City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 9-2016 The Versatile Singer: A Guide to Vibrato & Straight Tone Danya Katok The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1394 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] THE VERSATILE SINGER: A GUIDE TO VIBRATO & STRAIGHT TONE by DANYA KATOK A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts, The City University of New York 2016 ©2016 Danya Katok All rights reserved ii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Music to satisfy the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts Date L. Poundie Burstein Chair of the Examining Committee Date Norman Carey Executive Officer Philip Ewell, advisor Loralee Songer, first reader Stephanie Jensen-Moulton L. Poundie Burstein Supervisory Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii Abstract THE VERSATILE SINGER: A GUIDE TO VIBRATO & STRAIGHT TONE by Danya Katok Advisor: Philip Ewell Straight tone is a valuable tool that can be used by singers of any style to both improve technical ideals, such as resonance and focus, and provide a starting point for transforming the voice to meet the stylistic demands of any genre. By employing a resonant, minimally vibrated, balanced sound as the core of the voice, the versatile singer can stylistically unbalance the voice by layering colors and effects in ways appropriate for many types of singing. In order to fully understand the inner workings of vibrato and how it can be healthily minimized, my discussion of vibrato and straight tone is broken down into four parts: (1) acoustics; (2) physiology; (3) pedagogy; and (4) style. Perception is a key ingredient to understanding the full extent of the marriage between vibrato and straight tone. Straight tone is not completely without vibrato and the role of perception plays a large role in this acoustic deception. Equally as important is considering the physiological ways that vibrato can be produced—be it through natural or manufactured means. The mechanics behind vibrato are directly connected to the various types and degrees of vibrato, straight tone being one of them. Straight tone can take its place among the vocabulary of natural vibratos once these mechanical differences are taken into account. Vocal exercises designed to uncover a singer’s innate, core sound can be used to define straight tone for each individual singer and begin the road to versatility in singing. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my advisor, Philip Ewell, for his perpetual encouragement and guidance throughout this process. I would also like to thank my friend and first reader, Loralee Songer, without whom I would not have had the courage to pursue such a topic; my second reader, Stephanie Jensen-Moulton, who I look forward to having as a professional mentor; and my committee chair, Poundie Burstein, whose straightforward approach has helped streamline the dissertation process. I would like to thank my husband, Nick Ahlbin, who always believed in me without limitation or restraint; and my parents, Svetlana & Anatole Katok, who inspired me to pursue a doctoral degree in the first place. A huge thank you to the choral community of NYC, including: Margery Daley, for giving me my first choral job (and she hasn’t gotten rid of me yet!); K. Scott Warren and Sara Murphy, the best bosses a singer could ask for; my colleagues who lent their encouragement and ideas in my pursual of this prickly subject: Elisa Singer Strom, Katie Wessinger-Bozic, Sarah Griffiths, Kate Maroney, Enrico Lagasca, Heather Petrie, Wendy Baker, Lara Ryan, Tim Krol, Missy Fogarty, Lianne Coble, Jamet Pittman, Ryan Jackson, Alex Guerrero, Dewey Moss, Archie Worley, and Christopher Preston Thompson; and the choirs of St. Ignatius Loyola and Temple Emanu-El for being the best gigs in the city and inspiring me to tackle this topic. I would also like to thank my voice teachers over the years: Susan Boardman, Ah Hong, Rita Shane, Claudia Friedlander, and Jennifer Trost, who gave me the strong technical foundation that has allowed me to venture into the dubious realm of straight tone singing. v PREFACE I came to the subject of straight tone through choral music. Having moved to New York City in 2010, I stumbled across the professional choral scene, a profession I did not even know existed. The clear and uncomplicated quality of my soprano voice made me a good candidate for this type of work and I was soon singing with some of the city’s finest choirs, many of which require their sopranos to sing with a relatively straight tone. It was tiring at first. An endurance test like Holy Week in the Catholic Church, which can require up to 20 hours of singing in four days, left my voice hoarse and exhausted. I knew that if I wanted to continue as a soloist, I had to figure out a way to simultaneously give my conductors what they wanted and keep my voice in working order. What I discovered over approximately three years as a professional choral singer is that I could achieve a straight sound without compromising my technique and I could improve my solo singing by honing that straight tone skill. In March 2015, I had a defining moment in my attitude towards this dissertation topic, which admittedly wavered from time to time. I was hired to sing the soprano solo in a chamber choir version of Brahms’s Requiem, while also singing in the choir for the other six movements. The soprano solo is in the fifth movement, so this job required me to sing a difficult choral soprano part for almost forty minutes immediately preceding my solo. To make matters trickier, this particular conductor envisioned Brahms’s romantic work with a straight tone choral sound, especially the high soprano parts. By aiming for an incredibly well-placed, easeful, resonant sound during the choral parts, I was able to strongly contribute to the ensemble sound for the first four movements of the performance. This served as an excellent warm-up for my solo movement—my voice was ready. By allowing my air to flow at a faster rate and adding space vi within my oral mechanism, I was able to transform the straight tone sound I had refined during the choral movements into the lush and vibrant sound needed for the soprano solo. I achieved a well-received solo performance after having sung music in a challenging tessitura with straight tone for forty minutes. These choral experiences led to a curiosity about the acoustics and mechanics behind straight tone and what this could mean for versatility in singing. Few of my voice teachers had ever actively encouraged straight tone singing, but a few exercises came out of my undergraduate education that happened to be performed without vibrato, and it was precisely these vocalises that I would return to time and again, especially when switching from one style to another. They provided a strong groundwork for my voice that I could then mold into any given style. In this dissertation, I aim to break down the components of straight tone in order to better understand how the refinement of straight tone may help other singers achieve suppleness in their technique and style. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... iv Preface............................................................................................................................................. v Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures, Tables, & Examples ............................................................................................ xi Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One: Acoustics of Vibrato & Straight Tone ...................................................................... 6 Chapter Two: Physiology of Vibrato & Straight Tone ................................................................. 18 Chapter Three: Pedagogy of Straight Tone .................................................................................. 39 Chapter Four: Applications & Stylistic Modifications of Straight Tone ...................................... 71 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 104 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 107 viii LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES, & EXAMPLES Figure 1.1: Overtone Series ............................................................................................................ 8 Figure 1.2: Spectrograph of Five Basic Vowels ............................................................................. 8 Figure 1.3: Example of Musical Performance Graph from Carl Seashore (1938, 36) ................. 12 Figure 1.4: The Average Extent and Rate of Pitch Vibrato