Comparison of Learning Classical Singing between European and Chinese Singers

By Peter Simon

The aim of the book is to help emerging Chinese opera singers and their teachers grapple with the differences of singing techniques, languages and cultures.

The writers set out to explore differences between Western and Chinese singing, teaching methods and students of singing. The basic principle has been that, physiological basis and effort for work being an individual variable, the quality of singing depends on the cultural background of the singer, the music they perform and the training they receive. The writers try to find out what kinds of cultural differences are important to observe if Chinese learners of singing want to match the most important ideals of the classical European musical world, how their background affects their work, and whether they can make a career of European singing on its own, or together with a career in Chinese singing.

In the first part of the book, the writers look at the most important parts of the body involved in producing quality singing. They show how those body parts are considered and used in the Italian, German, French, English and Chinese teaching schools and find that in the European schools, the teaching and performing ideals are somewhat different from each other, and that the general musical background in China is drastically different from most of the background in Europe. As a result, Chinese students of European singing are advised to take special care to change some of their habits which are the results of their cultural background, and, by practicing hard, to make different habits become second nature if they are to succeed on the classical stage. Some of such important habits that need changing are associated with breathing techniques, vocalizing techniques, and language skills. It is shown that most of those habits are the consequences of the cultural background; therefore, some typical styles of traditional Chinese singing are discussed to give the reader an overall idea about the inheritance of Chinese singers. It is also pointed out that understandability plays a larger role in traditional Chinese singing than in classical European music, which creates further technical problems for singers of Chinese, or other Asian origin.

In the second part, the effects of differences among the five languages are explored and it is pointed out that for an Asian student of classical singing, learning foreign languages may be even more important in their singing career than it is for European or American singers. Some aspects of language may benefit them in producing good legato singing, for example, but most language differences create important obstacles for them.

In the last part, the authors discuss methods and behaviour necessary for understanding the difficulties and for helping the Chinese students of classical singing in becoming good classical musicians. Some aspects of their cultural background of learning, like the culture of moving on stage, helps them, but others, like the custom of rote learning, or the fear from public reciting, or a lack of language learning possibilities, create some problems for development. On the other hand, it is also pointed out that if the teacher considers students as individuals with achievements in the course of learning, maintains a positive atmosphere in the singing lessons, uses flexible methods suited to the students’ further development, gives extra help with language problems and some technical problems like breathing, or the positioning of the throat, Chinese and Asian singers have no less chance of becoming outstanding artists of European classical music than singers with any other background.

Video/audio material was collected and linked to the book to compare aspects of singing in practice to illustrate certain points of interest.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Peter Simon
• Release date: Apr 11, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458029430

Peter Simon

I started to play the piano as a little child and became interested in all music classical forever. Then I worked as an English teacher for 30 years, mostly in Hungary, where I also taught trainee teachers for over a decade, and also in China. I met and started to accompany my friend, soprano Zhong Jun Shen there. After she had moved to the Netherlands, we resumed work again, and after careful planning and research, we wrote this book. She had studied and worked in China and in the Netherlands. We are both freelance now, giving concerts when possible. I have been working with other singers for a while too.

Book preview

Comparison of Learning Classical Singing between European and Chinese Singers

By Zhong Jun Shen and Peter Simon

All rights reserved — Zhong Jun Shen and Peter Simon

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2011

ISBN: 978-1-4580-2943-0 for Smashword edition

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the permission, in writing, from the publisher.

Cover design by Strategic Book Group

Also available in print by the Strategic Book Group

ISBN: 978-1-60976-424-1

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Table of Contents

Introduction

1 Part I. Making Voice

Chapter 1. Vocal Quality and Its Physiological Basis

Chapter 2. Breathing

Chapter 3. Using the Vocal Cords and Their Supporting Muscles

A. The onset

B. The vibration of the vocal cords

C. Vibrato

Chapter 4. Modifying the Source Voice—Resonators and Resonation Ideals

A. Resonators

B. The mouth

C. The throat

D. The position of the larynx

Summary of Part I.

Part II. The Role of Languages

Chapter 5. The Effects of Pronunciation on Resonation

A. Characteristics of vowels in singing

B. Vowel modification, registration and intelligibility

Chapter 6. The Quality of the Target Languages

A. Consonant problems

B. Vowel modification

C. Tone, intonation, stress patterns and grammar

Chapter 7. The Role of the Students’ Mother Tongue

Summary of Part II.

Part III. Cultural and Pedagogical Implications for Teaching

Chapter 8. Voice Practice

Chapter 9. Language

Chapter 10. Culture

Chapter 11. Aspects of Teaching—Development As a Teacher

Summary of Part III.

General summary

References

Web Addresses of Video/Audio Files

Introduction

The human voice is a flexible instrument for development

Singing is an art form which combines emotional involvement and physical activity. It demands instantaneous physiological responses to conscious and unconscious mental processes, because the singer has to know how to produce the sound before she produces it, so she has to have a mental picture of that sound. She has to be able to control her body for the intended sound before she produces it because afterwards she has no control over it. This means that singing music and learning it are complex imaginative and physical activities. The physical expression depends on the learner, but the mental image of the sound depends on various outside factors as well, among which the aesthetic ideals of the surrounding culture and other ideals transferred through the teacher’s work and the performance of other singers feature most prominent.

Singing is most closely related to our ways of life as one of the most highly artistic and warmest art forms. The basis for our development of singing, for expressing our emotions and ideas and for pronouncing the text of the song is the singing instrument. While singing, the professional singer tries to find the best ways to achieve the highest possible level of artistry. This learning process of singing takes the learner step by step from ignorance to knowledge of the next step, while still ignorant of another aspect of the singing profession until the singer attains the highest qualities possible.

During singing studies, singers in the modern age try to find scientific methods and ways of how to develop their technique and to explain the sound they would like to produce. Singers of earlier ages already used some scientific methods to that end and sought ways of further understanding this art. Although scientific art in itself is not beautiful, beautiful art must now be scientific. So, to make music beautiful, we follow scientific rules; however, the interpretation of scientific rules in music depends on the appreciation of art and then tries to follow the most direct ways to reach the highest results. Teaching singing follows similar principles.

Music may be universal; however, its expression varies from culture to culture, according to the area, the group of people we belong to and our own personal tastes. Yet, even with the different senses of beauty, the possibilities of singers’ natural instruments are similar. Singers in all cultures can only rely on the same natural endowments born to other singers as well. How they develop these endowments depend on their circumstances. The different ways of appreciating art grow with us according to our different cultural backgrounds. Which possibilities in our body and mind as singers we develop follow the original ideals and teaching coming from our own culture. But if we have developed our singing instrument well, we can express whatever we want to. Well-trained singers in Europe can sing opera, lied, rock or pop as they desire. Can they also sing music of distant lands? Our conviction is that they can perform music from China, or Africa, or India if they study the ways of singing and the music style in those cultures well. This must be true for singers from anywhere in the world trying to sing European classical music as well.

Challenges

Coming from the North of China, the artistic appreciation of the Chinese author of this work is based on the cultural background that prevails in a particular region in North China, Shanxi province. However, during her studies at one of the most important institutions of classical European music in China, she came into close contact with techniques and artistic ideals of Europe as well as some other regions of China. Later, as she moved far to the South of China after graduation, she got acquainted with some more South Chinese traditions as well. The cultural-geographical dimensions of her move can be equated to a European moving from the Russian traditions of St. Petersburg to the Italian traditions of Milan, or from the Spanish traditions of Madrid to the North German traditions of Berlin, while being educated according to the ideals of the Chinese Opera. The co-author and editor of this book, who has provided the English translation that suits her intentions best, is a Middle-European teacher of English and an accompanist who has spent several years in China and has also been able to explore and understand the culture of that country, but who lives in Western Europe now. Their shared and differing views profoundly inform this book.

The singer, or teacher, making cultural journeys of such magnitude is faced with various grave choices. Can she, should she try to, answer the challenges of the foreign forms of art and try to become successful living up to the foreign ideals that she feels are of higher quality, or should she adhere to the endemic ideals of her own culture? Can she suit the requirements of both traditions? Can she make a career of both, and if not, which one can she more likely make a success of? What kinds of technical adjustments must she make while she is trying to work out the best ways of success? What kinds of aesthetic, cultural, technical, linguistic demands can she or should she try to meet in one direction, while she may fall short of similar demands in the other?

As the singing instrument is born with us and is capable of similar physical changes in everybody who is gifted, provided she is trained to use this instrument well and is diligent in her training, the result depends on the cultural aspects of the training and the personal choice of the singer concerned. Once the individual has chosen one way or another, she can learn to suit the cultural requirements of the profession. These cultural requirements involve technical, aesthetic and linguistic aspects, but are influenced by the singer’s original cultural background, which may play a deep, reflex-like role in whatever she tries to add to, or would like to modify in it. We cannot effectively modify reflexes and natural instincts easily. We can only do it if we study what is required and make the new ideals and techniques second nature. It follows that we first have to know as well as possible about the ideals of both cultures so that we are aware of what we would like to reach and what our basis for the changes are so that we employ the best methods to take us along the way of changes.

From our point of view, research on the differences between Western and Chinese singing traditions is highly relevant for singers with similar backgrounds to the Chinese author of this work. The differences in the overall cultural background of singing could cause the first problems for Asian singers. The exclusive use of the head voice in the Chinese opera genre, coupled with a lack of culture for vibrato in the European sense can serve as an introductory indication of the differences here. Besides, the European opera and song literature is native culture for Europeans, but not so for most people born in Asia, and the degree of mastering it depends on the age of the learner and the length of time available for her studies very much.

The source of forming voice is the throat, but voice is mostly used for speech, so Asian people, speaking languages with different places and ways of sound formation in their mouths, may find it more difficult to use their throats and mouths in the way European people do while singing. We are not going to analyse the full sound systems of the respective languages but we are sure that if we map out the differences of the sound systems and the use of different parts of the throat and mouth while singing different genres of classical operas and lieder, our findings will be of immense help for Asian singers, especially those Chinese who would like to perform the European repertoire instead of, or besides, that of their own land.

Another important aspect of learning difficulties may arise from the differences in the word-formation and the grammatical structures of the various languages. An Asian learner of the European genre must also be aware of these differences even when the texts of songs and arias are available in translation, helping the general understanding of the texts, while the understanding of the linguistic expression of feelings may also be dependent on the cultural ideals. Most people can learn foreign languages well, but most people can only do it over a considerable length of time, at the expense of a considerable amount of investment and only if they have expert teaching at their disposal. In a country like China, where very few people study a foreign language other than English, where the culture of teaching almost completely excludes the use of the target language in most language classes, where second foreign language does not start in secondary education and is built on the first one, English, and where teachers of such languages can only marginally be found even in the largest cities, thus not available for most young people, learning German, French or Italian is a daunting task for singers, whose profession is not language learning in the first place, and who are, consequently, short of time to deal properly with this requirement. This Chinese author only had Italian language once a week for less than a year at her otherwise great conservatory in China, but nobody helped her or her fellow students with German, French or other languages.

These above-mentioned areas of problems are sources of strain for the singer, which may adversely influence her voice production while singing. A teacher of Asian singers has to be aware of these problems as well as how to relieve the singer of the stress during singing. While we cannot venture to try to solve all the problems for Asian singers in this book, we will make an attempt below at mapping out the more prevalent areas where those problems lie. Only after understanding the problems can anybody try and redress them.

The areas of difference are widespread. There are of course also differences among the various European cultures and traditions of singing (see e.g. R. Miller, 2004, p.191 on National Tonal Differences), the discussion of which would, however, far exceed our present possibilities. Thus the area of focus of this work would be mostly limited to some important differences between Chinese as opposed to Italian, German, French and English traditions.

One main reason to discuss classical singing in relation to Chinese singers is the emergence of singers of Chinese origin on the international stage (Shi PeiPu [1938–2009], Jiang Ying [1919 ], Dilibaier [1958 ], Ying Huang [1970 ], Liang Ning, Gao Zhilan, Jia Ruhan, Liping Zhang, Lucy Xiaoping Hu, Hui He, Wu Bixia, Chunyan Wu, among others). The tendency is somewhat different from tendencies of preference in the West in that in the West people choose either to sing pop, rock, folk, or jazz in the popular vein and follow their natural instincts to fame and fortune, or decide to study singing to follow the classical traditions; whereas in China young people may start out singing in the popular and traditional genres and then switch to studying the Western opera styles to become famous in the West. Only a few people who study classical singing switch to singing rock, or other genres in Europe, as Tarja Turunen from Finland has done, and almost nobody switches from the light genres to study classical singing; whereas for Chinese people, the way to international fame is to switch to classical singing. Western countries have very strong markets for all genres, and their followers of high quality have a chance for personal fame and career in any of them, whereas Chinese people either become famous as Chinese singers with much less material success than their Western counterparts, or aim for the international opera stage for success. Also, pop and rock is a relatively much less widespread and less rewarding career for a Chinese singer than it is for Western people. The way to success is much more a PR move in pop, or rock depending on talent rather than learning in the West, where there are studying possibilities only for those aiming at jazz or Opera, whereas at the best Chinese conservatories there are departments for Chinese folk and opera as well as for European classical singing. All this also means that those aiming at the European opera genre are much less influenced by folk, pop, or rock traditions in the West than their Chinese counterparts are influenced by Chinese folk and opera traditions.

Another reason is that forming links with Chinese cultural institutions, bringing Chinese students for further education over to Europe and the USA, and involving highly educated Chinese professionals in European higher education is a strong tendency in Western Europe nowadays. As a result, students from China form large groups of guest students in various European countries. Teaching this group of students with the largest possible cultural distance from Europe requires some special awareness on the part of the teachers responsible for their development. In this book, we aim at catering for the needs of such students and teachers with our understanding of both cultural circles and experience both as students and teachers of singing. However, teachers and institutions in Europe and America must also be aware of the difficulties towering in front of those who would like to leave China for a few years to study in the West, although we will not pretend in this book that we can provide all information on this issue. Suffice it to say here that it is not very easy even for the very best and most talented.

Another major reason why we have chosen German, Italian, French and English is because theirs are the leading operatic and song literatures both regarding the musical quality and prevalence, so these are the most important languages on the classical stage. We will, however, make mention of some special aspects of differences when they are relevant among these and other languages and cultures as well when relevant. We hope to provide valuable opinion for Chinese learners of European singing and teachers of Chinese learners of European singing to help them better prepare for performing the operatic, song and lied literature in major languages and shorten the time necessary to achieve their goals.

Besides relying on literature