Teaching Undergraduate Voice: A Repertoire-based Approach to Singing

Abstract

Teaching undergraduate voice requires the use of a practical teaching approach that is functional, concise, and reliable. This final project focuses on ways a repertoire-based approach to singing could be useful in the undergraduate voice curriculum. It is constructed as an argument for a repertoire-based approach as a resource to accompany vocal technique and literature instruction, extending known repertoire-based approaches into a fully gestated philosophical and practical approach. Three research foci are necessary to create a functional repertoire-based approach to singing as outlined in this document. First, an investigation of teaching voice at the undergraduate level is used to create a justification for the need of a repertoire-based approach (including explorations of four images of curricula, the Cognitive Theory, and their relevance in the voice studio, baccalaureate music curricula related to the National Association of Schools of Music, vocal technique and the skills and concepts to be included in undergraduate curriculum through a literature review of pedagogic sources, and the classification of extant models of voice methods and voice approaches). Second, a theory for a repertoire-based approach is necessary, developed through familiar studio scenario, literature review, and modeling. Third, a focus on a practical approach is essential, detailed with analyzed examples, leading to a larger pool of indexed repertoire ready for use in the voice studio. This project developed a repertoire-based approach from three structural dimensions, where 1) voice classification and diagnosed vocal faults encompassing specific 2) concepts of vocalization (dynamics, onset, sostenuto, imposto, range, registration, aggiustamento, and dexterity) lead to a 3) pool of repertoire for study, aiding in reinforcing a particular concept of vocalization within an overall voice technique. Musical topography, a term coined in this project, is at the center of a repertoire-based approach to singing, used as the functional means of analyzing repertoire used in the approach, distilling each song for what concept of vocalization it could be used to teach, illustrated through examples and sets of analytical questions. The research culminates in an appendix of the Boytim Vocal Anthology Series, where over 600 songs for soprano, mezzo-soprano/alto, tenor, and baritone/bass can be found. The songs are classified by relevant concepts of vocalization they could support. The appendix is offered as a pedagogic tool and provides a searchable list of songs classified by the concepts of vocalization each could be used to teach or reinforce within the individual vocal classifications. The appendix is searchable by voice classification, concept of vocalization, and song title, composer, book, and page number within the anthology series.