Bel Canto: A History of Vocal Pedagogy

Desmond Maley is the music librarian at the J.W. Tate Library,
Huntington College, Laurentian University, and the editor of Newsletter
of the Canadian Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and
Documentation Centres.

This impressively detailed chronicle is addressed to readers who are
fully conversant with the science and art of singing. As a pianist, I
was struck by the amount of research there has been on the physiology of
the operatic singing voice. By comparison, scientific analysis of the
physiology of piano playing is rare. French pianist E. Robert
Schmitz’s little-known classic The Capture of Inspiration (1935) is
the exception.

From the outset, Mount Allison University Professor James Stark makes
it clear he is a proponent of Manuel Garcia II, a renowned pedagogue.
Garcia’s pioneer scientific investigations into the relation between
singing technique and voice physiology impelled him to invent the
laryngoscope in 1855. Stark introduces Garcia in the first chapter,
discusses his most important conclusion on glottal closure, and dissects
the “gristly business” of the larynx.

Garcia continues to appear in the lengthy and absorbing account of the
evolution of operatic “bel canto” (beautiful singing) that follows.
Particular attention is paid to the schools of thought that pertain to
voice quality, breath control, registers, vocal tremulousness, and idiom
and expression. Although the emphasis is on the technical aspects of
singing, there is also interesting material on the critical reception of
opera since its inception in Italy in the late 16th century. The
concluding appendix brings the wheel full circle as Stark, not unlike
Garcia before him, describes using his own voice to unravel the
mysteries of singing in consultation with voice scientists in Groningen,
Holland.

The narrative is consistently thoughtful and intelligent, and
punctuated with quotations from a gallery of celebrated teachers,
performers, composers, scientists, and critics. This excellent book
forms a worthy companion to other studies in the field, such as Richard
Miller’s The Structure of Singing (1986).