William Vennard

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William Vennard (January 31, 1909 Normal, Illinois January 10, 1971, Los Angeles, California) was a famous American vocal pedagogist who devoted his life to researching the human voice and its use in singing. He was one of the driving forces behind a major shift within the field of vocal pedagogy during the middle of the 20th century. [1]

Contents

Along with a few other American singing teachers, such as Ralph Appelman at Indiana University and Oren Brown at The Juilliard School, Vennard introduced contemporary scientific research in the areas of human anatomy and physiology into the study of singing. This shift in approach led to the rejection of many of the beliefs and practices held since the bel canto era, [1] most particularly in the areas of vocal registration and vocal resonation. Vennard was renowned as an excellent teacher whose written works have influenced generations of singers, vocal pedagogues and voice scientists. He taught many successful singers including acclaimed mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne, who studied under him at the University of Southern California. [2] [3]

History

Vennard studied English at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1930. He became interested in music and decided to pursue a career as an opera singer. He studied at Northwestern University earning a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance in 1941, followed by graduate studies at the American Conservatory of Music [4] in Chicago, where he earned a master's degree in Vocal Performance in 1943. Vennard spent the next several years teaching part-time simultaneously at the Chicago Evangelistic Institute, DePaul University and the American Conservatory.

In 1946 he became a member of the faculty of music at the University of Southern California, chairing its voice department from 1950 – 1971.

Among the associations to which he belonged are the National Association of Teachers of Singing, which he served in several capacities, including national president. In 1970 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Pepperdine University in recognition of his outstanding contributions to singing and the science of singing. [3]

As a singer, Vennard was active in opera, oratorio and solo song; as a teacher of singing, many of his students achieved worldwide success. His renowned text, Singing, the Mechanism and the Technique, was one of the first complete texts regarding the singing voice [5] and a constant resource for teachers and researchers alike for the following two decades. [6] [7] The text provides singers with the fundamental physics of sound, [8] acoustics, [8] correct breathing [9] and posture, [10] and an introduction to common terminology. [5]

Vennard’s collaboration with Janwillem van den Berg resulted in his film Voice Production: the Vibrating Larynx. Winning several awards, including best medical research film from a festival in Prague in 1960, it shows the anatomy and physiology of voice production in the excised larynx. He was a pioneer in the science of singing and in voice pedagogy and was instrumental in fostering collaborative efforts between singers, physicists, psychologists and voice scientists.

In 2018, a symposium called The Art and Science of Great Teaching: Celebrating the Legacy of William Vennard was held at the University of Southern California's Doheny Memorial Library featuring presentations by Thomas Cleveland, Scott McCoy, Stephen F. Austin, Kari Ragan, Kenneth Bozeman, Lynn Helding, and Cindy Dewey; [11] these are slated to be published by Inside View Press.

Written works

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human voice</span> Sound made by a human being using the vocal tract

The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production in which the vocal folds are the primary sound source.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Singing</span> Act of producing musical sounds with the voice

Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person whose profession is singing is called a singer, artist or vocalist. Singers perform music that can be sung with or without accompaniment by musical instruments. Singing is often done in an ensemble of musicians, such as a choir. Singers may perform as soloists or accompanied by anything from a single instrument up to a symphony orchestra or big band. Different singing styles include art music such as opera and Chinese opera, Indian music, Greek music, Japanese music, and religious music styles such as gospel, traditional music styles, world music, jazz, blues, ghazal, and popular music styles such as pop, rock, and electronic dance music.

Falsetto is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave.

Head voice is a term used within vocal music. The use of this term varies widely within vocal pedagogical circles and there is currently no one consistent opinion among vocal music professionals in regard to this term. Head voice can be used in relation to the following:

Vocal range is the range of pitches that a human voice can phonate. A common application is within the context of singing, where it is used as a defining characteristic for classifying singing voices into voice types. It is also a topic of study within linguistics, phonetics, and speech-language pathology, particularly in relation to the study of tonal languages and certain types of vocal disorders, although it has little practical application in terms of speech.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belting (music)</span> Singing technique

Belting is a specific technique of singing by which a singer carries their chest voice above their break or passaggio with a proportion of head voice. Belting is sometimes described as "high chest voice" or "mixed voice", although if this is done incorrectly, it can potentially be damaging for the voice. It is often described as a vocal register, although this is also technically incorrect; it is rather a descriptive term for the use of a register.

Richard Miller was a professor of singing at Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and the author of numerous books on singing technique and vocal pedagogy. He also sang recitals, oratorios, and numerous roles as a lyric tenor with major opera companies in Europe and America.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vocal pedagogy</span> Study of the art and science of voice instruction

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A voice teacher or singing teacher is a musical instructor who assists adults and children in the development of their abilities in singing.

There is no authoritative system of voice classification in non-classical music as classical terms are used to describe not merely various vocal ranges, but specific vocal timbres unique to each range. These timbres are produced by classical training techniques with which most popular singers are not intimately familiar, and which even those that are do not universally employ them.

Vocal resonance may be defined as "the process by which the basic product of phonation is enhanced in timbre and/or intensity by the air-filled cavities through which it passes on its way to the outside air." Throughout the vocal literature, various terms related to resonation are used, including: amplification, filtering, enrichment, enlargement, improvement, intensification, and prolongation. Acoustic authorities would question many of these terms from a strictly scientific perspective. However, the main point to be drawn from these terms by a singer or speaker is that the result of resonation is to make a better sound, or at least suitable to a certain esthetical and practical domain.

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Josephine Antoinette Estill, known as Jo Estill, was an American singer, singing voice specialist and voice researcher. Estill is best known for her research and the development of Estill Voice Training, a programme for developing vocal skills based on deconstructing the process of vocal production into control of specific structures in the vocal mechanism.

Estill Voice Training is a program for developing vocal skills based on analysing the process of vocal production into control of specific structures in the vocal mechanism. By acquiring the ability to consciously move each structure the potential for controlled change of voice quality is increased.

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References

  1. 1 2 Sansom, Rockford, ed. (2020). The History of Voice Pedagogy: Multidisciplinary Reflections on Training. Taylor & Francis. ISBN   9781000439038.
  2. Gurnee, Robert T. (1986). In Memoriam: William D. Vennard. The NATS Bulletin.
  3. 1 2 Cleveland, Tom (2001). "Vennard, William". Grove Music Online. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.46590 . Retrieved August 21, 2023.
  4. "American Conservatory of Music alumni - FamousFix.com list". FamousFix.com. Retrieved August 21, 2023.
  5. 1 2 DeLeo, Wendy; Daniels Rosenberg, Marci (2019). The Vocal Athlete, Second Edition (2 ed.). Plural Publishing Incorporated. ISBN   9781635501650.
  6. Bybee, Ariel; Ford, James E.; Reid, Cornelius L., eds. (2002). The modern singing master: essays in honor of Cornelius L. Reid (1 ed.). Lanham, Maryland Toronto Oxford: Scarecrow Press. p. 65. ISBN   978-0-8108-5173-3.
  7. 1 2 Hoch, Matthew, ed. (2020). So You Want to Sing with Awareness: A Guide for Performers. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN   9781538124734.
  8. 1 2 Bickel, Jan E (2016). Vocal Technique: A Physiologic Approach, Second Edition. Plural Publishing Incorporated. ISBN   9781944883348.
  9. Dimon, Jr, Theodore (2022). Your Body, Your Voice: The Key to Natural Singing and Speaking. Illustrated by G. David Brown. North Atlantic Books. ISBN   9781623177898.
  10. Bloechl, Olivia Ashley; Lowe, Melanie; Kallberg, Jeffrey, eds. (2015). Rethinking difference in music scholarship. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-1-107-02667-4.
  11. Justice, Andrew. "Research Guides: The Art and Science of Great Teaching: Celebrating the Legacy of William Vennard: Home". libguides.usc.edu. Retrieved June 14, 2021.
  12. Vennard, William (1967). Singing: The Mechanism and the Technique. New York: Carl Fischer.
  13. Minoru, Hirano; Vennard, William; Ohala, John (1970). "Regulation of Register, Pitch and Intensity of Voice". Folia Phoniatrica. 22 (1): 1–20. doi:10.1159/000263363. PMID   5430060.

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