Methodism
Methodism
The doctrine, polity, beliefs and methods of worship of the Methodists.
(lowercase) the act or practice of working, proceeding, etc., according to some method or system.
(lowercase) and excessive use or preoccupation with methods, systems, or the like.
Methodism in singing has been around since there have been teachers. In fact, you might say that any book of scales or exercises is a method by virtue of its presentation of material and how it is used. If this loose description will not suffice, we have historic methods like that of Manuel García; who, I should point out, asserted that his teaching was not a method at all—which was something cobblers did, but rather—a science.
What is the worth of a method, even one classified as scientific? I believe the answer lies in the nexus between knowing and doing, which is revealed in how one studied the art of teaching with the father of voice science and his sister Pauline Viardot-García.
To obtain certification from the Garcías, you had to be able to sing, that is, you had to be able to demonstrate the very thing you endeavored to teach. This working knowledge was then applied in the studio where the candidate prepared five students for a professional career, as well as an additional five students who had learned bad methods. All ten had to find their place as working artists. This took years of work. Only then was certification given.
Talk about a high bar! I don't know of any school or person who asks for this level of accomplishment today, one which Anna E. Schoen-René attained in the first decade of the 20th century. She published her letter of certification in
America's Musical Inheritance: memories and reminiscences (1941), and also had this to say:
Scientific explanations can only be grasped by those educated in the principles of their art.
Such a curious statement, is it not?
Being educated in the principles of singing as taught by the Garcías entailed something more than the acquisition of facts. The starting line? To use the terminology of García's time, this meant the ability of the student to wrap his or her ear around pure vowels.
However, like other terms that were used by the old school, this is one that is little understood if only because it is tied to another term which is also considered obsolete: voice placement.
