Paul Oliver rediscovers the wealth of neglected vocal traditions represented on Race records.

Vocal Traditions: Training in the Performing Arts explores the 18 most influential voice training techniques and methodologies of the past 100 years. This extensive international collection highlights historically important voice teachers, contemporary leaders in the field, and rising schools of thought. Each vocal tradition showcases its instructional perspective, offering backgrounds on the founder(s), key concepts, example exercises, and further resources. The text’s systematic approach allows a unique pedagogical evaluation of the vast voice training field, which not only includes university and conservatory training but also private session and workshop coaching as well. Covering a global range of voice training systems, this book will be of interest to those studying voice, singing, speech, and accents, as well as researchers from the fields of communication, music education, and performance. This book was originally published as a series in the Voice and Speech Review journal.

Seminaret Muntlig tradering i vokal folkemusikk som ble gjennomført 2.-3. mars 2006 ved Institutt for musikk, NTNU, Trondheim, samlet ca. 30 deltakere fra Norge, Sverige, Finland, Irland og Tyskland. Deltakerne som hadde innlegg på seminaret ble invitert til å skrive artikler om sine emner, og resultatet foreligger her. Et utdrag fra Unni Løvlids konsertforedrag finnes på vedlagte CD-plate.

Voices Found: Free Jazz and Singing contributes to a wave of voice studies scholarship with the first book-length study of free jazz voice. It pieces together a history of free jazz voice that spans from sound poetry and scat in the 1950s to the more recent wave of free jazz choirs. The author traces the developments and offers a theory, derived from interviews with many of the most important singers in the history of free jazz voice, of how listeners have experienced and evaluated the often unconventional vocal sounds these vocalists employed. This theory explains that even audiences willing to enjoy harsh sounds from saxophones or guitars often resist when voices make sounds that audiences understand as not-human. Experimental poetry and scat were combined and transformed in free jazz spaces in the 1960s and 1970s by vocalists like Yoko Ono (in solo work and her work with Ornette Coleman and John Stevens), Jeanne Lee (in her solo work and her work with Archie Shepp and Gunter Hampel), Leon Thomas (in his solo work as well as his work with Pharoah Sanders and Carlos Santana), and Phil Minton and Maggie Nicols (who devoted much of their energy to creating unaccompanied free jazz vocal music). By studying free jazz voice we can learn important lessons about what we expect from the voice and what happens when those expectations are violated. This book doesn't only trace histories of free jazz voice, it makes an attempt to understand why this story hasn't been told before, with an impressive breadth of scope in terms of the artists covered, drawing on research from the US, Canada, Wales, Scotland, France, The Netherlands, and Japan.

I outline what my book is about in the form of a brief homily. My text: 'Music must, somehow or other, reflect the manners and fancies of its birth-time and birth-place, --and also the conditions of executive art ... I believe that thoughtful science, not shrinking from retrospect, not averse to discovery, will increasingly refer to Record, not to Tradition, --will increasingly separate that which is of the hour, from that which does not pass away. The "players" have had their riot: --the orchestra and its combinations have been driven into that prominence and perfection to which extravagance and corruption may be the inevitable sequel. The turn of the singers may be again to come.' Henry Chorley, 1862 Dear Reader, Chorley's prediction that commentators will focus more on Record than on Tradition has indeed come to pass, with increasing emphasis on Historically Informed Practice. But, it's apparent that reference to 'Record' is currently limited to instrumental music, with the orchestra continuing to 'have its riot'. Historical keyboards, string, wind and brass artefacts have been revived. The recorder, viol, cornett, lute, harpsichord and other instruments (viewed a century ago as 'antique') are being reconstructed and expertly performed once more, thereby 'reflecting the manners and fancies of music's birth-time', but (so far) absent the 'inevitable sequel' of extravagance and corruption. Unfortunately, vocal performance is still ruled by tradition. Most classical vocalists remain wedded to the traditional opera house sound. Few attempts have been made by institutions to adopt the teachings of Pierfrancesco Tosi, Giambattista Mancini and Richard Mackenzie Bacon, as set down during the long 18th century. The book explores the historic record of vocal sound in detail. Besides treatise writers, I cite reviews by Johann Quantz, Wolfgang Mozart, Charles Burney, Richard Edgcumbe, Gioacchino Rossini and Henry Chorley himself, plus many others. You will find comprehensive appraisals of over 135 historic vocalists, describing the voices of some 24 castrati, 46 other males and 65 females, often appearing in print for the first time. I track in detail the changes from straight voice, registral extension and soft high notes, as expected from singers in 1830, to continuous vibrato, loud singing from the chest on high notes, plummy/ throaty emission and suppression of falsetto singing, which had become the expected norms for most opera and concert singers by 1920. But one recent development would have pleased Rossini, who was unhappy with the deterioration in vocalism already evident to him during the 1850s. I refer to the work of some pop and folk singers, plus a small handful of classical artists, who are discovering for themselves the beauties of long 18th century bel canto, as evidenced by my playlists featuring over 100 soloists plus ensembles. This suggests that 'the turn of the singers may be again to come'. For other useful information, including definitions as well as playlists, see my website CAMREALS (Campaign for Real Singing) at www.camreals.com.