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Singing Affectively Tanya Kruse Ruck, UW-Milwaukee
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Affect – verb; to have an influence on, to cause strong emotions in, to touch the feel- ings of someone; move emotionally, tug at someone’s heartstrings; to upset, trou- ble, distress, disturb, agitate, shake up. Synonyms: influence, touch, im- press, sway.
Effect – verb; achievement of a final re- sult, to carry out or accomplish. Synonyms: perform, execute, accom- plish, achieve, fulfill.
Many of us can cite specific moments of poignant music making that lead us to want to live a life as educators through music. Perhaps it was a strong emotional connection to a song text that brought us to tears, or a phrase of music that made the hairs on the back of our neck stand on end. Music may have helped us as young people to deal with feelings of isolation, stress and extreme joy. We are not usually called to music because of pragmatism, but because of these visceral moments that affect our being. Through music, we en- able our students to create those moments for themselves, creating life-long lovers of the art. Therefore, when speaking about being an affective educator, it is important to educate the whole student and to allow both the student and the audience those affecting experiences.
We need a solid technique in order to be an artist, of course, but to be affective we need to be storytellers. This takes us beyond the technical and allows us the opportunity to connect with our audience. Although art- ists cannot dictate how an audience feels, we can do our best to communicate what it is that we believe the music is commu- nicating and hope that our audience makes a personal connection as well. We need to be aware of our body language and how our audience perceives it in relation to the story because the body tells our story as much as our words. We must think about what is implied in our timbre/tone beyond beauty by employing a variety of tone colors and dynamics using subtext.
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It is a journey to guide students along the path of storytelling – one that can often take many beautiful twists. For the singer, this path must include finding the connection of mind and body. Students should be queried: How do you have to think as a singer-actor in order to get the message across? What can you do with your body in order to be expressive? What do we need to do beyond learning pitches, rhythms, text and technical work? It is magical when this work allows students to develop their own voices, literally and figuratively.
In the words of David Gorman (Learning- Methods™), “our body coordinates around our intention” and deeply understanding the story told in the music while making it personal is an integral part of storytell- ing. Therefore, helping the students to find clarity in their intent is integral to being affective. As educators, we can ask ques- tions to allow the student to find their own answer and we can provide them with the resources and tools to get there. Here are some suggested questions and tools:
• Students should complete a word for word translation of the song/aria/choral text, if it is in a foreign language*, written directly underneath the appropriate word in the music. Ask students what this text means in their own words (not the questionable singing translations that are often printed in music).
• What is the mood or atmosphere of the piece as indicated by the text and the music?
• If the song or aria is from a larger work such as a musical, an oratorio, an opera, or a song cycle, be sure that the student watches, if possible, and listens to the entire work.
• What is the name of the character that is singing? What is the age, social status, level of education,
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and gender of the character? How might this affect the character?
• Where is the character coming from just previous to the piece? Where is s/he now, literally – in the next scene/song/movement and figuratively – in the entire work?
• What does the character want in the piece and in the whole work? What blocks the character from getting what s/he wants? How does the character overcome that barrier, or is it never accomplished? How does the character’s action or lack of it influence how you see the character? Some of these questions cannot be answered with factual information, particularly in a song, but students can create their own backstory.
• How does the character feel about the environment in which s/he exists? Is s/he comfortable? Why or why not?
• What approximate year does the show take place and where? How might the political and social environment influence how this character behaves?
Once the student understands the story in this manner, then we must guide them to “living truthfully under imaginary cir- cumstances.” Sanford Meisner, American actor and acting teacher, coined this phrase that is the mantra of many actors. The student needs to act “as if,” meaning they should sing “as if” they are about to go off to war or “as if” they are approaching their love interest. Perhaps the student could relate the story of the character to something that they have experienced per- sonally to deepen this understanding. This
April 2017
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