Belting

University of Iowa

Iowa Research Online Theses and Dissertations

2014

Belting is beautiful : welcoming the musical theater singer into the classical voice studio Colleen Ann Jennings University of Iowa

Copyright 2014 Colleen Ann Jennings This dissertation is available at Iowa Research Online: http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/1340 Recommended Citation Jennings, Colleen Ann. "Belting is beautiful : welcoming the musical theater singer into the classical voice studio." DMA (Doctor of Musical Arts) thesis, University of Iowa, 2014. http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/1340.

Follow this and additional works at: http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd Part of the Music Commons

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BELTING IS BEAUTIFUL: WELCOMING THE MUSICAL THEATER SINGER INTO THE CLASSICAL VOICE STUDIO

by Colleen Ann Jennings

An essay submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in the Graduate College of The University of Iowa August 2014 Essay Supervisor: Associate Professor Rachel Joselson

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Copyright by COLLEEN ANN JENNINGS 2014 All Rights Reserved

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! Graduate College The University of Iowa Iowa City, Iowa

CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL _______________________ D.M.A. ESSAY _______________ This is to certify that the D.M.A. Essay of Colleen Ann Jennings has been approved by the Examining Committee for the essay requirement for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the August 2014 graduation. Essay Committee: __________________________________ Rachel Joselson, Essay Supervisor __________________________________ John Muriello __________________________________ Stephen Swanson __________________________________ L. Kevin Kastens __________________________________ William LaRue Jones

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! ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you to my committee, Dr. Muriello, Prof. Swanson, Prof. Kastens, and Dr. Jones, all of you have been very supportive in seeing me through this process, and I have enjoyed working with each of you. Dr. Joselson, in particular, you have been my staunch supporter and have been invaluable in propelling me to complete this degree. Thank you to my husband, Ernest Jennings, for believing in me and supporting me in so many ways. I love you! Thank you to my mother and sisters and their families, for their encouragement and the healthy competition only a house with three sopranos in it would generate. Thank you to my past voice teachers and vocal coaches, especially Marguerite Gignac Hedges, Renee Skrevanos Root, Virginia Croskery, and Shari Rhoads for giving me the tools to be a fearless vocal explorer. Thank you to Pauline Wieland Plowman and the Graduate College staff, including Eunice Prosser, for your support. Thank you to my colleagues from Mahidol University, especially Daren Robbins, Eun-Young Suh, Cassandra Fox-Percival, Servio Bona, Danny Keasler, James Ogburn, Amy Galbraith Ogburn, Parvati Mani, Yavet Boyadjiev, Paul Cesarczyk, Joe Bowman, and Wannapha Yannavut, for providing support, friendship, and lots of memorable collaborations. Thank you to my readers Dr. Cynthia Schmidt, Prof. Shari Rhoads, and Dr. Yasmin A. Flores. To friends from The University of Iowa, thank you for your friendship!

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! TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES.............................................................................................................. v LIST OF FIGURES........................................................................................................... vi CHAPTER 1 DEVELOPMENT OF BELTING AND ITS INFLUENCES ..................1 Purpose of This Study...................................................................................8 Historical Overview (Early 20th century to present).................................9 Late 1800s – Early 1900s................................................................................9 Cultural Changes.........................................................................................10 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW .........................................................................16 Rachel Lebon ................................................................................................16 Karen S. Hall.................................................................................................19 Robert Edwin................................................................................................23 Anne Peckham .............................................................................................30 Jeannette LoVetri .........................................................................................30 Lisa Popeil.....................................................................................................32 Ingo Titze ......................................................................................................35 CHAPTER 3 APPLICATION IN THE VOICE STUDIO ..........................................36 Back to Basics ...............................................................................................36 First Steps......................................................................................................36 Breath and Alignment.................................................................................37 Vocalises for Belting ....................................................................................41 1. Calling-Voice Exercise .....................................................................41 2. Siren Exercise ....................................................................................41 3. Cross-Register Arpeggios................................................................42 4. Messa di voce exercise........................................................................42 5. Invention of vocal études from repertoire .....................................43 Mouth, Head, and Jaw Position for Belting.............................................44 Twang Resonance ........................................................................................47 Methodology for Specific Repertoire........................................................48 1. “Roxie,” from Chicago ......................................................................49 2. “On the Steps of the Palace,” from Into the Woods .......................50 3. “Adelaide’s Lament” from Guys and Dolls ...................................53 4. “Always a Bridesmaid” from I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change............................................................................................56 5. “I Know the Truth” from Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida .........57 6. “I Got Rhythm” from Girl Crazy or Crazy for You ........................58 7. “Look at Me, I’m Sandra Dee” from Grease ..................................59 8. “My New Philosophy” from You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown ......................................................................................................60 9. “Blow, Gabriel, Blow” from Anything Goes ..................................61 10. “On My Own” from Les Misérables ..............................................62

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! CHAPTER 4 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................64 Areas for Further Research ........................................................................64 APPENDIX A DEFINITION OF TERMS....................................................................66 Pedagogical...................................................................................................66 Repertoire .....................................................................................................71 APPENDIX B CONTEMPORARY COMMERCIAL MUSIC 1930S PRESENT ......................................................................................................72 APPENDIX C REPRESENTATIVE VIDEOGRAPHY ..............................................76 1. “Roxie” from Chicago performed by Renee Zellweger ...............76 2. “On the Steps of the Palace” from Into the Woods performed by Kim Crosby ..................................................................77 3. “Adelaide’s Lament” from Guys and Dolls performed by Vivian Blaine .........................................................................................77 4. “Always a Bridesmaid” from I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change performed by Traci Laborde.........................................78 5. “I Know the Truth” from Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida performed by Sherie René Scott .........................................................79 6. “I Got Rhythm” from Girl Crazy or Crazy for You performed by Ethel Merman ..............................................................79 7. “Look at Me, I’m Sandra Dee” from Grease performed by Stockard Channing...............................................................................80 8. “My New Philosophy” from You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown performed by Kristin Chenoweth ..........................................81 9. “Blow, Gabriel, Blow” from Anything Goes performed by Sutton Foster .........................................................................................82 10. “On My Own” from Les Misérables performed by Lea Salonga...................................................................................................82 APPENDIX D REPRESENTATIVE MUSICAL SCORES .........................................84 APPENDIX E PERMISSIONS ......................................................................................85 APPENDIX F ADDITIONAL VOCALISES FOR BELTING....................................87 BIBLIOGRAPHY.............................................................................................................88

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! LIST OF TABLES ! Table 1: “Roxie” from Chicago. ......................................................................................50 Table 2: “On the Steps of the Palace” from Into the Woods........................................52 Table 3: “Adelaide’s Lament” from Guys and Dolls. ..................................................54 Table 4: “Always a Bridesmaid” from I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. .....56 Table 5: “I Know the Truth” from Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida.........................57 Table 6: “I Got Rhythm” from Girl Crazy or Crazy for You........................................58 Table 7: “Look at Me, I’m Sandra Dee” from Grease..................................................59 Table 8: “My New Philosophy” from You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown................61 Table 9: “Blow, Gabriel, Blow” from Anything Goes. .................................................62 Table 10: “On My Own” from Les Misérables..............................................................63

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LIST OF FIGURES ! Figure 1: An open glottis from Henry Gray, Anatomy: Descriptive and ....................5 Surgical, 20th ed. (Grammercy Books, New York, 1918): Figure 956. The 20th edition of Gray’s Anatomy is available in public domain in the USA. Figure 2: Jo Estill’s comparison of spectra for three qualities: speech, opera, ........6 and belting at five frequencies: 196, 294, 392, 587, and 784 Hz. Each envelope represents the average of all tokens for that condition. The horizontal line in each cell is the amplitude of the fundamental. The hatched vertical line is the 3 kHz marker for the area in the spectrum to which the ear is most sensitive. Acoustic energy where the two lines intersect is a measure of relative loudness. From “Belting and Classic Voice Quality Some Physiological Differences ,” Medical Problems of Performing Artists Volume 3, March 1988, page 39. Used with permission from the publisher. Permission in Appendix C. Figure 3: The Atlanto-Occipital Joint, Henry Gray, Anatomy: Descriptive .............39 andSurgical, 20th ed. (Grammercy Books, New York, 1918): Figure 305. The 20th edition of Gray’s Anatomy is available in public domain in the USA. Figure 4: Siren Exercise. ................................................................................................42 Figure 5: Cross-register arpeggios................................................................................42 Figure 6: Messa di voce Exercise. ....................................................................................43 Figure 7: The author demonstrating a classical mouth position, taken by . ..........44 Brian Kastens with Nikon D-60. July 21, 2014. Photography Copyright Release in Appendix C. Figure 8: The author demonstrating a belting mouth position, taken by ..............45 Brian Kastens with Nikon D-60. July 21, 2014. Photography Copyright Release in Appendix C. Figure 9: The author in profile singing classical style, taken by Brian ..................45 Kastens with Nikon D-60. July 21, 2014. Photography Copyright Release in Appendix C. Figure 10: The author in profile, singing belt style, taken by Brian Kastens ........46 with Nikon D-60. July 21, 2014. Photography Copyright Release in Appendix C. Figure 11: The author singing classical style, taken by Brian Kastens with...........46 Nikon D-60. July 21, 2014. Photography Copyright Release in Appendix C.

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! Figure 12: The author singing belting style, taken by Brian Kastens with.............47 Nikon D-60. July 21, 2014. Photography Copyright Release in Appendix C. Figure 13: The aryepiglottic fold, Henry Gray, Anatomy: Descriptive and...............48 Surgical, 20th ed. (Grammercy Books, New York, 1918): Figure 953. The 20th edition of Gray’s Anatomy is available in public domain in the USA. Figure 14: The larynx, Henry Gray, Anatomy: Descriptive and Surgical, 20th..........70 ed. (Grammercy Books, New York, 1918): Figure 959. The 20th edition of Gray’s Anatomy is available in public domain in the USA Figure 15: Additional vocalises for belting. Use [æ] or [i]. .......................................87

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"! CHAPTER 1 DEVELOPMENT OF BELTING AND ITS INFLUENCES

Belting, long disparaged by many in musical academia, has grown over the past 100 years or more to be a more important and respected component of contemporary commercial music. Contemporary Commercial Music (CCM) is a descriptor by Jeannette LoVetri, vocal pedagogue, to describe all types of nonclassical singing. CCM styles are cabaret, country, experimental, gospel, jazz, musical theater, pop, rock, and rhythm and blues. “The term was developed to call CCM styles by what they are rather than what they are not – non-classical.”1 It has also, to some extent, crept into modern classical music. This essay will establish the importance of belting on today’s musical scene, dispel certain fears associated with belting, and offer a basic methodology for teaching belting technique. Belting is one of many vocal techniques demanded of the 21st-century singer. The American public’s ear has become accustomed to various styles of belting, now a firmly established as a mainstream vocal technique. Belting style has expanded a new standard of what many consider “beautiful” singing and has become an important area for research. In a study conducted in 2003, LoVetri and Edrie Weekly, instructors at Shenandoah Conservatory2 concluded that many teachers of musical theater and responders, 19 percent had no professional !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1

Hall, Karen Sue, “Music Theater Vocal Pedagogy and Styles: An Introductory Teaching Guide for Experienced Classical Singing Teachers” (Ed.D. diss., Columbia University, 2006): 14. 2

Both are founders of Contemporary Commercial Music (CCM) Vocal Pedagogy Institute at Shenandoah Conservatory.

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experience or training in this style of singing, and while 66 percent use the term, only half actually teach the technique.3 Belting is a powerful voice quality; some believe it is foreign to classical singing. An under-studied part of the science of singing, and much knowledge of belting is yet to be discovered. Belting must be regarded and presented as high-efficiency phonation – that is, it exacts tremendous energy, sustained projection and support, and thus optimal vocal technique, control, and efficiency. An integral part of belting pedagogy must therefore include explanations that foster knowledge of the vocal mechanism, awareness of what constitutes vocal abuse and misuse, and strategies to produce the vocal sounds that are demanded, efficiently, with the objective of vocal endurance. Equipped with this factual information, the professional singer would be better able to deal with the pressures placed on vocalists who are often made to feel that they are being “prima donnas” or labeled as “difficult” when they are merely exercising good vocal maintenance.4 The demand for belting, and for singers who can belt, continues to grow. Singers who are only classically trained are often at a disadvantage in the job market. A balanced, holistic, and efficient approach to healthy vocal function is crucial, regardless of idiom. The musical theater industry – indeed the contemporary commercial music industry in general – is currently promoting the idea that “bigger” and “more powerful” are better when it comes to vocal production. The key driver of this idea is the wave of massively popular televised reality shows and talent contests (American Idol, The Voice, et al.) whose judges have little or no musical !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 3

Edrie Means Weekly and Jeannette LoVetri, “Contemporary Commercial Music (CCM) Survey: Who’s Teaching What in Nonclassical Music,” Journal of Voice 17, no. 2 (June 2003): 208-9. 4

Lebon. The Professional Vocalist: A Handbook for Commercial Singers and Teachers. Lanham, Md. and London: The Scarecrow Press, 1999: 117.

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education. The judges’ assessments of the performances displayed on these shows have placed too many misconceptions in the minds of many young singers. Aspiring young singers are guided only by these TV shows, or by star judges, many of whom proclaim themselves vocal experts. A lack of sound vocal training can result in bad habits and vocal problems. The popularity of these television reality illustrates the need for better training in belting. A thorough understanding of belting techniques will provide the necessary tools for vocalists/teachers to better fulfill the demands of current trends in musical theater. As a result of the demand for the big and powerful, as well as the everrising popularity of show tunes and popular songs that require the technique, belting has become an indispensable weapon in a singer’s arsenal. For many classically trained vocal instructors, belting remains an elusive and mysterious term. A large number of experienced vocal coaches and voice teachers disparage belting, believing that it will damage the voice, lead to bad singing habits, and is incompatible with classical training. “Singing for musical theater is enormously demanding,” writes singing technique pioneer Joan Melton. “It requires the ability to handle a wide variety of vocal genres, as well as the robust good health to do eight shows a week on a regular basis.”5 Musical theater is the only singing genre that demands a successive weekday performance schedule. Classical singers and singers of other Contemporary Commercial Music (CCM) styles such as pop, rock, rhythm and blues (R & B), and country schedule days off during

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Joan Melton, Singing in Musical Theatre: The Training and Singing of Singers and Actors, (New York, New York: Allworth Press, 2007): xiii.

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their performance weeks. Many vocal pedagogy texts6 are classically focused with belting often only briefly mentioned. Regrettably, numerous textbooks intended for class voice contain little or no mention of belting. Belting extends naturally from speech and is an aggressive, visceral, and intense technique of vocal production used for dramatic effect. It is a vocal skill that must be cultivated with the discipline required of classical singers. Jeannette LoVetri, one of the leading experts on belt defines it thus: Belting is just a label given to a certain aspect of chest register function. This definition is supported by decades of use in the theatrical community to characterize a specific type of singing and singer who could be heard at the back of the house long before there was electronic amplification.7 Many pedagogues, including LoVetri, Karen S. Hall, Anne Peckham, and Mary Saunders Barton, have attempted to agree on a definition for belting. Susan Boardman, emeritus faculty of voice at Pennsylvania State University, defines it as “a tense, rough, driving, bright, vibrato-less, assertive yell.”8 Beth Miles and Harry Hollien, authors of the article “Whither Belting?,” describe belting “as a mode of singing that is typified by unusually loud heavy phonation that exhibits little or no vibrato but a high level of nasality.”9 Harm K. Shutte and Donald G. Miller, authors of “Belting and Pop, Non-Classical Approaches to the Female !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 6

Such as: William Vennard’s Singing: The Mechanism and Technic; Richard Miller’s Structure of Singing: System and Art in Vocal Technique; and Oren Brown’s Discover Your Voice.

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Jeannette LoVetri, “Voice Pedagogy: Female Chest Voice,” Journal of Singing 60, no. 2 (November/December 2003): 162. 8

Susan D. Boardman, Voice Training for the Musical Theater Singer, (Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI Research Press, 1987), 25. 9

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Beth Miles and Harry Hollien, “Whither Belting?” in Journal of Voice. 4:1 (March 1990),

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Middle Voice” further specify belting as “a manner of loud singing that is characterized by consistent use of ‘chest register’ (less than 50 percent closed phase of glottis – Figure 1) in a range in which larynx elevation is necessary to match the first formant with the second harmonic on open (high F1) vowels, that is G4-D5 in female voices.”10

Figure 1: An open glottis from Henry Gray, Anatomy: Descriptive and Surgical, 20th ed. (Grammercy Books, New York, 1918): Figure 956. The 20th edition of Gray’s Anatomy is available in public domain in the USA.

This process is known as formant tuning. Rachel Lebon, Professor of Jazz Vocal Performance at The University of Miami Frost School of Music, characterizes belting as “vocal production that proceeds out of the speaking range, with the !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 10

Harm K. Schutte and Donald G. Miller, “Belting and Pop, Nonclassical Approaches to the Female Middle Voice: Some Preliminary Considerations,” in Journal of Voice 7:2 (1993), 147.

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prosody of speech, and that promotes a sense of spontaneity and aggressiveness.”11 (Figure 2)

Figure 2: Jo Estill’s comparison of spectra for three qualities: speech, opera, and belting at five frequencies: 196, 294, 392, 587, and 784 Hz. Each envelope represents the average of all tokens for that condition. The horizontal line in each cell is the amplitude of the fundamental. The hatched vertical line is the 3 kHz marker for the area in the spectrum to which the ear is most sensitive. Acoustic energy where the two lines intersect is a measure of relative loudness. From “Belting and Classic Voice Quality Some Physiological Differences ,” Medical

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Rachel L. Lebon, “The Effects of a Pedagogical Approach Incorporating Videotaped Demonstrations on the Development of Female Vocalists “Belted” Vocal Technique.” PhD. Diss. University of Miami, 1986, 80.

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Problems of Performing Artists Volume 3, March 1988, page 39. Used with permission from the publisher. Permission in Appendix C.

In her dissertation, Lebon asked undergraduate students to articulate their concepts of belting. The following are some of the responses: • A louder sound – a clearer sound. Strong and loud, but clear, not distorted.” • “Chest voice – loud singing– big voice – musical comedy.” • “Broadway, but not legit – chest voice – more forward.” • “I’m scared of the word – I really tense up.” • “Whenever I try to belt or hear someone trying it, it sounds like they’re yelling and pushing – I think of nodes.” • “Pop style – Broadway.” • “Loud projection – powerful.” • “Loud, sometimes strident – a real musical comedy type of sound.” • “Musical theatre – very straight tone.” • “Stretching chest voice up to where it should be head – screaming.” • “Something negative – pushed – heavy sound.12 This author asserts that belting is a pragmatic technique, essential to the study of voice for musical theater students. “As more and more classical singers consider the possibility of branching out into non-classical singing and as actors acknowledge the very real possibility of getting more work if they can sing musical theatre, belting becomes a particularly attractive option for both groups,” Melton writes.13 Belting, with proper instruction, can be sung without danger of damaging the voice or losing range. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 12

Ibid. (These responses are not credited to specific students in the dissertation.)

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Melton, xiii.

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Purpose of This Study ! This essay provides an historical perspective on the art of belting, reviews the physiological function of the vocal instrument during belting, attempts to establish that belting increases the stamina and strength of the classical singer, and reinforces the benefit of classical vocal training for musical theater singers. One major goal of this essay is to mitigate the fears associated with belting, both from the perspective of voice quality and vocal technique. Another goal is to provide a teaching method for belting, develop neutral terminology, and review pedagogical writings of belting experts, including Rachel Lebon, Karen S. Hall, Robert Edwin, Jeannette LoVetri, and Lisa Popeil. This author perceives a distinct disconnect between the majority of university vocal training programs and the stylistic and technical demands placed on young singers who move on to professional careers. Many university voice teachers offer lessons in classical technique exclusively.14 However, in the 21st century, vocalists must perform in a variety of styles and idioms. Female singers must be able to not only sing in head voice, but to belt, if they aspire to sing musical theater. Versatile ”crossover” artists have many more employment opportunities than singers who know only classical technique.

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2011, 4.

Bethany Barber, “Pedagogical Approaches to ‘Belting’”, D.M. diss., Indiana University,

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Historical Overview (Early 20th century to present) ! Musical theater has absorbed many musical and cultural influences in the past century. It is a popular form of public entertainment and is easily accessible to the general public. Musicals have become standard repertoire in many American opera companies. This brief overview will introduce several theater and commercial music genres that have influenced the art of belting.

Late 1800s – Early 1900s Minstrelsy, vaudeville, and burlesque shows, popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s, were the earliest forerunners of the American musical. Shows of this type required performers to project their voices outdoors without amplification, a departure from the European classical vocal tradition in which vocal projection is achieved through enhancement of resonance or ring in the voice.15 Emphasis on singing in the speaking range is an inherent characteristic of singing in these idioms.16 Belting consisted of white performers imitating the singing style of blacks, inspiring laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works and/or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.17 May Irwin, a Canadian actress and singer, became a popular burlesque/vaudeville performer in the 1890s, the foremost “coon shouter” of her time. Coon shouters were !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 15

William Vennard. Singing: The Mechanism and Technic. (New York: Carl Fischer, Inc,

1967): 89. 16 17

Lebon, Ph.D. diss., 9.

“Burlesque,” Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, [website] http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/burlesque Accessed March 12, 2014.

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typically white female performers portraying black female caricatures. Predating electronic amplification, the vocal delivery was shouted and aggressive. Irwin was a versatile and gifted performer, not limited to such roles. She recorded several Broadway hit numbers from the 1890s to 1900s in other vocal styles and influenced future musical theater belters such as Celeste Holm and Bernadette Peters.18 Another major transformation occurred in the 1880s with the emergence of Tin Pan Alley music publishers. The name refers to a neighborhood in New York City, where many of these publishers had offices. Songs performed by May Irwin or Sophie Tucker emphasized the consonants and clarity of vowels rather than the beauty of tone.19

Cultural Changes Before the 1920s, the lines between opera, operetta, musical theater, and popular music were not as clearly drawn as they later became. Metropolitan Opera divas were the celebrated popular music singers of the day. Between the 1930s and 1950s, the stars of the Met often crossed over into musical theater and starred in Hollywood movies.20 Up to about 1920, a singer was a singer. That is, he was someone with a highly polished and sizable voice that gave evidence of having been trained. The leading singers !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 18

Mark N. Grant, The Rise and Fall of the Broadway Musical (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2004), 20.

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Robin Lee Morales, “A Performer’s Guide to the American Musical Theater Songs of Kurt Weill (1900-1950),” DMA University of Arizona, 2008, 41.

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The changes in American cultural tastes necessitated a new approach to musical theater. The average American had become more interested in jazz, radio, and the latest dances. Plot started to play a more important part of musical theater, and song lyrics became more integral to the story line. The works of Victor Herbert, Sigmund Romberg, and Rudolf Friml had featured an operatic singing style. In the 1920s, Broadway shows gave way to a more natural and speech-like way of singing.22 This necessitated the lowering of vocal range and tessitura. In musicals of the late 1800s and early 1900s, higher tessitura were composed for women and men. Consonants were less audible, especially for sopranos, and the natural vowel sounds required some modification to maintain vocal beauty. Another important development was the new conception of theater melody. While Friml, Romberg, and Herbert wrote soaring vocal lines, George M. Cohan and Irving Berlin composed melodies of diatonic simplicity (utilizing primarily the piano’s white keys in C major). These songs were free of intervallic leaps with little chromaticism. While this style was prevalent in 19th-century folk songs, Cohan, Berlin, and other Tin Pan Alley composers constructed their songs on direct repetition of short melodic motives. “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby” is !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 21

Lehmann Engel. Getting Started in the Theater: A Handbook for Breaking into Show Business (New York, Macmillan, 1975), 85-86. 22

Morales, 41-2.

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perhaps the best example. This novel style is called riff-songwriting,23 and many examples of the riff song survive from this era. Berlin’s “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” although not from a musical, has an initial four-note motive repeated twice, then again three times at a higher pitch. Riff songs could be described as under-composed, with short, repeated, catchy patterns. Other examples include George M. Cohan’s World War I anthem “Over There,” Vincent Youman’s “Tea for Two,” and “I Wish I Were in Love Again,” in which Richard Rodgers repeats the same riff six times in the opening. In each of these songs, the tessitura lies in the middle of the voice and imitates speaking. Berlin, Rodgers, Jerome Kern, and George Gershwin took Herbert’s cue by simplifying the melody and developing riff songs influenced by operatic style. Berlin’s “Cheek to Cheek” begins with a riff he borrowed from Chopin’s A-flat major Polonaise Op. 53. He repeats the riff, then uses soaring lines similar to those found in a Herbert or Romberg melody. Gershwin’s “Mine” contains continual riffs as well as chromatic intervals characteristic of operatic melody. Rodgers’ “Johnny One Note,” a belter’s staple, uses pure riffs interspersed with gradually larger vocal leaps.24 Although memorable, riff songs lack vocal power and deep emotion. A classically trained vocalist has few opportunities to showcase dynamic and pitch range, or capacity to hold long notes.25 The development of the microphone, invented in the 1870s and gradually perfected over ensuing decades, transformed both popular music and musical !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 23

Grant, 29.

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Ibid. 30.

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Ibid.

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theater. The microphone gained currency in the 1920s and projection became less of a necessity. Singing styles became relaxed and more speech-like, lyrics gained importance, and songs were more often written in keys that centered in the speaking range, regardless of voice type. The approach to singing became more personalized, with singers adding variations that reflected their own style.26 The period from 1927-1966 is considered the golden age of the Broadway musical and saw the heyday of some of the greatest singing actors. Jazz improvisation and a personalized song style influenced theater songwriting.27 Ethel Merman was the iconic belter of this era, recognizable by her personalized style. Critics often described her belting style as brassy. “Merman’s chest voice was highly unusual in not being dusky but rather bright and almost a spinto soprano in timbre – in a word, brassy.”28 She made her Broadway debut in 1930 with Gershwin’s Girl Crazy, and became an overnight sensation. She is credited with single-handedly making belting style legitimate during her 40-year singing career. In 1970, Walter Kerr called her voice “exactly as trumpet-clean, exactly as pennywhistle-piercing, exactly as Wurlitzer wonderful as it always was.”29 The golden age of Broadway musicals paralleled the rise of the great signature pop song stylists. During the Big Band Era of the 1930s-1950s, singers who sang with the top bands gained celebrity status. This era represents the !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 26

Lebon, Ph.D. diss., 10.

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Grant. 44.

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Ibid. 38.

29

Brian Kellow, Ethel Merman: A Life (New York: Viking, 2007), 223.

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fusion of European-American and African-American elements in music. In the past 30 years, musical theater has become the repository for every popular music style on the market.30 Shows such as Mamma Mia!, Movin’ Out, The Look of Love, and American Idiot are straightforward revues of the music of ABBA, Billy Joel, Burt Bacharach, and Green Day respectively. Many pop singers have graced the Broadway stage in the past 40 years, including Sting (The Last Ship); Adam Pascal (Rent, Aida, Cabaret); Reba McIntyre (Annie Get Your Gun); Carly Rae Jepsen (Cinderella); Elton John (Composer of The Lion King, Aida, Billy Elliott: The Musical); U2 (Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark); Tommy Shaw of STYX and Kevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon (both appearing in Rock of Ages). During this time, virtually no opera singers had crossed over to the Broadway stage. Rock singing may be described as modern day bel canto. In the midnineteenth century the school of bel canto became the measuring stick of vocal technique. Likewise, rock singing – which emphasizes improvisatory ornamentation and the delivery of broad strokes of emotion, and places the main focus on vocal style – draws attention away from the plot of the song. This is a pivotal development in the history of singing. The rock singing in Rent is as important as the bel canto singing in La Sonnambula. Rock-style singing draws attention to the singer and away from the character. Both rock singing and bel canto have this in common. The performer’s emotion can become “prefabricated, taking the specificity out of the dramaturgy.”31 Musicals with psychological complexity, such as those of Stephen Sondheim, require the singer to subordinate their personal style to the demands !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 30

Grant. 45.

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Ibid. 46.

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of the music. Megamusicals, such as Andrew Lloyd Webber’s the Phantom of the Opera, or Claude-Michele Schönberg’s Les Misérables and Miss Saigon, marry memorable melodies with a contemporary pop sound. Body microphones have made it possible for voices to compete with the amplified instruments of a rock band or a large pit orchestra, in a 3,000-seat hall, ensuring preservation of the vast musical theater repertoire of the past. Singing in musical theater can be distinguished from other popular music idioms in that the singer typically does not perform directly on microphone. There have been many shifts in style from the origins of musical theater to the present. Belting has changed from the coon shouters of the early 20th century, to the “riff” songs of the 1920s, to the soaring lines of today, and every popular music idiom in between.

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"'! CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

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