Vocal Mechanics

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Sonia Sharnova: as Amneris in Verdi’s Aida at the Chicago Opera, 1937. By permission: Roger Gross Ltd. rogergross@earthlink.net The inscription reads: To my good friend Lester Hodges—in appreciation of many happy musical hours—my best wishes—Cordially, Sonia Sharnova. Chicago, April, 1937.

I must give credit where it belongs. Without having met and worked with her, I would have no knowledge of voice. She was in her seventies and chaired the voice department of the Chicago Conservatory of Music when I auditioned. This photograph was taken four years before I was born. Her formative training was with the Swedish basso Gustaf Holmquist, who studied with De Reszke. In the early 1920s she also journeyed to Nice to study with De Reszke. (To be noted: De Reszke spent 5 years working with the great Antonio Cotogni.) She graced the Lyric stage in Italian, French, and German repertoire and shared the Wagnerian stage with Flagstad and Melchior. With the Chicago Opera during the ‘30s and ‘40s she was the house mezzo, and in 1947 she began teaching . She could sing and she was a force. She was also the only teacher I ever knew who could say she didn’t know every thing about voice, confident in her ability as she was. Consequently, it was safe to ask questions and I did. But as she put it, “(voice) they all seem to work the same way.” To me she knew everything, and I am here to honor her. I have come to learn she didn’t know everything, but ninety percent of vocal technique is correct vowel formation in relationship to pitch. I had that ninety percent thanks to Mme Sonia Sharnova and with it, the foundation for Vocal Mechanics. Then entered The Voice of the Mind and Mr. Edgar Herbert-Caesari.

Introductory remarks: These following words introduced The Art of Enrico Caruso, and my intentions in presenting the video to Grandi-Tenori, a tenor web-site, and explains how this project began. They're fairly accurate and I deposit them here to explain the format, and what prompted the project. I always want to know where's the author coming from.

Even before I opened Vocal Mechanics full time, I thought to bring a series of lecture/demonstrations on the Art of Singing to PBS (I had big ideas); this, of course, after I got a singer to the Met. Without that accomplishment I don’t have a platform much less the energy/motivation necessary to pull it off. As it is I never got that singer to the Met, and my day has come and gone. Sometimes I sense remorse for not having documented the vocal technique this great singer/teacher taught. The Art of Caruso was never a thought until I began to hang-out on G-T. Not a for-real thought—one of those moments of divine inspiration; more like a feather tickling my innards for having thought the thought or, maybe, for having the audacity to think it.

Nevertheless, here was a full compliment of tenors, and who else if not tenors would be as interested in what someone has to say on The Art of Caruso? No matter the information, good or bad, it made little difference; if it’s about Caruso, tenors will take a look. This was two years ago or so. I didn’t follow through, maybe fearing to parade a fool; but I enjoyed the spark and every now and then I would return to the thought.

Then along came Dan (new owner of G-T) with an idea: “v/log for singers who don’t sing good.” Bait for me and as a teenager ladened with testosterone I bit—hook, line, and boat. If there is to be a "v/log" it remains to be seen, and it may be inherent in The Art of Caruso. The v/log, however, is not my purpose. That was a motivator, an excuse, an opportunity to share my knowledge of Caruso with those who would take a look; and it felt like it might be fun. But it precluded documenting what my teacher taught, for without it I can’t touch Caruso. Here was an opportunity. I best take advantage. I doubt I’ll see another.

A singer comes in complete: voice, the ability to carry a tune, enough intelligence to embrace a role, a profound love of singing, and a never-ending passion to do it—and the singer has nothing to do with any of that; it’s a gene thing. But there is one thing a singer must do to sing: he must open his mouth; to develop the voice, he must open his mouth. That’s an unimpeachable fact and it is the only physical act in voice that is completely voluntary, unattached to any autonomic or wired response as every other physical act of voice is, and the singer must do it. It’s not a stretch to think how he does it may have something to do, if not every thing to do, with the success or failure of his attempts to be all he is. This we know: All vowels when produced correctly on top come through an [a] vowel structure. I don’t care where the [a] vowel structure sits for you. I am here to document how my teacher taught me to find it.

Video 1: clips 1 through 8. I am condensing the first half-dozen lessons with Mme Sharnova. When finished, I will show, touch on, how the major principle she taught in those first lessons relates to Caruso to validate that this is The Art of Caruso (clips 7 & 8). I will return to Caruso fully in the closing video.

CLIP 1: How to find your best [a] vowel. What ever the pitch, low C to High C, this structure never changes. What occurs as pitch ascends happens within this structure, but until this structure is establish, we just work the first octave and a half. The jaw in this position serves as a brace to (1) keep the throat open, and (2) to support the muscles that operate the vocal cords as pitch ascends. And every time you sing a scale, if you move nothing in structure, it comes out a replica of the first, which means you can memorize the sensations of each pitch up the scale. Heady stuff.