Provenance: Historic Voice Pedagogy Viewed through a Contemporary Lens by Stephen F. Austin
Stephen F. Austin's Provenance; Historic Voice Pedagogy Viewed through a Contemporary Lens (2017) is an excellent resource that has been sitting on my shelf waiting to be addressed.
A large handsome book with font size to match (presbyopic eyes will be grateful), the cover is quite different than what is found on nine-out-of-ten vocal pedagogy texts today. Derivative, inelegant, and even cartoonish, I can’t get past them fast enough. Not so here. Manuel García arises in shimmering strands of neon from a black-mirrored psychomanteum; a provocative and strangely beautiful image utilizing John Singer Sargent's famous 1905 portrait of the father of voice science, undoubtedly designed to "keep our past in the present" as Austin notes in the introduction. It works beautifully.
Open the book and what do you find? Discussion and investigation of key pillars of historical vocal pedagogy contained within 59 articles and essays written between 2004-2016. The progenitor of this deep-dive endeavor is Stephen F. Austin, who follows in the footsteps of Garcia in two ways; first, as a voice scientist; and second, as a writer with the creation of “Provenance”—a recurring column within NAT’s Journal of Singing from which Austin takes his material. As the one-time founder and editor of NYSTA’s journal VOICEPrints from 2003-2008, I submit Austin's twelve-year commitment to historical vocal pedagogy is both significant and laudatory.
Suffice it to say, Provenance: Historical Voice Pedagogy Viewed through a Contemporary Lens ticks all my boxes, crosses all my T's, and indicates, I hope, that younger generations of voice students and teachers are interested in the principles of legendary singing masters. They are all here for the curious reader to find, Austin mining multiple veins of historical material while giving the reader the benefit of his astute observations, which are at once clear, erudite, and persuasive. The man knows his stuff.
How do you wrap your head around 354 pages of history and teachings spanning several centuries? Slowly and thoroughly.
If you are a historical vocal pedagogy nerd like me, you will get this book, brew a cup of tea (coffee or a glass of wine will work too), and settle in for a long winter’s night.
