Vol.1 How We Sang (First Vol. of 'we Sang Better')

Book excerpt: WE SANG BETTER consists of two volumes of very clear advice about singing from great singers of the past. Volume 1 (ISBN 978-84-940477-8-7) is entitled How we sang and contains 250 tips on how to sing from singers 1800 to 1960. This volume is 490 pages long, and contains 130 illustrations. Tamagno never scooped his notes - so said star soprano Amelita Galli-Curci of the famous tenor. In the two volumes of We Sang Better, 200 of the greatest singers explain their art in over 70,000 of their own words. In Volume 1 the singers show you their approach, their ideals, and how they learnt to sing. Anderson arranges their evidence coherently, in easily followed tips. Their advice was uniform - work patiently on developing your own natural voice, with no forcing. The singers then provide the details by which you grow your voice and acquire a firm but flexible technique. Finally you will have a singing voice that is: personal beautiful easy accurate true on the note, and carries well in a large hall with clear diction & the ability to move your audience. As Verdi said, any art worthy of the name must be natural, spontaneous and simple. These singers explain how they kept to this ideal, staying clear of scientific 'discoveries', over-muscularity, and teachers with set 'methods'. These singers worked with Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, Auber, Meyerbeer, Weber, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Verdi, Wagner, Brahms, Gounod, Massenet, Debussy, Puccini, Strauss, Elgar, etc & kept to nearly all the recommendations that came from the castrati in the previous two centuries. James Anderson is a musician who has worked for the Arts Council of Great Britain and has run major European Festivals. Regretting the scarcity of supreme singing today, he has spent the last 30 years researching and collating this advice. He now helps young singers through the Singers Legacy website. For your information, the second volume (ISBN 978-84-940477-9-4) is entitled Why it was better and contains further evidence & reasoning from singers 1800 to 1960. Volume 2 is 260 pages long and has 20 illustrations.