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GG: Much Ado About Humming, and vocal syllables
At 12:25 PM 4/18/01 -0700, Jim Morrison wrote:
So far he's hardly ever gone "hum."
What he does do, to my ears, and I'm sure the phonetic spelling must be a
bit off, is make the sounds
"Dee"
"Dah"
"Tha"
He seems to like to make the "tha" sound during fast staccato passages.
And the "dee" and "dah" for the more lyrical and slower ones.
Not to forget "BEE-yum BEE-yum diddle-liddle" in the opening movement of
the c minor partita. That one's from "Off the Record." He starts that
fugal section over and over until it feels right, then sings it especially
loudly, then decides it isn't quite right yet, and he darts up from the
piano. He goes over to the window and looks out, still singing the piece
with vigorous articulation, then a few seconds later darts back and plays
it again, with no break in the vocalization. It's as if the piano playing
is totally subsidiary under the vocal performance and imagination.
It's kind of like the way tabla players in India are taught to vocalize a
piece or pattern before they ever get to try it on the drum. I have an LP
of Alla Rakha doing a solo: he sings his pattern with some astonishing
tongueing, then launches heartily into the tabla. Electrifying. The liner
note says: "In the _tala Farodast_, Alla Rakha displays his immense talent
for improvisation within the already complicated seven-unit scheme (2 2 3),
whose basic sequence of beats some musicians like to double, thus expanding
it into a fourteen-unit rhythm. The beating of the tabla, interrupted by
Alla Rakha with a rapid, exclamatory declamation of the main syllables in
the customary manner, i.e. artistically differentiated, is based on a
famous tradition--the _Punjab Gharana_." (Ravi Shankar and Alla Rakha,
Ragas Hameer & Gara, DG 2531216, 1979.)
Or maybe Gould was citing Quantz' treatise _On Playing the Flute_,
1752. Quantz advocates tongueings such as "ti ri ti ri", "ti ti ri-- ti ti
ri--", "ti di ri di ri ti ti ti di di di di", "did'll did'll di", "ti
tid'll did'll did'll di", "di hi d'll did'll", etc. A great variety. This
book is an indispensable reference for string and keyboard players, too,
not just flautists...it should be read by anybody who plays any 18th
century music on any instrument, since it gives such a window into musical
aesthetics, style (German, French, and Italian), and technique. It just
came back into print last month,
hurrah! http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1555534732 Anybody know if
Gould knew this book?
Bradley Lehman, Dayton VA
home: http://i.am/bpl or http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl
clavichord CD's: http://listen.to/bpl or http://www.mp3.com/bpl
trumpet and organ: http://www.mp3.com/hlduo
"Music must cause fire to flare up from the spirit - and not only sparks
from the clavier...." - Alfred Cortot