Bel Canto not only influenced the vocal art of China, but also influenced the vocal art of other countries. The following are the aesthetic features of Bel Canto. Let's study together!
Aesthetic characteristics of bel canto. The scientific nature of vocal music methods
Scientific vocal method is the first basic aesthetic feature of Bel Canto. Bel canto, folk singing and popular singing, among which Bel canto is the most scientific. Bel canto originated in Italy, developed from the traditional singing method of professional classical vocal music in western Europe, and gradually formed Bel canto after the Renaissance.
Bel canto comes from Italian Bel canto, which means beautiful singing. The definition of bel canto in western music circles is different from our understanding. Their understanding of Bel Canto refers to the works and singing art of Rossini, Donizetti and Beligni at that time. Including the singing style, skills, content, form and singing method of that era. Its main features are relaxed and free voice, wide range, rich resonance and delicate expression. The intervention and support of scientific theory is accompanied by the emergence and development of Bel Canto. The subjects related to traditional Italian Bel Canto include human anatomy, physical acoustics and vocal aesthetics. , and derived from voice physiology, voice therapy and other marginal disciplines. These related theoretical sciences elaborated the structure of singing cavity and the movement law of muscles in detail, which provided theoretical guidance and help for Bel Canto.
After hundreds of years of inheritance, summary and development, Bel Canto has become more mature. In Italy, they have the most famous vocal educators in the world, such as the Garcia family in the history of European vocal music. With their efforts, Bel Canto has formed a scientific education system, and the training has gradually become standardized, systematic and scientific. In the process of singing, the use of voice is completely carried out in accordance with the extremely strict and standardized scientific vocal methods. For example, chest-abdomen combined breathing, deep throat position, mask resonance and so on.
Second, the rigor and creativity of singing.
When singing with Bel Canto, we must strictly follow the composer's original intention, and sing according to the specific requirements such as rhythm, expression, speed, strength and breathing written on the score, and we are not allowed to play at will, which is in sharp contrast with the rap and randomness of the use of national singing voice and the freedom and naturalness of the use of popular singing voice. When singing a song, a singer should not only complete solfeggio on the surface of the score, but also fully express the original intention of the work. More importantly, the singer expresses the emotional process of the work with his own feelings and experiences, and integrates his own personality through re-creation, thus building a bridge of emotional communication between the singer and the audience.
Creativity makes vocal music works gain life and value in creation, which embodies the emotion of vocal music works. Creativity is based on the original work, injecting new ideas that meet the content requirements from all angles, expanding and extending the original content and theme, and enriching the extension and connotation of the work. Many times, what people want to hear is the singer's unique singing style, as well as his unique opinions and interpretations of his works. The embodiment of personality indicates the gradual maturity of creativity, indicating that the singer has a clear self-awareness, not only has his own unique views and understanding of vocal music works, but also can find a suitable performance mode according to his own conditions and specialties, forming a unique and personalized performance style.
A music critic commented on two world-famous sopranos in the 20th century and their heroines in Donizetti's opera Lucretia in Rammore, saying: "Callas is devoted to lofty passion, which makes the interpretation of Lucretia full of charm and passion. It shows that her heroine is not a delicate figure at all. She refused to accept her fate and fought it. The image created by Sutherland is more lyrical and gentle, and it is clear from the beginning of the opera that this is a proud and dignified girl ... "These two results are obviously caused by the personality characteristics and subjective creation of the performer. Starting from the connotation of the work and the authenticity of life, through their own re-creation, integration of personality, and tapping the potential of the work, even what the author did not expect, the singing reached a touching realm and produced touching artistic effects.
Thirdly, the diversity of singing styles of Bel Canto.
Bel canto is a mixed sound area, mixed resonance, and pays attention to the mixture of true and false sounds. When singing opera works, the oropharyngeal cavity and nasopharyngeal cavity are used more, while when singing art songs, the oropharyngeal cavity and nasopharyngeal cavity are used less, so there is no need to cover up the high notes. Although these methods are all bel canto, there are slight changes in singing methods in order to meet the needs of different works. Works of different periods, styles and composers, even if the same composer chooses different tracks; The singing style is different, and the usage of the voice is also different. For example, Russian school: some Russian singing methods are more colloquial, especially baritone. This is the characteristic of their language, not the absolute problem of good or bad methods. This is not entirely because they have been trained in their works and languages, it is a matter of methods and styles. Judging from the works, the Italian style is warm and brilliant, the German style is subtle and rigorous, delicate and beautiful, the French style is romantic and beautiful, fresh and elegant, the Russian style is deep, thick and broad, and the China style is simple, sincere and melodious.
Fourthly, the diversity and richness of sound features.
There is no tool to express human feelings more strongly and effectively than human voice, and sometimes it doesn't even depend on language. When it is completely expressed by the internal timbre and tone of the sound, it is equally touching. Subat, a German music theorist, said: "The human throat is the first purest and most outstanding instrument in a drama." Bel canto requires certain norms and standards of timbre, which can penetrate hundreds of symphony orchestras and then reach the ears of listeners as far away as tens or even hundreds of meters. Pavarotti said: "What I am looking for is a clear metal timbre, which is definitely not the eunuch's voice."
Stefano, a world-class tenor in Italy, can conquer the audience with his full and free-flying voice, meticulous and diverse strength, powerful climax and rich timbre colors. When Nelson, a famous soprano who was nearly sixty years old, performed in the United States, "her unique voice was concentrated like a laser, and the metallic sound quality and peculiar timbre in the high-pitched area played a role in shocking the audience." The New York Times once commented on the famous soprano joan sutherland: "The high-pitched area is clean and clear as a bell, which reminds people of the flute. The warm and rich midrange zone makes people feel the oboe singing, while the soft and rich bass zone seems to come from the cello. Use the "audio-visual" of clock, flute, oboe and cello to compare Sutherland's voice charm. Italian mezzo-soprano Fiorensa corzo Toto also believes that singers must find their own timbre or voice.
Fifth, the era of Bel Canto.
Art reflects and records the essential characteristics of the times. The same art form has different characteristics in different times. The same is true of the development of western opera art. Vocal music works follow the history of that era and have distinct characteristics of the times. For example, the aria "Don't Be a Lover" by Figaro in Mozart's opera "The Wedding of Figaro" fully shows the characteristics of Italian young men and women in the18th century. As a footman, Figaro tactfully persuaded Count Almaviva, the owner who had long coveted Susanna, to marry her maid Susanna: "A man should stop talking about love every day, don't comb his hair and wear perfume, don't be full of affairs ..." and so on.
Sixth, the emotion of Bel Canto.
Emotion is the most important feature in the aesthetic characteristics of all music works, and it is the soul of music art. As the great German philosopher Hegel said, "The unique factor of music is the pure internal factor, that is, the invisible emotion itself." The richness of musical emotion comes from the richness of composer's emotion. Many opera composers, such as Mozart, Verdi, Bizet and Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, are not only emotional people, but also good at composing with emotion. The characters in the play are rich in emotion, which is a bridge between the composer and the singer's emotional world. For example, Puccini's aria "Sunny Days" in the opera "Madame Butterfly" fully shows the rich and complicated emotions such as expectation, surprise, doubt, shyness and hesitation when Madame Butterfly dreams of missing her husband so much ... US Navy Colonel Pinker returned by boat. The singer is rich in emotion, which is the bond between the characters' emotion and the audience's emotion. Through the expression of characters' emotions, the singer resonates with the audience's emotions, and finally achieves the artistic effect of "moving people with emotion".
Vocal music art should not only be pleasing to the ear, but also have deep feelings, that is, "sound and emotion are both rich". The phrase "full of sound and emotion" tells the basic characteristics of vocal music art and people's key requirements for vocal music art. The core of vocal music aesthetics is "full of sound and emotion". People's requirements for vocal music art should be not only pleasing to the ear, but also affectionate.
Besides language, vocal music language is a singing language that obtains a sense of melody and rhythm through music. It must have remarkable aesthetic characteristics such as high accuracy, vivid image and powerful action. Language pays attention to pronunciation by word, intonation color pays attention to strength, high and low pitch, ups and downs, and rich expression of tone and language potential. Beautiful voice is composed of natural voice, scientific voice, musical accomplishment, aesthetic conception and many other factors.
Bel canto singer wants to sing well. Within the framework of performing arts, they should learn from the general laws of China's traditional operas and dramas, combine the artistic characteristics of vocal music performance, such as musicality, pluralism, singing, virtual freehand brushwork, modeling and dancing of body performance, try to figure out the psychological skills and body skills of performance, scrutinize body performance, summarize the decomposed and systematic basic training and overall comprehensive artistic creation and stage practice, and inherit and learn from the world.
Aesthetic features of bel canto 2. Breathing and Bel Canto
Bel canto, also known as soft singing, is a very natural and soft voice method. When singing high notes with half strength, it emits breath from the depths of the lower abdomen without strong breath impact. This kind of singing originated in Italy in the 20th century, with beautiful timbre and rich changes. The division of voices is strict, emphasizing the harmony and unity of sound areas; The sound production method is scientific and the volume is plastic; The connection between sounds is smooth and even. Bel canto is still based on European traditional vocal music technology, especially Italian vocal music technology. Later, opera came into being, and bel canto was gradually improved, paying more attention to breathing and breath.
Breathing in singing is one breath and two breaths. Physiologically, because the volume of the chest or chest cavity alternately expands or contracts, the air is constantly updated. Every time the chest expands, air (breathing) is sucked into the lungs through the trachea or airway. This means that when the inspiratory chest is relaxed, it contracts and its volume decreases, thus exhausting or expelling air from the lungs. This is exhalation, but breathing in singing is obviously different from breathing in life. Singing breath pays attention to vocalization and is full of motivation: chest and abdomen breathing is long and profound. If you master this breathing method, it will not be a problem to sing bel canto well, which shows the importance of chest and abdomen breathing to bel canto. When we want to produce high-quality young and beautiful sounds, we can't do without correct vocalization and chest and abdomen breathing, and correct vocalization skills come from correct breathing training.
Breathing training. The voice trained by this method is natural, harmonious, beautiful and broad, with few side effects, and the combination of breath and vocalization with the emotional content of the song and comfortable singing psychology can better cultivate the singing state with rich voice and emotion. When the treble is reached in the sound flow analysis, the flexible flap is slightly raised. Just think about the feeling of singing, and the soft flaps will lift automatically. This is a hidden power, never lift it above your head. Otherwise, it can be seen that when singing high notes, we can't ignore the support of breath, that is, singing while inhaling. This feeling of inspiration has hidden power, otherwise the cavity is too large to lose its elasticity, and it is difficult for the vocal cords to make normal sounds in an unnatural state. Even if it makes a sound, it will be old and noisy, and the voice it sings is either inaccurate or broken when it reaches a high pitch. With the long-term impact of breath on vocal cords, it will cause organic damage to vocal cords.
Second, breathing control and bel canto
Breathing in Bel Canto is very different from breathing in life. Bel canto pays attention to the control of breathing, not to tuck in while singing. On the contrary, when singing with breath, all respiratory organs, such as diaphragm and abdomen, should have a feeling of expansion, and the waist is strong and slightly expanded. This feeling will make singing in a comfortable singing state: the throat is loose and will not be squeezed, effectively avoiding chest stiffness and jaw tension caused by chest compression. From this, we can easily feel the relaxed and smooth feeling when singing. It can be concluded that the use of breathing in Bel Canto must follow the principle of high efficiency and economy, that is, breathing control.
The so-called breath control means that singers need to control their own breath, not breath control. The singer's breath is used to maintain, and the state when inhaling should be maintained, not to send breath back and forth, which requires maintaining and preserving breath, not inhaling. Breathing impacts our precious and fragile vocal cords, and the combination of gradual and minimal exhalation constitutes breathing control.
When I first learned Bel Canto, I was nervous when I breathed because I was not familiar with Bel Canto's breathing. Unconsciously, I may use chest breathing to control my breathing. This kind of breathing does not reach the realm of bel canto. Bel canto uses the diaphragm to regulate my breathing, which is also commonly known as chest and abdomen breathing. The advantage of thoracoabdominal breathing is that I breathe more, breathe faster and my breath can change freely. So Bel Canto pays the most attention to this point. I tend to use the diaphragm to adjust breathing to sing bel canto, because this kind of breathing is better than abdominal breathing, and it is easier to achieve good breathing control, so that one mouth will not be out of breath or one breath will not be enough.
The training of Bel Canto emphasizes the support and application of breath in singing, "supporting singing with breath", "supporting voice with breath", "whoever can breathe and pronounce good words will know how to sing well" and "a good singer must first adjust his breath". These statements seem simple, but they contain a very important truth: although breathing is the starting point of singing, it is a very important part of singing.
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