| Reynaldo Hahn comments on J B Faure | ||
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| Reynaldo Hahn | Jean Baptiste Faure |
| This text has been taken from the work by Reynaldo Hahn, “On Singing” published in 1913 – 14 Edition Galimard, pages 88 through 95, in French. |
| “The most famous advocates of the coupe de glotte, (glottal stroke, really – a direct attack) is Mr. Faure. But do you know what a coupe de glotte is? To begin with this is something very difficult to explain, and Mr. Faure himself gives a definition that is not very clear. But it is very easy to execute! …I have been told that Mr. Faure used the coupe de glotte often (not on every note as some obscure rivals pretended to believe), but really very often and on two occasions that are perhaps a bit strange. In Hamlet, for example, instead of saying “Ma mére”, he sings “Ma m – ére” placing the glottal stroke between the m and é…I had the great pleasure of hearing Mr. Faure sing the duo from Mireille, the arioso from Le Roi de Lahore, the prayer of Dimitri; when he was already quite old. I remember his voice very well but I swear have no memory whatsoever of the famous glottal stroke, object of such discussion and argument. I do remember however that his singing, even though it was prodigiously sustained and legato, had something of a martellato quality; perhaps this quality came from the coup de glotte…I was too young then to give it much thought. However as I try to remember, I believe I can now understand that I heard it in the duo from Mireille. Several years later having learned that Mr. Faure was perhaps going to sing vespers in a church, I went there to hear him, and there, behind a column I heard with deep emotion, rise out of the vaults a voice that I would not call marvelous, but which, for an ear of one who loves and venerates singing, was all the more impressive. It seemed to me upon hearing Mr. Faure, to observe an admirable work of transcendent sculpting (marquetry) of sound. Each sound, each parcel of sound was classified, encrusted, adapted in the most surprising fashion, an economy of sound was directed by abundant breath, easy and inexhaustible.
If the coupe de glotte was part of this singing, well, I am a fan of the coupe de glotte. First of all I must say, that I do not think one can sing without ever using a glottal stroke, and that those who believe they do not use it, are using it. Because so often, behind an extremely sweet (soft) emission, there is a coupe de glotte, but so light that it is imperceptible, and the sound comes forth Brightly, but softly as a rose bud. I add that the singing method of Mr. Faure (La Voix et le Chant – The Voice and singing) – which is a little bit like the history of France by M. Michelet, in that in order to understand it, one must already know many things – Is the most captivating book I have ever read on singing; it is written in a tone somewhat superior and disdainful; but outside of that it has a style that is clear and sure.” |
| Note: It is clear from reading The Voice and Singing and methodically doing the exercises that a clean attack is what is meant by the phrase coupe de glotte. It is a gentle, clean attack that is not noticeable, but begins the phrase with the same precision as speech, without a hint of either breathiness on the one hand or violent jarring of the line on the other. It is the first lesson of singing, and until it is learned no line or clean florid work, nor any other effect such as the martellato is possible.Thank you to our friend Michel Hart Grillo, of AFPC, the French vocal society comparable to NATS for sending us this work where it was published in their Journal. RP 5/10 |
| Some additional comments from the book by Reynaldo Hahn, Du Chant,Page 51: How do we sing: certain people read very little in singing; I believe that they are not wrong: breathing too frequently does not help singing at all and can even harm it, but some teachers for example Faure, in his very interesting book The Voice and Singing advises us to breathe often and to take only a little air at a time. I have no doubt that Mr. Faure is right. And I think that’s singing to his carpet shop by breaths can never truly resemble words and let us remember that we want above all that singing being nothing more than a more beautiful speech and that it be inspired by spoken language.Page 93 I hope you don’t mind if I digress a little bit to speak about Faure again. To speak of him to invoke his personality even to pronounce his name is to speak about singing it is to satisfy the spirit of the idea of singing.Page135 Hahn speaks out the idea that to sing one must be two people at once. One that is master of the mind and the second who leads with his heart. Some singers like Mdm. Krauss or Malibran possess a technique that is very sure and they combine all aspects of their art before hand, improvising suddenly in the moment of execution, inspired to brilliant, unexpected effects. These sudden changes, these brusque turns of their will are provoked no doubt by the tiniest circumstances.
Other singers on the contrary, those who dominate their nerves with their mind, like Faure for example, having premeditated on the psychological combinations that will provoke in them emotion, always react in the same way without changing anything. |
