Great lesson for all singers to learn from..How a very famous singer rejects bad advice and relies on her instincts to find the natural way of training it herself . Secure and humble enough to acknowledge what was faulty with her voice that needed correcting!
Thanks for the upload. I find more and more channels in YT claiming that in maschera placement is incorrect and has been the reason of vocal decline in most singers, creating a constricted, small sound. Good to show as a valid exemple how one of the vocal champions of last century proves those points invalid.
Yes, I saw these movements saying that this placement in the mask reduces the voices. I will be moderate. Let's say I found it interesting to let the main interested person speak rather than speak for her/him. In the book "Great singers on great technique" (very interesting), Nilsson explains that she makes a "personal cooking" to make her voice and that it is not "beautiful" at all. Not placed. Then she polishes bringing everything forward, when everything is well opened and coordinated below. And she avoids getting stuck in the nose when she delivers, there is all the full width under. Nilsson even says the sound can go slightly backwards too on high notes, Sutherland is also of this opinion. Siepi too was moving back the vocal position for high notes. For me, this "mask" is rather a result, a felt vibration, not the basis of the sound, an idea of direction, and must not be a prison of sounds. But I feel humble, so I prefer to give the speech to the great singers. And we can see this is not an easy job...
@@foropera What a well-considered response. The article says she sounded like a steamboat leaving the harbor- or something like that- so clearly her voice was very hooty and had loads of oo vowel to begin with The journey from there to great singing would naturally be different than starting with a thinner, lighter vocal production- say- one that emphasized ee or another 'bright' sound. You can hear in her warmup that she found a way to integrate her original sound with the clear parts of the sound spectrum. Wouldn't this necessarily be a personal journey-seeing as we all have different anatomies, expressive tendencies, language backgrounds, etc.? The idea that one size fits all(ie all back or forward or anything else) doesn't seem any more likely in voices than in clothes. The mask placement she refers to -'that is not nasal' -sounds like a description of unconstricted sound that is "connected" to the whole body( read "supported-") As she says ,teachers were trying to teach her'mask' and her voice was going away- So she decided to try other things.- smart, practical, determined lady it would seem. It is also interesting that Siepi, Sutherland and Nilsson- all having notoriously great and seemingly effortless high ranges- talk about their high notes being directed somewhat back. I saw Sutherland and Nilsson in master classes trying to get this point across- but in both cases met with extreme resistance- How could it be otherwise? You're in front of a crowd with a famous person and being told to try the opposite of what you're being taught by your teacher at a famous music school. I'm not convinced of the value of this sort of Master Class. Pavarotti's and Callas' classes seem better, but still... Thanks for the video. I was struck by how upright and high her posture and head position were
Yet there are also people who advocate “mask placement” who do sound constricted. It’s not a problematic teaching because it necessarily makes all voices small and nasal, it’s problematic because it is based on a sensation that can be entirely subjective.
@@stephenbeale4765 that is definitely why you have to add the small "U" vowel to learning how to sing, especially in the passaggio. I've learned how to access the true mask up in the head and cheeks(notice how I didnt say nose cavities or whatever) BUT, the danger is that the more i do what i do to access those sympathetic sensations, without any of the U vowel, the more it can edge towards becoming nasal. The U (oo) vowel helps equalize this majorly, and when I go to hit high notes, utilizing both the U and the covering which gets me Into the head resonance/mask, I not only feel the both the mask, but space/resonance towards the back of my soft palate, so it's an equal amount of both, and thus the sound comes out more full, natural, and rounded., not to mention MUCH easier to produce.
She didn’t sing with a nasal technique despite what she says here. She had a developed voice with more chestvoice participation than she apparently knew. Listen to how singers SING not what they say...
You are right that she doen't talk about what you call chest voice participation, but of course she had it developped at top level. She had naturally that big fat dark sound under, after18 years of shouting at home. But she wants to keep her secrets, secret! She doesn't say she tried to be nasal...but she says "forward", in a balanced way. One of her first teacher wanted her to concentrate her voice in the "bad way" (that's here we understand that it was bad nasal placement ). Later on, when she was getting tired with that big voice without the proper sustain, she had to find it by herself . Maybe she needs these Mnyee to connect her breath, to avoid to use the full width of her voice which is already opened, when concentrating of the hardest passagios for her. So many little personal tricks to find the correct balance, like the thing she puts in her nose..maybe mint.
@@pasqualeperrone1560 ˝A little voice (vocetta) might improve if the teacher makes it sing for some time only in chest voice.˝ - Mancini "Among all voices, one must always choose the chest voices and particularly those which have the above-mentioned delightful biting quality which pierces a little, but does not offend; and one must leave aside the dull voices and those which are simply head voices, because the dull ones cannot be heard among the others, and the head ones are overbearing". - L. Zacconi (1592.) "It is necessary to GUARD AGAINST REDUCING the brilliance and the strength of the chest tones, just as it is necessary to give to the falsetto all the energy which it can tolerate. One is tempted to think that it would be better to reduce the power of the strongest (chest) to the proportion of the weakest (head). That is wrong; experience shows that the use of the such a procedure would have the result of impoverishing the voice" - Manuel García.
![[RARE] BIRGIT NILSSON - MASTERCLASS (FULL)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LQXYbfI9Kmo/mqdefault.jpg)
Great lesson for all singers to learn from..How a very famous singer rejects bad advice and relies on her instincts to find the natural way of training it herself . Secure and humble enough to acknowledge what was faulty with her voice that needed correcting!
Jerome Hines' "Great Singers on Great Singing" is a gem of a book.
I REALLY enjoyed that video! Great clips of Birgit singing and practicing!I'm going to search for Jerome Hines' book to read again after many years.
5:08 Birgit's magic powder was her secret?? :O
Fascinating!!
Che bello vedere il mio maestro, il grande tenore, Gianni Raimondi. Che brava persona.
At last some one figured out what chiaroscuro is with a precise explanation in Lamperti way!
Thanks for the upload.
I find more and more channels in YT claiming that in maschera placement is incorrect and has been the reason of vocal decline in most singers, creating a constricted, small sound.
Good to show as a valid exemple how one of the vocal champions of last century proves those points invalid.
Yes, I saw these movements saying that this placement in the mask reduces the voices. I will be moderate. Let's say I found it interesting to let the main interested person speak rather than speak for her/him.
In the book "Great singers on great technique" (very interesting), Nilsson explains that she makes a "personal cooking" to make her voice and that it is not "beautiful" at all. Not placed. Then she polishes bringing everything forward, when everything is well opened and coordinated below. And she avoids getting stuck in the nose when she delivers, there is all the full width under.
Nilsson even says the sound can go slightly backwards too on high notes, Sutherland is also of this opinion. Siepi too was moving back the vocal position for high notes.
For me, this "mask" is rather a result, a felt vibration, not the basis of the sound, an idea of direction, and must not be a prison of sounds. But I feel humble, so I prefer to give the speech to the great singers. And we can see this is not an easy job...
@@foropera What a well-considered response. The article says she sounded like a steamboat leaving the harbor- or something like that- so clearly her voice was very hooty and had loads of oo vowel to begin with The journey from there to great singing would naturally be different than starting with a thinner, lighter vocal production- say- one that emphasized ee or another 'bright' sound. You can hear in her warmup that she found a way to integrate her original sound with the clear parts of the sound spectrum. Wouldn't this necessarily be a personal journey-seeing as we all have different anatomies, expressive tendencies, language backgrounds, etc.? The idea that one size fits all(ie all back or forward or anything else) doesn't seem any more likely in voices than in clothes.
The mask placement she refers to -'that is not nasal' -sounds like a description of unconstricted sound that is "connected" to the whole body( read "supported-") As she says ,teachers were trying to teach her'mask' and her voice was going away- So she decided to try other things.- smart, practical, determined lady it would seem.
It is also interesting that Siepi, Sutherland and Nilsson- all having notoriously great and seemingly effortless high ranges- talk about their high notes being directed somewhat back. I saw Sutherland and Nilsson in master classes trying to get this point across- but in both cases met with extreme resistance- How could it be otherwise? You're in front of a crowd with a famous person and being told to try the opposite of what you're being taught by your teacher at a famous music school. I'm not convinced of the value of this sort of Master Class. Pavarotti's and Callas' classes seem better, but still...
Thanks for the video. I was struck by how upright and high her posture and head position were
Yet there are also people who advocate “mask placement” who do sound constricted. It’s not a problematic teaching because it necessarily makes all voices small and nasal, it’s problematic because it is based on a sensation that can be entirely subjective.
@@stephenbeale4765 that is definitely why you have to add the small "U" vowel to learning how to sing, especially in the passaggio. I've learned how to access the true mask up in the head and cheeks(notice how I didnt say nose cavities or whatever) BUT, the danger is that the more i do what i do to access those sympathetic sensations, without any of the U vowel, the more it can edge towards becoming nasal. The U (oo) vowel helps equalize this majorly, and when I go to hit high notes, utilizing both the U and the covering which gets me Into the head resonance/mask, I not only feel the both the mask, but space/resonance towards the back of my soft palate, so it's an equal amount of both, and thus the sound comes out more full, natural, and rounded., not to mention MUCH easier to produce.
what did she inhale at 5:10, I wonder ;)
Lol 😂😂😂😂
It's part of her "secret" (?
Birgit Booster. Nilsson's Nasal Nitro. 😂😂😂 Whatever it was, it worked! ❤
probably tobacco haha
I can't sing a part without warm up for hours baby... She was right!
She didn’t sing with a nasal technique despite what she says here. She had a developed voice with more chestvoice participation than she apparently knew.
Listen to how singers SING not what they say...
You are right that she doen't talk about what you call chest voice participation, but of course she had it developped at top level. She had naturally that big fat dark sound under, after18 years of shouting at home. But she wants to keep her secrets, secret! She doesn't say she tried to be nasal...but she says "forward", in a balanced way. One of her first teacher wanted her to concentrate her voice in the "bad way" (that's here we understand that it was bad nasal placement ).
Later on, when she was getting tired with that big voice without the proper sustain, she had to find it by herself .
Maybe she needs these Mnyee to connect her breath, to avoid to use the full width of her voice which is already opened, when concentrating of the hardest passagios for her. So many little personal tricks to find the correct balance, like the thing she puts in her nose..maybe mint.
foropera
I know what you mean. I’ve seen programs with her and read her books.
I’m swedish so it’s a little easier.
@@draganvidic2039 Ha ha, yes, of course, it must be easier for you.
'chest voice participation,' as in what This Is Opera is preaching?
@@pasqualeperrone1560 ˝A little voice (vocetta) might improve if the teacher makes it sing for some time only in chest voice.˝ - Mancini
"Among all voices, one must always choose the chest voices and particularly those which have the above-mentioned delightful biting quality which pierces a little, but does not offend; and one must leave aside the dull voices and those which are simply head voices, because the dull ones cannot be heard among the others, and the head ones are overbearing". - L. Zacconi (1592.)
"It is necessary to GUARD AGAINST REDUCING the brilliance and the strength of the chest tones, just as it is necessary to give to the falsetto all the energy which it can tolerate. One is tempted to think that it would be better to reduce the power of the strongest (chest) to the proportion of the weakest (head). That is wrong; experience shows that the use of the such a procedure would have the result of impoverishing the voice" - Manuel García.
Could anybody be so kind to translate, what this great singer is saying?
Can I ask where this footage is originally from ? :)
What book did the text come from?
"Great singers on great technique".
@@foropera thanks.
The best way to sing, but very hard to practise
Lovely.
Who was the tenor? Gianni Raimondi?