2006/2026… Twenty years of activity!

M ° Antonio Juvarra

The vocal technique according to the Italian tradition

(The natural singing)

The essence of the singing, however threatened (As always happens to real and precious things), from ignorance and tampering, still resonates in our day in the places where his appearance is given to us… Grasp behind her magic the secret that makes it possible is the challenge that pushes many on its way. There is an Italian way, recognized all over the world as the most valid, To get to this destination. It arises from that incredible intuition from which all the Mediterranean classical art was born, or: Only what is deeply simple and natural can express and achieve what is authentically beautiful and human.

'Natural singing’ It is the principle elaborated for the first time by the greatest treatist of the Belcantistic period, The eighteenth -century Mancini, alluding to that particular vocality, which will then become known all over the world as' Italian singing’ O 'Belcanto'. We surprisingly find this same expression in the writings of vocal technique, left by three of the greatest tenors of the twentieth century, Enrico Caruso, Aureliano Pertile and Giacomo Lauri Volpi.

'Natural singing', so. It would seem a banal and indefinite formula, As always happens to the great truths. It is obviously not intended as a "sing as you come", But as a gradually taking awareness of the two levels of naturalness that always act in us and combine them together: superficial nature and deep nature, That, As he had already discovered Heraclito, love to hide….Arrived at this awareness, We come to understand what Bacon meant, when he said: “Just obeying nature, This principle is commanded "all the disciplines of the body at high level: from Italian singing to Judo, Japanese Karate and Aikido. All are united by the same intuition: There is a hard energy, heavy, muscle, based on the direct mechanical control of the muscles (typical of any form of singing and shouted singing) And there is a sweet energy, impalpable, widespread, The result of a soft and holistic approach to vocality and which characterizes that supreme form of singing that we call 'Belcanto'. It is in fact a 'letting it work’ and not of a 'making work', and the 'let it work’ It is obviously a data of arrival and not starting.

In order not to remain vague and generic, you could see more precisely what this naturalness is composed, that we can define second degree, Since a starting figure is only minimally. The nature to draw on because the real song makes its appearance, is twofold, That is, the components of this recipe are two:

1)- Total breath (deep nature) 2)- SPOKE (surface nature). This based on the well -known Farinelli aphorism of the second half of the eighteenth century, Pacsier, that reads: “Who knows well to syllabize and well breathe, will know well.”

More precisely the chemical formula of Belcanto could be defined as follows : Two atoms of breath, A speech atom.

Obviously for 'two breath atoms’ It does not refer to the amount of breath, but to the quality and the expanse of the inspiration, different from that of the spoken voice, the latter equally natural, but more superficial and unconscious. Similarly for 'a spoken atom’ It is meant that the speech must remain pure and simple to say’ and do not turn into 'declaimed', as often happens. In this case the 'spoken’ represents superficial nature, already given, while the 'breath’ represents the profound dimension of the sigh of relief and the breath of air.

The reason why the person who speaks very well, Then instead he sings very badly, it is the following: The speech is transfigured into singing only thanks to the real breath, Otherment remains simple spoken intoned. Said in any other way, The spoken e’ The cousin wing of song, But only with the second wing, Breath, Language’ Take off and become singing.

Second precaution to follow in applying this recipe: since 'spoken’ It is breathing’ They are two opposites, one representing the nucleus of sound, the other the space that makes him resonate, one element tends to crush the other. The vocal technique is nothing more than the patient research of that right dosage, of that right balance that only allows the two components to merge and give rise to something, precisely the Belcanto or 'VeroCanto', That, As the holistic disciplines teach, is superior to their sum.

Saratoga – USA 19/ 31 December 2010

The premier concert of Maestro Gioacchino Longobardi, President and Artistic Director of NMS, and the Saratoga Springs Youth Orchestra, SSYO, was First Night Saratoga, December 31st at the Church of St. Peter, 241 Broadway in Saratoga Springs, New York.

The orchestra performed with Guest violinist Mº Alberto Vitolo, Assistant Artistic Director of NMS. It was a beautiful concert. The musicians performed like professionals.

Program:

Domenico Scarlatti (1685 – 1757) Sonata for Strings n. 5
Largo
Allegro

G.B. Pergolesi (1710 – 1736)
Largo from Violin Concerto in F Major

Tommaso Giordani (c. 1738 – 1806)
Concerto in C Major for Piano and Strings

Niccolo Porpora (1686 – 1768)
Chamber Symphony for Strings
Soloist: Gabrielle Beauregard

Tour in New York - Inaugural concert of the Neapolitan Symphony Orchestra on 18th century Neapolitan art at the J.H. Skirball Center for the Performing Arts of NY - April 2008 041308_poster11×172.pdf NY concert poster 2008