the great inventions and discoveries of the Renaissance period. Classical voice training is not restricted to national or historical styles of music, but has international, humanitarian relevance. It is to Franziska Martienßen-Lohmann’s credit that

5 See Hoos de Jokisch, Barbara “Einheit in der Vielfalt? Zum Konzept der Integrativen Gesangspädagogik”, in Grosch, Nils/Seedorf, Thomas (eds.), Handbuch des Gesangs, Stimmen – Körper – Medien. Gesang im 20. und 21. Jahrhundert, Lilienthal: Laaber 2021.

6 FML, under the heading “Romantik”, in Der wissende Sänger, Atlantis, Zurich 41988, p. 325.

in her theoretical writings she provided a phenomenological description of classical singing. These findings should no longer be reserved solely for German-speaking readers. With the translation of this annotated collection of voice training exercises we combine the wish for the practical aspect of Martienßen-Lohmann’s extensive insight into the human singing voice to maintain its impact in the 21st century and also internationally. Our hope is that the systematic character and clarity of the exercises contribute to the accessibility of classical voice training by regarding it as a coherent, logical whole. The intrinsic value of classical vocal training – over and above application in performance – is in its ability to transpose the balance achieved in vocal technique into a mental and personal equilibrium, an inner balance. Such a quality is more important than ever in these times of cultural change.

I have many people to thank for their involvement in the process of producing this workbook. First and foremost, sincere

thanks are due posthumously to Prof. Reinhard Becker for his courageous decision to trust me with passing on the legacy of these exercises, which were preserved by oral tradition, in written form to an anonymous public; next, Prof. Marilyn Schmiege, former president of the Bundesverband deutscher Gesangspädagogen (German Voice Teachers Association), on behalf of the many colleagues who in the spirit of cooperative solidarity contributed valuable suggestions for the book’s second German edition; Dr. Susan Yarnall Monks, President of the European Voice Teachers Association, who gave us moral support by never giving up on requesting an English translation; Friedhelm Pramschüfer, from the publisher Breitkopf & Härtel, who took on the challenge of publishing the English edition; and finally Eleanor Forbes, who with her enthusiasm and expertise made the translation a personal labour of love.

Berlin, December 2023

Barbara Hoos de Jokisch

Notes from the translator: Mir ist die Ehre widerfahren…

7

“I have been given the honour” of translating this book into English in order to make it available to international colleagues and students of singing. Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier takes on his task unwillingly at first, but for me the very opposite is true. I have known the writings of Franziska Martienßen-Lohmann since the mid 1980s, when I was introduced to her teaching concepts through my lessons with her pupil, the great Elisabeth Grümmer. Having graduated in German Studies at Aberdeen University before going on to study singing at the Royal College of Music in London, I was able to immerse myself in Martienßen-Lohmann’s books and apply the exercises I had learned through Grümmer in my own singing and teaching. To my great joy, I recognised many of the exercises in this book and was therefore eager to be involved in the process of introducing them to a wider readership.

It was agreed that I base the translation on British English (BE), which is more familiar to me than American English (AE). The differences are mostly orthographical, but also include the names of musical notes. However, translating a text from the original into a different language is seldom a simple matter of substituting words. The German language in particular has its own grammatical structure which is for the most part logical and precise, but it contains many compound nouns which in themselves are so concise that they require unpacking with a whole clause or sentence to convey their meaning in English. German also uses fronted adverbials much more frequently than English does, and therefore I often found myself having to turn a sentence around to make its content clear in English. Then there is the more complex matter of fields of meaning and the different cultural associations of words and phrases, which led to many detailed discussions with the book’s author.

One of the main challenges during the translation process was the task of balancing the different writing styles of Franziska Martienßen-Lohmann and Barbara Hoos de Jokisch, the former having a predilection for lively, imaginative vocabulary and the

latter preferring a more academic approach. The terminology used to describe how the voice works differs not only between the two authors, but also between German and English. For example, I chose to give a literal translation of the terms Vollschwingung and Randschwingung, but also to include all the vocal registration terms currently used in English voice-related publications.8

The main published resources I consulted for translation purposes are listed in the bibliography in the Appendix. However, my research was by no means limited to the reading of historical and current texts concerning voice and vocal pedagogy, for I was also aided and abetted by many colleagues, too many to thank by name here, who willingly engaged in brainstorming discussions both in person, at voice conferences and via digital communication. The international network of voice teachers is truly an invaluable resource, thanks to the dedicated work of those involved in EVTA (Europe), NATS (USA), ICVT, PEVOC and other organisations.

I especially wish to thank my former singing professor, Lyndon van der Pump, for initially suggesting that I study with Elisabeth Grümmer; Janis Kelly for facilitating my first contact with Grümmer and for supporting my translation efforts; Jeanette Favaro-Reuter for generously sharing her insights into translating Martienßen-Lohmann’s concepts; Antony Green for his help with the terminology of phonetics; Amanda Johnston for sharing her expertise in IPA and German and English diction for singers; Barbara Hoos de Jokisch for entrusting me with the task of translating the material; and, last but not least, Nick Pfefferkorn and Friedhelm Pramschüfer at Breitkopf & Härtel for agreeing to publish an English edition of the book.

Learning to sing is an exciting adventure of discovery. I hope the translation of this book proves to be a reliable companion on the journey.

Berlin, December 2023

Eleanor Forbes

8 See the introduction to chapter III, p. 72, and the translation resources listed in the bibliography.

From Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss, Act II.

Introduction

“Constructive voice training is practical phonetics.”9 Speech sounds as the basis of Franziska Martienßen-Lohmann’s concept of voice training

Franziska Martienßen-Lohmann’s work is built upon diction, in both theory and practice. On the one hand, she employs her skilful use of words frankly and vividly in six vocal pedagogy textbooks and over forty articles. On the other hand, the speech sounds themselves, which are already available to the singer, become for her the key resource for training the voice. She demands that “singers [should] hold the name of their associated science in high esteem. It is called phonetics.”10

Phonetics and its adjacent scientific fields support Martienßen-Lohmann’s holistic approach to singing. As a singing teacher she understands voice training as applied phonetics and as a motion study of the tools of articulation:

The science of phonetics investigates the sounds, their vocal and articulatory sources. It is clear that a large number of other scientific fields impact this area of research: physics, physiology, etymology, psychology and so forth. Phonetics … is concerned above all with the movements which are necessary for the production of voice and sounds. One could almost call it a scientific “study of motion”. Voice training (as applied phonetics) would then be a practical motion study in the same field.11

This shows that clear articulation means much more for the singer than mere clarity of diction: the articulatory movements stimulate the engagement of the whole body in singing, and even demand it. In this way, precise articulation of the speech sounds simultaneously influences resonance, laryngeal activity/registration and activity of the muscles of respiration. When articulation engages the body, all three areas of vocal function12 are involved in a balanced interplay.13

By recognising the laws of nature (i.e. the fundamental facts of phonetics), with the aid of flawless articulation, vowel balancing and enhanced resonance, the practical pathway to laryngeal freedom is unerringly clear. Like phonetics, voice training is itself a field of natural science.14

Franziska Martienßen-Lohmann developed her extensive compendium of vocal exercises from her precise knowledge of sounds,

9 FML 1956 (41988), “Phonetik”, p. 288.

10 Ibid., p. 287.

11 Ibid., p. 287.

12 See Pezenburg 2007.

13 See FML 1937 (1957), p. 18.

14 FML 1956 (41988), “Phonetik“ section, p. 288.

their production and their effect on the voice. For beginners these are mainly concerned with connecting breath, body, pitch and sound in order to stimulate and invigorate the vocal instrument and develop its individual character. The exercises start with single sounds: “From the very beginning, sensible singing training seeks to clarify, purify and disinhibit each individual sound – every vowel and every consonant.”15 In exercises with sound combinations, attention is paid to the way the sounds affect and influence each other.

The vocal exercises presented here build upon the natural positioning of the vowels between the tongue and the palate and correspond to the position of the vowels in the vowel chart (see Figs. 2–4). This model shows the contrast between the front/ bright and back/dark vowel sequences, which are connected to each other by using the umlauts as a bridge (see Figs. 2, 4). The contrast between vowel position and colour should be brought into balance, and so the topic of vowel balancing is addressed in detail in the exercises. There is also a model for the consonants. Here front, mid and back articulatory positions can be differentiated, depending on whether the lips, teeth, alveolar ridge, tongue tip, tongue dorsum or velum are involved (see Fig. 6). It is not just the point of articulation that matters with consonants, but also the energy involved in their articulation. For example, there is a contrast between the plosives, which require intense body energy, and the weak fricatives h and ch. The latter are trained to involve the same physical intensity as the plosives. Balancing the consonants is just as important as balancing the vowels and refers to the pitch and intensity of the consonants. The most important aspect for voice training is that the connection between vowels and parallel consonants can be utilised, relative to their natural points of articulation: the bright vowels are connected to the front consonants through mutual resonance characteristics, as for example in ti/te and bi/be, and the dark vowels to the consonants articulated further back, as in ka/ga.

After practising parallels, i.e. vowels and consonants with a corresponding placement and point of articulation, more distant connections are practised, as in ta (front consonant and low central vowel) and gi (back consonant and high front vowel). In this way, a balance of consonant and vowel can be prepared by using practice syllables created for this purpose.16

Following on from the many different methodical syllable exercises using combinations of vowels and consonants, there are

15 FML 1956 (41988), “Phonetik“ section, p. 287.

16 For Martienßen-Lohmann’s work with speech sounds, see Paul Lohmann 1929 (1979), III. Vortrag, pp. 37–58.

Chapter I

Functional area 1 – Stimulating phonation

1st and 2nd basic elements:

Breathing and Energising

Producing the voice

Balance

Stimulating phonation

Articulation

Breathing

Energising

2. Ksch exercise, [kS]

For high voices in F major; for lower voices use a suitable lower key All exercises move chromatically up and down.

1 | Basic exercise & b 4 4 œ Œ

& b 4 4

kschi ksche kschä kscha kschò kscho kschö kschü kschu [kSe] [kSE] [kSa] [kSO] [kSo] [kS2] [kSy] [kSu] [kSi]

kschi a)

b 4 3

kschi ksche kschä kscha kschò kscho kschö kschü kschu [kSe] [kSE] [kSa] [kSO] [kSo] [kS2] [kSy] [kSu] [kSi]

2 | Variations

& b 4 3

b 4 3

b) & b 4 4

kschi ksche kschä kscha kschò kscho kschö kschü kschu [kSe] [kSE] [kSa] [kSO] [kSo] [kS2] [kSy] [kSu] [kSi]

kschi a)

4 4

kschi b)

kschi

b 4 4

kschi c)

b 4 4

& b 4 4

b 4 4

kschi [kSi] d)

kschi

& b 4 4

kschi

kschi [kSi] d)

b 4 4

& b 4 4

Fundamental principles – 2. Energising with ksch

• Practise the vigorous impulse of the sound, initiating from the diaphragm – beginning with the consonant combination ksch

• Articulate the ksch very clearly, with as much abdominal activity as possible.

• Maintain this energy in sustained vowels on pitches (variations).

• Practise tension and release, as in the coachman exercises.

• N.B. During the transition from ksch to the different vowels the tongue takes up the position required for each vowel. The tongue tip is in the front of the mouth; it does not move back at all.

• N.B. The exercises are particularly useful for the singer with insufficient or underdeveloped body engagement. If the person is too tense, however, the Pfüli exercises (p. 70) are more appropriate, as they allow held/excess breath to be released.

Commentary

2. Ksch exercise, [kS]

1 | Basic exercise

Starting from the vowel i [i], practise all the vowels in the vowel chart (see Fig. 2 and Fig. 4, p. 11) in the given order. The placement of the other vowels is based on the vowel i.

2 | Variations

a) Maintain the energy of the impulse in the second note, b) then on the following two to four notes; finally, extend it throughout a whole scale.

4th basic element: Articulation

Vowel balancing38 – pure vowels and umlauts ä-ö-ü (“bridging vowels”)

1 | Preparatory exercise: breathing the vowels (panting exercise)

a (a) a (a) a (a) a a = breathe out on a, (a) = breathe in on a

e (e) e (e) e (e) e e = breathe out on e, (e) = breathe in on e

i (i) i (i) i (i) i …

o (o) o (o) o (o) o u (u) u (u) u (u) u

2 | Umlaut exercise on one note

a)Grundform

a) Basic form & # 4 4 . .

a)Grundform

a)Grundform ˙ Ó E] 2] y] ä ö ü & # 4 4 . .

œ œ œ [E [2 [y ä ö ü e e i e e i E 2 y ä ö ü a o u a u o

[E [2 [y ä ö ü e e i e e i E 2 y ä ö ü a o u a u o

3 | Range extension exercise

a) Basic form and inversion, with seconds & # 4 4 .

œ œ œ [E [2 [y ä ö ü a o u a o u E 2 y ä ö ü e e i e e i

b) Beginning with a third & # 4 4

& # 4 4

Ó E] 2] y] ä ö ü & # 4 4 . .

& # 4 4 . œ œ œ œ [E [2 [y ä ö ü e e i e e i

a)Grundform ˙ Ó E] 2] y] ä ö ü & # 4 4 . . œ

[y ä ö ü a o u a o u E 2 y ä ö ü e e i e e i b)Umkehrform ˙ Ó E] 2] y] ä ö ü & # 4 4 œ œ œ œ ä ö ö ü ü äe a e o i u ä ä ö ö ü ü a e o e u i a)

b)Umkehrform ˙ Ó E] 2] y] ä ö ü & # 4 4 œ œ œ œ ä ö ö ü ü äe a e o i u ä ä ö ö ü ü a e o e u i a)

œ œ œ œ [E [E [2 [2 [y [y e a e o i u E E 2 2 y y a] e] o] e] u] i] ˙ Ó ä ä ö ö ü ü

# 4 4

œ œ œ œ [E [E [2 [2 [y [y e a e o i u E E 2 2 y y a] e] o] e] u] i] ˙ Ó ä ä ö ö ü ü & # 4 4 œ œ œ œ ä ä ö ü ü ö e a e o i u ä ä ö ö ü ü a e o e u i b)

& # 4 4 œ œ œ œ ä ä ö ü ü ö e a e o i u ä ä ö ö ü ü a e o e u i b)

œ [E [2 [y ä ö ü a o u a o u E 2 y ä ö ü e e i e e i b)Umkehrform ˙ Ó E] 2] y] ä ö ü & # 4 4 œ œ œ œ ä ö ö ü ü äe a e o i u ä ä ö ö ü ü a e o e u i a) œ œ œ œ [E [E [2 [2 [y [y e a e o i u E

œ œ [E [2 [y ä ö ü a o u a o u E 2 y ä ö ü e e i e e i b)Umkehrform ˙ Ó E] 2] y] ä ö ü & # 4 4 œ œ œ œ ä ö ö ü ü äe a e o i u ä ä ö ö ü ü a e o e u i a)

œ œ œ œ [E [E [2 [2 [y [y e a e o i u E E 2 2 y y a] e] o] e] u] i] ˙ Ó

c) Beginning with a fourth

b) Inversion & # 4 4

&4 4 œ œ œ œ ä ä e a ä ä a e d) œ œ œ œ [E [E e a E E a] e] ˙ Ó ä ä

œ œ ä ä ö ü ü ö e a e o i u ä ä ö ö ü ü a e o e u i b) œ œ œ œ [E [E [2 [2 [y [y e a e o i u E E 2 2 y y a] e] o] e]

œ œ œ œ [E [E [2 [2 [y [y e a e o i u E E 2 2 y y a] e] o] e] u] i] ˙ Ó ä ä ö ö ü ü

& # 4 4 œ œ œ œ ä ä … e a ä ä a e c) œ œ œ œ [E [E e a E E a] e] ˙ Ó ä ä -

& # 4 4 œ œ œ œ ä ä ö ü ü ö e a e o i

& # 4 4 œ œ œ œ ä ä … e a ä ä a e c)

& # 4 4

œ œ œ [E [E e a E E a] e] ˙ Ó ä ä

38 See FML 1956 (41988), “Vokale und Vokalausgleich” section, pp. 427–429.

œ œ ä ä … e a ä ä a e d)

d) Beginning with a fifth

œ œ œ [E [E e a E E a] e] ˙ Ó ä ä

Fundamental principles – 4. Articulation, 1. Vowel balancing

• The goal of all the exercises is to prepare and maintain what is known as “vowel balancing”. This means that each vowel passes on some of its unique quality to another vowel: the i gives brightness and forward placement, the u roundness and mellowness, the a space. Every vowel should contain all three qualities, thereby forming a space which is common to all vowels. In a successful vowel balance the vowels are neither blurred nor made to sound the same: each retains its typical feature, while they all share a “family resemblance”.

• The umlauts ä ö ü play an important part in vowel balancing: they act as “bridging vowels” and create a close connection between the opposing bright and dark vowels which sit further away from each other. Thus ü connects the vowels i and u, ö connects o with e, ä connects a with e

• The exercises in this chapter should never just be sung through one after the other. Although they are logically structured and follow the principles of the Hellwag vowel chart, any mechanistic approach should be avoided.

• This chapter presents a wealth of practice opportunities; the individual exercises can be worked through gradually during training. It is always useful to include a selection of exercises for vowel balancing in the daily warmup.

Commentary

Vowel balancing

1 | Preparatory exercise: breathing the vowels (panting exercise)

This exercise is for demonstration purposes: the aim is to feel the different vowel shapes. This is done by breathing in and out (slow pant) through a vowel, while maintaining the mouth shape. If the mouth forms the vowel while breathing in, this secures and intensifies the vowel sound. For this reason it is useful to prepare the vowel form in advance when singing repertoire, to “breathe in on the vowel”.

2 and 3 | Umlaut exercise on one note; range extension exercise

In these exercises the focus is on the “bridging vowels”, the three umlauts ä [E], ö [2], ü [y]. The umlaut creates a connection to the nearest front/bright and back/dark vowels.

• All three vowels are sounded in the same space (“family resemblance”).

• Articulate each vowel clearly and intelligibly (“preserve its unique character”).

2 | Umlaut exercise on one note

Three vowels on the same note:

• Take care to join the vowels smoothly.

• Maintain the same vowel space in both the basic and inverted forms.

3 | Range extension exercise

Three vowels on varying pitches, maintaining the common vowel space in increasing intervals.

• Vertically: sing the whole of each exercise first, with different vowel sequences.

• Horizontally: then sing a vowel sequence in all four exercises one after another, with increasing intervals.

Dies ist eine Leseprobe.

Nicht alle Seiten werden angezeigt.

Haben wir

Ihr Interesse geweckt?

Bestellungen nehmen wir gern über den Musikalienund Buchhandel oder unseren Webshop entgegen.

This is an excerpt.

Not all pages are displayed.

Have we sparked your interest?

We gladly accept orders via music and book stores or through our webshop.

In Germany, Franziska Martienßen-Lohmann (1887–1971) is regarded as the “grande dame” of 20th century vocal pedagogy. Numerous renowned singers and teachers of singing studied with her; her books still belong to the standard body of literature on vocal pedagogy. By contrast, her vocal exercises were only to be found in handwritten notes, among the written contents of her estate in the Berlin State Library, or in a private print. The 7 Basic Elements of Voice Training makes a first systematic, annotated collection of her excercises available in an accessible form. Due to the very positive response to the German edition, the workbook is now available in English for the first time.

Barbara Hoos de Jokisch was taught the exercises by Prof. Reinhard Becker (1929–2021), who was one of Martienßen-Lohmann’s last pupils and had been using the exercises in his teaching throughout five decades. He entrusted her with the task of publishing the complex system as a whole. She recognised the enduring significance of MartienßenLohmann’s exercises, the distinctive character of which lies in the fact that they combine bel canto tradition, vocal physiology and phonetics. She organised the exercises according to the model of the three functional areas of the voice; the seven basic elements of voice training result from this:

1. Breathing and 2. Energising, 3. Resonance and 4. Articulation, 5. and 6. Registers according to pitch range and dynamics, plus the 7th element Synergy, which connects all the others.

The author introduces each chapter with an informative text, summarises the fundamental principles of each set of exercises and furnishes the individual exercises with user-friendly instructions. With the aid of clear charts, she manages to create an overview map of the broad field of voice training. The annotated collection of exercises thus not only provides a practical treasure trove of effective vocal exercises, but also conveys a deeper understanding of the voice as a complete, functionally logical, synergetic system. In doing so, the 7 Basic Elements of Voice Training demonstrates the timeless nature of classical voice training.

As a result of its structured layout, the instructional book fills a gap in classical singing lessons which has for some time already begun to be filled in choral voice training and in the teaching of popular singing.

This compact workbook is intended as a practical and theoretical contribution to present-day vocal pedagogy. Students of singing are provided with suggestions for individual practice, experienced singers and singing teachers can find ways to structure and expand their repertoire of exercises – and those who teach vocal pedagogy will find many suggestions for their classes in vocal methodology and teaching practice.

The book may also furnish English-speaking singers with a systematic approach during their vocal warmup in preparation for the singing of German opera, oratorio and lieder texts.

Barbara Hoos de Jokisch

Singer and vocal pedagogue, 2011 doctoral thesis on Franziska Martienßen-Lohmann (Die geistige Klangvorstellung, Breitkopf 2015). Faculty member for singing and vocal pedagogy at the University of the Arts Berlin, lecturer for the teacher training course “Certificate in Vocal Pedagogy” run by the German Voice Teachers Association, coach for “Breath, Voice and Personality” for people in the speaking professions. Numerous publications, international lectures and workshops, including “Kaleidoscope of Vocal Methods”, “Integrative Vocal Pedagogy”, “Balance and Synergy as the Key to Voice Training”.

www.gesangspaedagogik.org

www.breitkopf.com

Foto: Dr. Michael Gauss