Brinkerhoff's Lower Lip
I am fascinated with Clara M. Brinkerhoff (1828-1901) if only because her mother, Clara Rolph, was a student of Domenico Corri, himself a student of Nicola Porpora—the Big Kahuna of all vocal instruction.
Like Pauline Viardot-Garcia, who seems to have inculcated something of the teaching of her father before his death when she was eleven, Brinkerhoff gives evidence of having learned something of her mother's vocal technique before the latter's death at twelve. This leads to the subject of this post.
In the extract below from The Vocalist in 1896, we find Brinkerhoff referencing a teaching I have found in only one other source, that being William Huckel's Practical Instructions for the Cultivation of the Voice; With a Series of Rules for its Adaption to the Chamber, the Concert Room, and the Stage (1820?), which you can find on VOICETALK's download page.
The teaching?
The action of the lower lip as taught by Domenico Corri, who taught both Clara Rolph and William Huckel—the latter specifically noting the smiling action of the lower lip. Since Corri's own teacher is considered the spring from which all bel canto teachings flow, this pedagogue contemplates the teaching's importance and whether it is the hidden genesis of the "towards a smile" mouth opening found in many an old Italian school singing manual.
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Will Mme. Brinkerhoff kindly give a further explanation of the paragraph on page 358 of the September "Vocalist" commencing: "All sounds must touch the lower lip, made firm by muscle under it, which connects with diaphragmatic action."
In reply I would say that I give lessons at 47 West 42nd St., and never by mail. The article or essay quoted was written by me and was to be delivered by me at the M. T. N. A. meeting at Denver, Col., but was read for me, my health not permitting me to go there and be ready to give auricular and oral demonstration in vocal culture. But the quoted section is not really new.
I have trained voices since I was fifteen years old (see Werners' Magazine, March 1896) and have never seen reason to change this, the old Italian method of voice training, although I gave much attention to the study of methods in various languages abroad, in national conservators, etc.
There are certain things which appertain to the vocal instrument and this is the first to to learn and do; understand, the instrument from head to foot is the human being.
The voice is a result of how this instrument is strung.
The quoted passage touches upon energy which is prepared in the brain and can be called upon by the singer, if—you wish this force. It is little comprehended. Electricity is not the same; sacred fire is as near as we can get to it in vocal parlance. Whoever opens his mouth to sing, before he has formed the will-desire to send out the note of tone, will not get perfect tone, simply because he, the human instrument, was not strung from head to foot, only partially so; the strings were slack and will-force feeble. If it were a violoncello that you called upon to give forth its music you would string the instrument to pitch.
You would not dream of leaving the strings of a violoncello slack, but draw them into good vibrating from; in a word, attuned to proper pitch.
In the human being you first must teach him how to stand. Then this action of will-force from brain to under lip muscle to diaphragmatic action at belt...
In the human being you first must teach him how to stand. Then this action of will-force from brain to under lip muscle to diaphragmatic action at belt, is the work done for the instrument before the voice proper issues into buccale cavity and outward, into surrounding air, to be modified in tone-quality by the acoustic environment given it.
If you wish to send a message a long distance in telegraphy, say from New York to Chicago, there would be a telegraphic relay instrument to renew its force and propel it on to Chicago by this means. It could go without, but not the same.
I answer the questioner but I believe he would have to pay for the lesson by taking it from the teacher, because it is the teacher's ear alone and psychological comprehension, that can decide whether this contact is made. If the will is wavering or the intellect not fully apprised, he will not use this energy, so absolutely necessary for the use of the voice in grand artistic singing. The voice must be taught to vibrate with fervor and tone-fire, for that alone can show its heavenly origin, the greatest of all instruments if properly learned with understanding. — Mme Clara Brinkerhoff.
—The Vocalist, 1896.
