National Schools of Singing - by Richard Miller (Paperback)

About the Book

This update of Miller's original study incorporates these new concerns while continuing the investigation into which techniques within the national schools and idiosyncratic regional tendencies that remain.

Book Synopsis

In 1977, Scarecrow Press published Richard Miller's study, English, French, German and Italian Techniques of Singing: A Study in National Tonal Preferences and How They Relate to Functional Efficiency. He compared the historic and then current techniques practiced in the four major Western European schools of vocalism and evaluated technical maneuvers found within each.Recent years have placed greater demands on the vocal talents of professional singers with the growth of performance spaces, the emergence of the stage director, louder orchestral sound, and even the infusion of pop culture sounds into traditional music. As "world culture" continues to expand, and vocal talent becomes more homogenous, the need for continued recognition of lingering national and regional vocal training techniques becomes more important for the singer's quest to develop a certain style. This update of Miller's original study incorporates these new concerns with a continued investigation into which techniques within the national schools are common to them all and which idiosyncratic regional tendencies remain.

Review Quotes

"...it is both encouraging and refreshing to discover that two decades of scientific advances and pedagogical progress have not diminished the book's uniqueness or importance...any professional voice studio or library will be seriously incomplete without this pre-eminent study." --Journal of Singing

"...Miller's study has been neither surpassed nor even challenged and is now reissued in a handsomer and more enduring edition." --Choice Reviews

"...brought it out again beautifully printed, handsomely bound and with a different title...of value (as always with this author)" --David Lennox

...brought it out again beautifully printed, handsomely bound and with a different title...of value (as always with this author)

...it is both encouraging and refreshing to discover that two decades of scientific advances and pedagogical progress have not diminished the book's uniqueness or importance...any professional voice studio or library will be seriously incomplete without this pre-eminent study.

...Miller's study has been neither surpassed nor even challenged and is now reissued in a handsomer and more enduring edition.

About the Author

Known internationally for master classes and institutes in systemic vocal techniques and artistic interpretation, Richard Miller is Professor of Singing and Director of the Otto B. Schoepfle Vocal Arts Center, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio. He also serves as adjunct staff member in the department of Otolaryngology and Communicative Disorders, Cleveland Clinic, is an Associate of Collegium Medicorum Theatri, and a member of the American Academy of Teachers of Singing.