Art Song by Carol Kimball

Author:Carol Kimball
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hal Leonard
Published: 2013-05-24T04:00:00+00:00

Shaping Phrases Creatively

One facet of creativity is bound up with the manner in which singers shape phrases. Shape is created by inflection, which springs from patterns of rhythm and sound used in poetry called prosody. The prosody of any language is part and parcel of the stress and intonation of that language. Some composers have a superb “sense of prosody”; their art songs are somehow easier to sing than those of a composer who does not feel the stresses of a language as keenly.

Even when we sing a structured phrase of musical pitches, we add inflection in the form of weight and color. These can be used to give a vocal shape to the phrase that becomes part of our interpretation.

The composer has created a shape in musical terms by specific pitches, note values, and rhythms, but the singer adds another layer to the vocal texture, and that is inflection—born of study and preparation, an inflection of weight and color that stems from assimilating the text plus the sine qua non, imagination.

The rich sound texture produced by the addition of these subtle nuances and vocal colors creates a unique interpretation and enhances the communicative experience for the listener.

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