-
By Instrumentation
Books on Music
-
-
-
Accessories
|
|
|
|
Singing: The First Art | 
 enlarge | Author: Dan H. Marek
Publisher: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.
Category: Book
List Price: $65.00
Buy New: $60.79
You Save: $4.21 (6%)
New (10) Used (5) from $60.79
Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 1416925
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 264
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 10.8 x 8.4 x 0.8
ISBN: 0810857111
Dewey Decimal Number: 782.009
EAN: 9780810857117
ASIN: 0810857111
Publication Date: December 28, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Absolutely Brand New & In Stock. 100% 30-Day Money Back. Direct from our warehouse. Ships by USPS. 1+ million customers served-In business since 1986. Happy Customers is Our #1 Goal. Toll Free Support
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
This invaluable text breaks down complicated singing concepts with 64 specific vocal exercises designed to overcome faults and to develop vocal virtuosity. Drawings, musical examples, anatomical illustrations, and copious photographs of opera stars are also included.
|
| Customer Reviews:
Some great ideas here, but... November 21, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"Singing: The First Art" is a great book with a unique approach to vocal pedagogy. The first part of the book is dedicated to the history of the vocal art from the time of the early days of opera to 20th Century greats like Caruso, Callas, and Chaliapin. Old methods of training singers are touched upon as well as their approaches to the vocal craft.
The real meat of the book lies in the second section entailing the vocal technique of Bel Canto. Marek uses plenty of sources in his analysis and descriptions giving a considerable amount of authority to these concepts. The most outstanding chapter in the book by far is on breathing. He manages to fill in the gaps of other authors writings by discussing "thoracic" breathing in creative terms. His remarks on the breath "standing still" are priceless and an immediate key to finding the muscular antagonism necessary to healthy "support".
The book seems to meander off course in the description of "acoustic registers" - much of the information has been covered in the writings of Coffin. The musical examples are confusing when terms like X Pipe and U Pipe are not mentioned anywhere in the text. The charts of the individual voices are terribly confusing and not explained ANYWHERE in the text. Each chart features three tiers of phonetic letters, but what are they doing there and what do they mean in this context? The author could have better explained these charts. I was left scratching my head for the latter half of the book. It would have been more than beneficial to have included a compact disc of Old school singers with examples of these register concepts. Even singers demonstrating the exercises would have given a starting point for the teacher and student to begin to work.
Unfortunately, I cannot give this book a five star rating due to these components: a disjointed and unfocused discussion of acoustic registers and the lack of some sort of supplemental media to show demonstrations of these concepts.
I also take umbrage to the tremendous price of the book. Sixty-five dollars for a book of this type is rather overpriced. One would better spend that money on any of the works of Miller, Vennard or Coffin to grasp these concepts. The book is also a paperback.
I admire Mr. Marek's efforts immensely and with improvements in the clarity of the acoustic chapter and the addition of a CD, perhaps this could become one of the newest and most important books on the Bel Canto Method.
|
|
|
| |
