Sirion Posted May 20, 2008 Posted May 20, 2008 There are a number of great books on orchestration out there, but does anyone here know of any book that fills the same function, enlightening the composer on the possibilities of the instrument, but for the human voice? I'm also writing a lot of popular music, so one that deals with vocal techniques within both classical and popular music would be prefered. Quote
jujimufu Posted May 21, 2008 Posted May 21, 2008 Paul Barker has written a book on composing for the voice, which I've read. I personally found the book quite uninteresting in its whole, but it makes some very very good points about the voice. It's well sourced, and it's varied. It gives a good first insight at the voice. Before writing for voice, you have to know how to notate for voice. Gardner Read's book on notation has a chapter on idiomatic choral writing, which is worth reading. Also, Blatter's book on orchestration has a whole section on the voice. Which is why I prefer this book to the Adler book (which doesn't even include the Accordion :O ). But personally, I'd just look at what other people have done. The book I mentioned (the Barker one) always has a "listening list" in the end of each chapter or worth-mentioning technique/characteristic of the voice. Look at Mozart. He knew very well how to write for the voice. Look at Verdi, Mahler, Bach, Schoenberg (Pierrot Lunaire is a must if you're looking for the voice), Stockhausen (Gesang der Junglinge is an incredibly good example of how to use sampled voice with electronics - it's interesting also because Stockhausen studied phonetics and physics of sound, so in this piece he goes to the bare essential of what makes us hear a sound and what a percussive noise, and he makes the recorded voice sound electronic, while creating electronic sounds sounding like the voice, to kind of explore the hitherland between electronic sounds and voice - quite a piece of music!), Berio (his Sequenza, No.3 I think, for voice is incredibly famous, and he's found some pretty good solutions for writing for the voice), Crumb (Ancient voices of Children - also has some prepared instruments which sound cool), Harvey (Mortuos Plengo - kind of spectral piece, again mixing between voice and the sound of a bell - a most beautiful result), and find the score of any other piece that you think is worth getting. Of course there are logical considerations that must be taken in mind, like that the voice is not an instrument like the strings, and thus can't sustain a note for ever. Or like, the lower notes need more air to be produced than the higher ones, which is why the higher voices can usually sustain notes for longer. But things like that are mentioned in the Barker book. Quote
Sirion Posted May 21, 2008 Author Posted May 21, 2008 This is all good advice, and I shall see what I can do with it. Thanks a lot :) Quote
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