10 Favorite Downloadable Texts
Last time I checked, there were 138 texts on the download page.
Of course, I have my favorites. Here are 10.
Barnette, Annie, M. R. Talks About Singing; Or How To Practice (1886). Barnette gets my vote because she’s right on the front line. You can fairly feel how she learned to sing in this book, which was first presented in a newspaper.
Brown, William Earl. Vocal Wisdom: The Maxims of Giovanni Battista Lamperti (1931). Of course you would expect this book, right? It’s the bible for Empiricists.
Cirillo, Vincenzo. A Lecture on the Art of Singing (1882). The big thing about this book? The Compound Vowel. Harshaw taught me its importance long before I read about it here.
Dow, Sabrina. Artistic Singing (1883). I just love the way this writer thinks. Like Barnette, she knows what she’s doing.
Holtzem, L. A. Bases de L'Art du Chant (1863). Don’t read French? Then use your Google Translate app which will give you a semblance of a text written by a gentleman who studied with both Garcia and Lamperti. Need I say more?
Huckel, William. Practical Instructions for the Cultivation of Voice (1820). The cool thing about this text? It’s connection to the teaching of Porpora.
Klein, Herman. An Essay on the Bel Canto (1923). This text should be required reading for every voice teacher alive. Yep. That’s my bias! Klein is not only the curator of Garcia, but a great writer and thinker.
Rialp, Francis Charles Maria de. The Legitimate School of Singing (1884). For all the books written by collaborative pianists, this one is my favorite. Its got real legs.
Shaw, William W. The Lost Vocal Art and Its Restoration (1914). If Vocal Wisdom is the bible for Empiricists, this is a close second.
Zay, William Henri. Practical Psychology of Voice and of Life (1917). The writer has taken the teaching of Lamperti [as taught by Shakespeare] and written about it in terms which readers in the 1920’s would understand. My favorite concept? Singing on the Timbre.
