Jetro Meira de Oliveira

Music 455
Book Review

Ehman, Wilhelm and Haasemann, Frauke. Voice Building for Choirs. Hinshaw
Music: Chapel Hill, NC (1981) ISBN 0-937276-02-2

Haasemann, Frauke and Jordan, James M. Group Vocal Technique: The Vocalise
Cards. Hinshaw Music: Chapel Hill, NC (1992) ISBN 0-937276-13-8
MT 875 H22G762

The second book listed above, Group Vocal Technique: The Vocalise Cards, is

intended as an expansion of the exercises conceptualized in the first book, Voice Building

for Choirs. As such, Ill begin my review with the text as it contains much of reasoning

behind the vocalize cards.

The book is divided into three large segments, the first of which deals with the

development of the vocal mechanism and the building of the choral sound. In this

section, the authors place great importance on a physical sensation of the sound. To this

end, several imagery exercises are suggested. For example, one of the exercises calls for

the imitation of a horses snort (prh), as a way in which flexibility in the face and throat

muscles can be achieved. Although the concepts are all presented in a fairly clear way,

one must question the applicability of some of these exercises. What I mean by

applicability is the potential disciplinary disruption of some of the exercises/games. For

instance, it is not difficult to imagine high schoolers taking off on a horse imitation

exercise or a hiccup exercise and using it for their own amusement rather than for the

building of their voices. Please dont get me wrong on this one. I am a strong advocate

of the use of imagery to convey abstract concepts to a choir, but I also believe that the

language and activity must be adapted to each individual situation. One must be careful
not to simply use the exercises straight out of the book without first filtering through

good sense and an evaluation of their utility in a peculiar situation. On the other hand,

the strength of these suggested exercises lie in the fact that a variety of everyday,

common activities are related to the development of specific technical aspects of singing.

The subsection entitled Voice Building (p 8) contains a series musical exercises

(with actual musical notation) related to imagery. This wedding proves to be very

successful, as vocal technical aspects such as resonance and relaxation are related to very

simple activities, yawning and laughter for example. I particularly appreciated the

suggestions for warm-up sessions. I found the suggestions for warm-ups both useful and

practical, as they applied to working on a specific vocal problem of the choir, using the

warm-up to obtain concentration and focus, and using the warm-up to develop the

appropriate vocal style for different repertories.

Based on the principles presented in Chapter A, Chapter B contains what the

authors called practical exercises in choral voice building. This chapter is perhaps the

best section of the book, for it covers a very wide range of vocal skills with exercises that

are easy to be grasped and easy to apply. Any one who has a sensitive ear will obtain

good results following the exercises prescribed in Chapter B. Its difficult to single out

the best exercises presented in this section, but I would suggest close attention to the

exercises under the heading Awakening the resonators (p. 33).

The third and last section of the book (Chapter C) contains examples of warm-up

exercises that can be used to develop the vocal style appropriate for the interpretation of

each period as well as specific exercises related to specific passages of representative

works from all periods. Under the heading for each stylistic period, the authors present
good information on the sound ideal of each particular period, a description of vocal

technical aspects that need to be addressed in order to achieve this sound ideal, and a

series of exercises focusing on the various issues initially discussed. The section dealing

with specific problems of representative works is also well presented. In this section (pp.

91-134) the authors isolated the most characteristic challenges of each piece, and

presented a series of progressive exercises, derived from the selected musical passages,

with the objective of the skill development necessary for a successful performance of the

work. Most of the problems addressed are related in a form or another to the issue of

articulation, and in this aspect the book contains good concepts on how to simplify a

passage, isolate the problem and obtain the necessary precise articulation.

My overall impression of Voice Building for Choirs is a very positive one. I

believe this text contains excellent material and really, I cannot say that I have found

anything to disagree upon. As professor Grant mentioned in class, this book was both

translated into English and conceived in a different culture and time, so that some of the

language seems somewhat out of place. This is a problem that any sensible choral

educator can easily solve as he or she adapts the concepts and exercises presented in the

book to serve his/her own particular situation.

Frauke Haasemann teamed up with James M. Jordan and produced a sequel to the

above reviewed text, entitled Group Vocal Technique: The Vocalise Cards. This

material is intended to be used during warm-up sessions as a means to develop the choral

ensemble vocally. It contains an introductory section explaining how the vocalize cards

are arranged and how they should be used. This section also points out that the concepts
worked in the vocalize cards are presented thoroughly in two materials entitled Group

Vocal Technique, a video and a book.

The Vocalise Cards are organized accordingly to an outlined curriculum for

choral training found on page 8. This outline demonstrates the principle described in the

introduction, that the concepts build on each other, and as such, must be presented in the

logical order in which the material is organized. For example, the concept of breathing

builds on the concept of posture, which in its turn builds on the concept of relaxation.

The fundamental concept behind these vocalize cards is the same found in the

book reviewed above, namely, that amateur singers can be taught the central elements of

good vocal technique within the choral rehearsal through the use of real-life experiences

(p. 5). With this principle in mind, the authors recommend that the conductor should

introduce each exercise from a real-life experience such as sighing, crying,

laughing and mooing. I have interpreted real-life experience as experiences that

are familiar to the particular group one is working with. As such, not every group, and

particularly suburban students, will relate to the same real-life experiences. I believe

that an understanding of this concept is the key to a successful application of all the very

good concepts presented in both Voice Building for Choirs and The Vocalise Cards.

If the conductor keeps this idea in mind, his language and imagery will relate to the

reality of his students, and consequently, the vocalise exercises will potentially reach

their goal.

The instructions on how to use the vocalise cards contain some important

principles that should be observed in any warm-up situation. Some of the key concepts

presented in this section are: begin each exercise in a range in which everybody in the
choir can comfortably sing; give the pitches for the choir, avoiding the use of the piano;

always begin fundamental warm-ups with the oo vowel, as it is the best foundation for

the other vowels; always use the five pure vowels, oo, oh, ah, eh, ee and the umlaut

ue; the conductor must always breath with and for the singers.

The cards themselves are presented in a format that facilitates their use. All cards

have the same identical format throughout the deck. Each card contains in bold print at

the top left-hand corner the major instructional objective, followed by other supporting

techniques. On the top right-hand corner, one finds information concerning the deck

sequence number and the level of difficulty of the exercise(s) presented in that card. The

description/instruction on how to use the cards reads that each card contains cross-

reference to other cards in the deck that use or expand on the same technique/principle (p.

19). This is a bit of misinformation, as this cross-reference information of the cards is

presented by itself in a tabbed section entitled Cross Reference, and not on each

individual card as the text of page 19 suggests. The cards are numbered 1 to 300, and the

numerical sequence within each section represents a suggested pedagogical arrangement,

however, the authors do affirm that once the conductor is comfortable using the cards he

can depart from the numerical sequence in order to obtain a desired objective for a

particular repertory.

I have found the Vocalise Cards to be a valuable resource as it presents practical

material in a very handy, quick-reference format. Even though the material presented in

the vocalise cards is of excellent quality, it is important to keep in mind that these

exercises, or any other for that matter, are only as good as the conductors ears and ability

to pin-point the vocal problems and challenges of his choral ensemble.