Concert Song as Seen

The substantive value of a performer's presence in co-creating a musical art work is examined in Schneider's insightful new book. Recital singing is placed within the history of solo performance since the baroque period (especially with reference to rhetorical style and eighteenth-century acting technique). A first-hand look at modern conservatory training highlights the pedagogical styles (and their effects on learning) of Antonia Lavane (Mannes College of Music), Cynthia Hoffman (Manhattan School of Music), and Paul Sperry (Juilliard School). The solutions that singers have found, or in the case of performers deconstructing the song tradition, have created to address the problem of a musically determined gesture, will surely benefit the professional singer, the teacher, and the student of voice.