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Choral Pedagogical Tools and Vocal Exercises A Practical Guide to Teaching Handel's Messiah

weak-strong beats helps reinforce pitch memory when duction. The term “subglottal pressure” relates to the
moving between the stepwise and skip patterns of the air pressure that fluctuates below the vocal folds prior,
groppo and messanza groups. These exercise alterations during, and following phonation. Glottal adduction is
also offer a novel way to practice technical skills while defined by the contraction of the lateral cricoarytenoid
bolstering period performance techniques. As a caveat, (LCA) muscles and the interarytenoid (IA) muscles, lead-
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the inégalité modifications are intended as an iteration ing to the closure of vocal folds for vibration. When
of a vocalise sequence and should not inform the final there is a “high subglottic pressure with a strong adduc-
performance of the melismas. Any combination ex- tion force,” the perceived vocal tone is “pressed.” In
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ercises should be practiced in moderation: enough to contrast, “while flow phonation has a lower subglottic
learn pitches and stylistic applications, but not enough pressure and a lower degree of adduction force,” the
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to inhibit the performance of the melisma as it appears sound is “breathy.”
in the score. Neither pressed nor breathy phonation is technically
efficient in singing. To properly navigate the long melis-
Building Muscle Memory and Vocal Flexibility Due to matic lines with a perceivable healthy vocal tone, singers
Balanced Phonation in Melismatic Vocalises need to work toward balanced phonation during vocal-
The end goals of agility exercises include pitch ac- ises. A balanced phonation is dependent upon breath
curacy, air speed flexibility, vowel modification through control (rate at which air passes through the vocal folds),
the registers, and balanced phonation. These goals are muscle memory of the melisma pitches and contour,
relevant today as they were during Handel’s time. In and full glottal closure while singing the long lines.
their book, Handel’s MESSIAH: Warm-Ups for Successful Two unfortunate “solutions” are usually used by am-
Performance, Dr. Ryan Kelly and Dr. Jason Paulk state: ateur and student singers to achieve articulated pitch
“Many Baroque-era writers described ideal vocal tim- clarity within melismas: the first being a glottal stop and
bre as sweet, clear, refined, harmonious, and tasteful the second an aspirated [h] before each successive note.
and they often cautioned singers to avoid singing force- These applications are usually provided as a quick rem-
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fully and with excessive resonance.” The perceivable edy to most amateur and student singers to offset un-
clarity of a “sweet” released tone is based on technique clear melismatic singing. Centuries ago, even Handel’s
using balanced phonation. The resulting performance contemporaries debated these methods. In his treatise
of melismatic singing should involve connected phras- on singing, Pier Francesco Tosi lamented:
ing (not necessarily legato), with light articulation of the
individual pitches. In the following section, information What would he [the good teacher] say about
will be provided explaining balanced phonation and those who have invented the astounding trick
how to achieve balanced phonation in singing melis- of singing like crickets? Who could ever have
matic music. dreamed that it would become fashionable
Although there are many motor movements involved to take ten or twelve consecutive eighth notes
in the phonatory process, two important factors impact and break them up by a certain shaking of the
melismatic singing: subglottal pressure and glottal ad- voice? 29

32 CHORAL JOURNAL October 2023 Volume 64 Number 3