Methodology in early music

Methodology of my teachers

In my own training Early Vocal Ensemble Music I received input from various angles from my two teachers, dr. Rebecca Stewart and Margot Kalse. I was given directions for interpretation and technical directions to support that interpretation. Gradually it became more and more clear to me how closely interpretation and technique are connected. In fact, in my view, they can no longer be approached separately. You can have an interpretation in mind, but if your body isn’t willing to do the right things to support it, the interpretation will be virtually lost to the public. Some styles even call for specific techniques to allow interpretation consistent with the notation. In addition, there are of course technical aspects that can be applied in every style, including those outside my specialism of early music. I cannot express in words how grateful I am for the input of my teachers, which I still receive on a regular basis. After all, after completing a professional music course, the development of the voice as well as other skills does not stand still.

Pedigree of methodologies

In my own singing practice, I convert all input from my teachers into a methodology that works for me and for my students. This is how a ‘family tree’ of methodologies develops that are passed on to the next generation. I hope that every generation adds something new, sometimes something small, sometimes something bigger, the ‘DNA’ of the method is, as it were, rearranged and supplemented with new ‘genes’, new insights. Every student is different and evokes impulses to develop in a certain direction. For example, a student who has difficulty with smooth walking stimulates me as a teacher to check with myself how I actually do that myself and also to remember what my teachers once gave instructions about this. All in all, including my observation of the student, provides an approach to the problem that is unique in that it focuses on this combination of student and teacher. How can you call that a methodology? This is possible, because a number of basic principles are passed on in the ‘family tree’.

Basic principles

As far as I’m concerned, the basic principles of early music singing are beautifully and carefully articulated by Rebecca Stewart in her article on the Cantus Modalis website (in English). This article is constantly improved and revised by her – often in consultation with her students and colleagues – reflecting what I mean by passing on and further development in the foregoing. In short, there are ten basic principles:

  1. Uninterrupted oral transmission: demonstrating, cooperating and imitating. It has all to do with “doing”, because it is all about getting feedback with your senses. Essential information is lost in writing and reading only, no matter how precisely formulated. This applies to technical instructions, but also to notation of the music itself and especially if you subsequently convert that already flawed original notation into modern notation!
  2. To vibrate (in the sense of being in vibration, not in the sense of vibrating the tone), to vibrate along and to vibrate along determine the harmony of the music in the singer, in the acoustics and with each other.
  3. The richer the overtones, the closer one comes into contact with the higher and thus with the primary purpose of the music. You achieve this by seeking resonance in all your cavities, through the hard parts of the mouth (hard palate and teeth) and through a flexible, active, relatively forward-facing tongue.
  4. Speaking is singing is speaking is singing: every beginning of making sound comes from the inspiration to connect with your environment, and is therefore not acute but developing.
  5. Not pitches but intervals determine the movement of the melody and its purity.
  6. Basic figures in the melody bring a kind of attraction to important pillar notes and thus reinforce the mode (modal key). Decorations serve this purpose and must be carried out as such.
  7. The ‘skeleton’ of the melody is solved (see my earlier blog), which produces subtle differences in dynamics, ornamentation and balance, and which supports the mode.
  8. The consonants more or less regulate the (rhythmic) pulse in the music, but without interrupting the vibrational flow. The vowels color and enrich the overtones and are therefore clear. All this can only be achieved by a relatively forward-facing, active tongue and using the hard palate and teeth as the primary ‘sounding board’.
  9. Because the vowels and consonants amplify and vary the vibration, a heavy accent will never and should not arise, because such an accent would interrupt the flow. The rhythms thus created are ‘additive’ and irregular, but a wavy pulse can be heard or felt as a result of the above principles.
  10. While singing according to these principles, one automatically experiences a drone, even if it is not played or sung. Partly for this reason, it is important to let breath (and spirit) in spontaneously (not take it), at least partly through the nose, in such a way that the co-vibration of the acoustic space and thus the drone is not disturbed.

Body awareness

What I want to highlight now is the precision with which all involved body parts can, will and eventually will be operated when singing old, modal music. These are often very subtle changes that are necessary to give space to the vibration and the overtones and to touch the essence of the music - the connection with the universe or with God. Apparently, it is precisely the singer’s body awareness and the controlled release or control of muscle tension and breath (with sufficient experience, incidentally ‘automated’ and integrated as a natural behavior in her or his body), that are the means by which he expresses the transcendent or spiritual aspect of reached the music. With almost any question a student comes up with, whether it’s posture and breath, diction and intelligibility, clarity, learning fast rhythms, style-specific techniques, more interpretive directions, or overcoming stage fright, I come back again and again back when translating the above principles into certain physical habits that the student will have to adopt. That’s why developing detailed body awareness gets so much attention in my classes.

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