Power of Performance for Singers – Transcending the Barriers by Shirlee Emmons & Alma Thomas

This is the last ‘official’ book of my books I have carried with me around the world. I’ve decided to keep it, so it holds a special place above the others in that sense. I am sad I did not read this book sooner, but, in a lot of ways, I can say that for all the books I’ve taken the time to read on this trip. Plus, it’s never too late to learn and, at least, I’ve read it now. Take the philosophy of: it was read when I was ready to read it.

This book offers a lot of practical exercises to help with any of the physiological problems which can arise from singing or any performer. The, only chapter, for me, I would give a bit of a wide birth is Chapter 15 – Exploring and Planning “Meaning” for Performance or, as I see it, the singers acting. I done a lot of work on my own acting and this chapter goes against quite a bit of what I have learned to bring a character to life. It’s not wrong in what it says is required, but how you go about it, just gets me into my head, hence, why I went to acting training to get me away from the ‘singing acting’ and into the actor acting.

Otherwise, I believe, anyone with an open mind would gain some insight to dealing with any problems they may face in this industry. It talks about the ideals and the fact that those ideals often don’t exist, but you do the best you can.

My favourite part was the part which explained so well about keeping your goals about performance and not about outcome – loved it!

The Story of Tea by E. Jaiwant Paul

Having walked into the Turtle Cafe Book Shop in New Delhi, India, I spotted this little book on tea. I love tea and wanted to know more about its history, especially after having done a tea tasting (have a blog on it, just click the link) in Twinnings Tea Rooms on the Strand, London, UK last year. I’m becoming a real tea historian!

It’s quite a small book and one I will be keeping, as it has some lovely little stories in it, plus a lot of information on the history of tea. It has wetted my appetite to find out more about the history of tea, it’s like reading about the history of the world, but through the making of tea. Really an enjoyable read with a nice mixture of stories with history. There is a little propaganda for the company which the author worked for, but it’s easy to get past that and see E. Jaiwant Paul’s passion for his subject. What a great job to have worked in the world of tea!

Some brilliant quotes from the book:

‘I am in no way interested in immortality, but only in the taste of tea.’ – Lu Yu (a sort of patron saint for tea lovers)

‘Apparently it was in the old coffee houses that the practice of tipping was born – customers would toss a coin into a box marked T.I.P. (To Insure Promptness). The practice is a veritable scourge today in Western countries.’

The Hunger Games – Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

This book was one I picked up along the way on my travels. Having seen the first 3 movies, I had intended to read the whole set, but came across this book first, so have read it before the 4th movie comes out, as have a pretty good grasp of the story anyway from the films. I just gobbled the book up and found it a very enjoyable read. I like the realistic approach to this sci-fi, realist in that it’s very human emotions and reactions that can relate to any highly charged life.

I’ve really enjoyed the series and enjoy the series feature of movies, TV and film, especially when they don’t try to drag them past the length of the series. I’m a big fan of having a beginning, middle and an end, it doesn’t need to go on forever just because the producers on making a lot of movie on it. I, always say, quit while you are ahead. Still, I am sad that this will end with the 4th movie, but I’m sure there will be other series that will come along that pull my interest, like the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy!’

The Music of the Spheres by Jamie James

‘In the modern age it is a basic assumption that music appeals directly to the soul (which has been called by many names – sensibility, temperament, the emotions, among others) and bypasses the brain altogether, while science operates in just the reverse fashion, confining itself to the realm of pure ratiocination and having no contact at all with the soul. …. These suppositions would have seemed very strange to an Athenian of Plato’s day, to a medieval scholar, t an educated person of the Renaissance, even to a habitué of London’s coffeehouses in the eighteenth century.’ – quote from The Music of the Spheres

This quote is a great place to start to understand what this book is really about and why I enjoyed it so much. I have not read nor understood this side of the history of music, as it is so well laid out in this book. It’s like the history of science and music meets Angels and Demons. It is just a wonderful study of how the understanding and acceptance of music has changed so much, especially in the last 200 years, which isn’t that long ago, when you think that he starts from the Greek era in some of his descriptions of music and its historical understanding.

‘Somehow, Mozart’s symphony, rather than telling us about joy, creates joy. The music is a zone of joy. How is that possible? The Greeks knew the answer: music and the human soul are both aspects of the eternal.’

Its statements like these that make me wonder, why did we stray so far away from these understandings of music and science? For such a long time they were all considered the same thing and carried an equal weight of appreciation and understanding. In this book Jamie James explains how we lost touch with this understanding and why, a brilliant journey through our past history to the turn of this last century.

A beautiful argument against science of today:

‘In this century the classics have slipped to the periphery of the curriculum, and in the place of enquiring humanism we now have condescending nihilism: the modern intelligentsia smiles at Christian fundamentalists, at credulous followers of absurd schools of psychotherapy, at adherents of what is call the New Age. Yet if people are driven to feel a connection with the Absolute by wearing crystal jewellery and listening to voices from beyond the grave, as naïve as those beliefs may be perhaps we ought not castigate them for abandoning science – for has not science abandoned them? Is it reasonable to expect that the man in the street will be content with being told, “Your life is pointless, and you are destined to be a sterile, meaningless speck of stardust, but be of good cheer: science will tell you how to power your automobile with pig droppings?”’

I think there is much to learn that this book highlights and I wish it was part of today’s curriculum, as it shows quite clearly why the arts are so important and needs to continue to be on equal footing with all other sciences and studies.

The Cambridge Companion to Singing edited by John Potter

‘But of all musical instruments the human voice is the most worthy because it produces both sound and words, while the others are of use only for sound, not for a note and words.’ – Anonymous thirteenth-century treatise

I’m now almost finished the books I’ve brought with me on this round the world trip, this being the third from the last, sadly, it’s been the least enjoyable. It got to the point that I just wanted it to be over with. I’m not sure a book like this was ever going to be or ever could be all that enjoyable, as it’s quite clearly the editors ‘pet’ favourites, so is going to miss a lot. This, he explains, in the beginning, so I can forgive that part, but what is hard is the way it’s presented. Some of the chapters feel like you are dropped in the middle of the topic and are not well introduced (Part IV: Chapter 16 – Alternative voices: contemporary vocal techniques is a good example of this, it’s like the authors have forgotten who their audience is in their writing – a problem I find a lot with contemporary explanations of this style of music – it’s like they try to confuse you when it’s not necessary and make it sound elitist and un-understandable, as someone who has performed this style, it’s always been one of my bug bears, it’s no wonder no one, gets interested when it’s presented in such an over the top un-understandable way.) or exited (like the book itself – there is no conclusion or an attempt to try to sum up the book!) There is a chapter that I feel really got it right and that was the chapter on children’s singing, another area I am familiar with, that really is well presented and easily understood and makes you want to know more – (Part IV – Chapter 18 Children’s singing by Felicity Laurence.)

The fact that this is a Cambridge University Press edition and it came highly recommended, has not help me, but to be very disappointed. After reading books which were almost seventy years older or more, but with a far better idea of how to present a topic and write about it, this books falls very short of the post.

I feel this book is trying to do too much. I did like the variety of styles of singing that are covered and I’ve learned quite a bit, so there is a lot of interesting things to learn, but I found it very hard to read it from one chapter to the next. My suggestion to anyone else who reads it after me, do not read it in order! Choose a method of reading it – maybe oldest to most recent – that may make the book flow more and therefore more interesting.

Also, I’m not sure that performance practise and history of styles is the basis for one book, as there is a lot missed, so the whole last third of the book, really, is a completely different subject that deserves its own book and then that would allow for more depth of the history and styles in the first half. Also to finish on the science of singing, a particularly dry chapter to read, is not a good way to end this book. Once again, I feel this chapter, while interesting to those who know a bit about it, is not a good way to end and deserves a different placement either in this book or, a better choice, in that second book on performance practise. When I was in university they had a whole years course devoted to this one chapter, so I’m very impressed that the author condensed so much into one chapter, but it’s not a pleasant read.

I’ve not read any of the other Campion series, but I have taken a sneak peek at some of the other titles and found that they have a book just devoted to Bob Dylan, so if they feel a whole book to Bob Dylan is necessary, why on earth did they think they could do as much as they tried in this book?! Doesn’t say much for one of the most world-renowned Universities.

Voice and Verse – a study in English Song by H.C. Colles

Voice & Verse: A Study in English Song by H.C. Colles

This book was written in 1928, almost 100 years ago. I didn’t know that when I decided to take it along on this trip, but it still rings of truths that are endangering todays English Opera/Music, as it did then. In this book, Colles argues how music, all music, comes from the voice and, he presents a very valid argument, one I had not considered. That, even, explains, why some of the modern interpretation of the 20th century didn’t/doesn’t work, as it comes from a pure instrument approach and tries to neglect the vocal influence on music – hence it’s lack of appeal and why, this style of music, often, doesn’t work. He even goes so far to say that instruments evolve purely from the voice.

It’s written from a series of lectures which were given at Glasgow University and, boy, do I wish I could have been there to hear them, as they used singers to sing the examples presented in the book to help emphasize his arguments of why English song and Opera have struggled to ever find a firm footing. When it has, it loses it quickly, due to poor public appreciation. One example he mentions is how the English public does not hold onto that which marries the mastery of words/drama well with musical composition – examples such as Purcell and Sullivan. How sad, that I have to say that this problem, in my mind, still very much exists today for English writing of music. I believe, the Americans have done far better at this than the Brits. The amount of times, since living in Britain, I’ve heard the cynical snort of Sullivan, is far too often. I think it is very sad, that someone who wrote something so engaging and fun is thrown onto a pile of ‘poor music’ because of its subject matter and not for its genius of writing.

I am so glad I read this book, as it has helped me to understand what has eluded my understanding of the British attitude to its own music and its poor support of it. It’s true there have been some great successes, but, really, overseas performers/composers and musicians can often go a lot further, mainly due to the fact, that they are often working in their own languages of birth. The Brits produce some great people, but they have to learn how to do it in a lot of different cultures – this including American culture. British classical music struggles because there is still too little of it written that has gone very far. Hence Colles fears are still the fears of today – almost 100 years on:

“Dramatic expression of words through song is an essential stage through which a nation’s music must pass if it is to maintain its identity. We value French, German, Italian, Russian music because each has maintained its identity and shown itself different from the art of its neighbours. Our neighbours cannot value British music because they cannot find that it has an identity in which it differs from theirs. That is because we have refused to allow it the necessary scope to expand. We have said an emphatic ‘no’ each time it has approached the dramatic phase of its development, have silenced each composer in turn on the plea that opera is an imperfect form of art and that anyhow foreign composers can do it better. The argument has been that we want very little opera, so let us import that little from the best foreign firm. That may seem commercially sound, but in that case it is not commercially sound to go on creating and enlarging institutions for training composers and performers. If we are not going to have English opera, in the end we are not going to have British music. If we are not going to have British music, it is neither fair to the individuals concerned nor a sound policy for the community to encourage an appreciable proportion of the population, whose talents lie in that direction, to devote their lives to the provision of the unwanted commodity. Sooner or later we shall have to choose; we cannot long halt between two opinions.”

A Life in Fashion – Isabella Blow by Lauren Goldstein Crowe

The reason I have this book is because, just before I left on this round the world trip, I went to an exhibition on Isabella Blow’s cloths. To be honest, I didn’t know anything about her when I went, but it looked interesting and I like to go see things I’ve never seen before or know little about.

The exhibition fascinated me to the point, that when I walked out, I wanted to know more about this woman and what made her wear such incredible cloths, so I bought the biography and brought it along.

Something that has struck me about many of the books I decided to take with me was, the fact, there were a lot of biographies in my luggage. I had not done it consciously, but this is the last of them, so it is quite poignant that it’s the most recent and most tragic. She committed suicide, after struggling, for many years, with mental illness.

This had me in tears at the end of it, but I can’t really say why, but it seemed well written, if, for no other reason, it moved me to tears. I have to be honest, I believe, by what Lauren has written about Isabella, I would have found her a tough personality to be around, but that didn’t stop me from being moved. It really shows how someone so loved could not see or feel that and was lost in her illness.

There’s no doubt that she added a flare and colour to the world which is now lost and, I have to admit, I’ve not seen a lot of anyone else being able to bring it out like she seems to have done in her time here on earth. Lucky for me, I got to find out about her and went along to that exhibition – ya never know where life will take you. It’s quite fitting, someone who would inspire fashion, photographers and the like, by going to an art gallery, is the place where I found out about her. Seems Isabella Bow was a living, breathing piece of art, which is not something I really thought a person would be able to be, but she has shown me otherwise.

On and Off the Record – a Memoir of Walter Legge by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf

When I started reading this book I wasn’t sure quite what I was reading, as it seemed to start from what others said about him and then ran into a long list of critics he had written. It took me awhile to get into how it was being presented, but in the end, I found it a really good read and very insightful, as a lot is written by Legge himself, so it does give you a really good impression of who he was and how much he devoted to his life to his work, so it feels more autobiographical.

I really enjoyed it and it’s added a really good understanding to the other biographies I’ve been reading about people and the industry at this time. I’ve heard good and bad about him, but one thing I do not doubt was his devotion to something he loved very deeply and that was classical music on recordings and elsewhere. I am sad I did not find out more about him when he was alive and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, as they really were about trying to do the best with what they had and nurturing that. Something I find really lacking in the modern music industry, especially classically, it seems to be all about the bottom dollar. I do understand that the industry needs to make money, but Walter Legge managed to do that, but kept to nurturing talent, rather than using it for as long as it serves the gimmicks with which they sell recordings, rather than the true talent of the artists behind those recordings.

Love some quotes from the book:

Walter Legge: ‘I was the Pope of recording.’

Edward Greenfield: ‘In my meeting with him on that occassion he went onto lament that no one in the industry wanted to employ him any longer. I felt compelled – though it hardly made him feel any happier – to point out an obvious moral: no one employs the Pope.’

Elizabeth’s audition for Legge: ‘a proper audition – two or three hours. I don’t want you to buy a cat in a sack and regret it, and I don’t want you to offer me less you think I am worth.’

The Pistoleer by James Carlos Blake

I have to admit, I did really enjoy reading this story. I gave it 4, instead of 5 stars because, well, it’s a great story, but after reading a very good book: ‘Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend’, this book just didn’t come up to the same level.

Still, it was a very entertaining read and I would recommend it for it’s fun story line and very interesting story line. I had never read a fictional biography before, so this one has shown me a new genre, which can be a lot of fun, but can muddy the waters of fact even more around this Western legend.

Wyatt Earp – the life behind the legend – Casey Tefertiller

Wyatt Earp – the life behind the legend by Casey Tefertiller

I really enjoyed this book. It really does come across as a well researched and balanced approach to this very, often, warped life-story. I liked this book as it portrayed him as the human being he was – the good and the bad – nobody is perfect, so it was a great read and very refreshing.

Also gave me a much greater understanding of law and order and what life is like when that balance goes out of wack. A real lesson for now and in the future! Society needs both, but it does require the mass majority will agree to live by both otherwise one or the other can easily take over and then justice becomes a relative term to the individual rather than to the whole.

Debbie Bridge – the Books I Carry

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