Plus ça change...

That's the beginning of a French phrase, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose, meaning "the more things change, the more things stay the same." Boy, truer words were never spoken— in any language.

As usual, I am writing this blog entry at the expense of a bigger, more important, deadlined project. But this time I have an excuse— I'm actually blogging about the bigger, more important, deadlined project. Namely, my ginormous term paper for a little class called Performance Practice. Much as I do with my taxes, I am considering this part of my organizational work for the paper– which is due on Friday.

And on what shall I be pontificating, you ask? I shall be holding forth on a 1995 English translation of a 1757 German translation and annotation of a 1723 Italian treatise on singing. Officially, the Johann Agricola work, Anleitung zur Singkunst (Introduction to the Art of Singing), which expanded and updated Pierfranceso Tosi's Opinioni de' cantori antichi e moderni o sieno Osservazioni sopra il canto figurato (Opinions of singers ancient and modern or observations on figured singing). All this has been put into legible-by-me form by the great early music soprano Julianne Baird (who, I might add, is from Statesville, NC; home of The Organist and 20 miles north of my Alma Mater on I-77).

Wait! If you're thinking, booooooring, stay with me for a minute. I was relatively rapt while reading this book. For the two of you who don't know me, when I'm not being The Diva, I am a voice teacher. I'm also a doctoral student, but I digress. Imagine my shock at reading admonitions like the following:

[The student] should repeat his lesson at home until he is quite sure of it and it has become imprinted upon his memory. He will thereby spare his teacher the trouble of repeating it, and himself the trouble of learning it again.
[...]
The young beginner in the art of singing should try as often as possible to listen to the most famous singers and best instrumentalists. From listening to their performance he derives more benefit than from any other instruction.
[...]
He should learn to accompany himself at the keyboard if he wants to learn to sing well.
[...]
I might almost assert that all effort that is expended on singing is useless if not accompanied by insight into the composition.
[... ]
If he practices his lesson at home, he should stand in front of a mirror from time to time. Not to admire his beauty with fascinated vanity, but rather to guard against or to free himself from convulsive movements of the torso or the face... *

I kept stifling the urge to go back and look at the dates to see if this was some kind of joke. These are the exact things we voice teachers say all of the time! Granted, the thing was in translation, but I also have a copy of the Tosi original in facsimile, from which I ascertained that Ms. Baird was not making this up!

This could be viewed as a good thing or as a bad thing. On one hand, there is rather a bit of gratification in knowing that one of the most well-known voice teachers of 1723 had the same problems we do in 2006 and in spite of that, our art has not yet died off. On the other hand? Two-hundred-and-eighty-three years from now, some voice teacher (or the computer that has replaced us) will be slapping its forehead and saying, "Omigod, this sounds just like now!"

There are lots of other things in the treatise, and sharing them with you really would be like a booty call to Morpheus. Suffice it to say, I'm pretty sure I can accomplish the requisite number of pages and still get some sleep.

Hey! Check out the website and get some holiday cheer by coming to hear me sing...


*Johann Friedrich Agricola, translated and edited by Julianne C. Baird, Introduction to the art of singing (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 184-187.