Irene Gullaer

Opera Singing: an Integrated Method of Vocal Development Irene Gullaer

This book presents the method of the integration oftwo teaching approaches: vocal and voice-speech. Thebook will be both illuminating and surprising for awide audience: professional musicians and singers,lay people who are interested in music and arts,opera fans, singing teachers and students of singingand musicology. What is happening inside the pharynx of an opera divawhen she is singing a high C? An MRI experimentdescribed in this book is the first that makes itpossible to literally see internal geometry anddynamics of the working vocal apparatus of an operasinger. Experienced vocal coaches, who knowintuitively what should be done to improve quality ofvoice and increase its range and power will seedirectly which of the intrapharyngeal muscles shouldbe trained (and to what extent) in order to reach thedesired result. Widely-used expressions, such as?open your throat? or ?flatten your tongue? are nowvisualized and supported with a quantitativeanalysis. Specialists in phonetics and phoniatrics,vocology and speech/singing acoustics will find thebook novel, having both immediate and far-reachingimplications.