So You Want to Sing Early Music: A Guide for Performers: 15

by Martha Elliott (Author)

• New

  Illustrated
  2019

  $43.73

  What exactly is Early Music and how should the 21st century singer understand and approach this body of repertoire? A great majority of European music written before 1750 is for voices. It includes music for groups of voices and solo voices, with and without instruments, music for the church and the theater, for the court and the chamber, as well as music in different languages and with different national styles. A wealth of materials exist to help us discover not only what the specific compositions are, but also how they might have been performed when they were first heard. Since the 1980's and the explosion of interest in early music and historical performance practice, performances of music from the Renaissance and Baroque periods now reflect a wide variety of styles and approaches. In So You Want to Sing Early Music, Martha Elliott introduces this remarkably rich and varied repertoire within a historical context, and presents information for the 21st century singer who wants to know where to start exploring. Focusing primarily on the 17th and early 18th centuries, the book offers specific information on style and ornamentation, working with vocal and instrumental colleagues, reading manuscripts and edited editions of scores, and technical wisdom from some of the original sources of vocal pedagogy. It gives advice for handling the different kinds of early music performance situations, as well as finding workshops and performance opportunities. Equally helpful to the classically trained solo singer or amateur choral singer, So You Want to Sing Early Music will allow readers to broaden their repertoire and build their stylistic toolbox. The So You Want to Sing series is produced in partnership with the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Like all books in the series, So You Want to Sing for a Early Music features online supplemental material on the NATS website. Please visit www.nats.org to access style-specific exercises, audio and video files, and additional resources.