Vol.1 How we sang

by James Anderson

WE SANG BETTER consists of two volumes of very clear advice about singing from great singers of the past. Volume 1 (ISBN 978-84-940477-8-7) is entitled How we sang and contains 250 tips on how to sing from singers 1800 to 1960. This volume is 490 pages long, and contains 130 illustrations. Tamagno never scooped his notes - so said star soprano Amelita Galli-Curci of the famous tenor. In the two volumes of We Sang Better, 200 of the greatest singers explain their art in over 70,000 of their own words. In Volume 1 the singers show you their approach, their ideals, and how they learnt to sing. Anderson arranges their evidence coherently, in easily followed tips. Their advice was uniform - work patiently on developing your own natural voice, with no forcing. The singers then provide the details by which you grow your voice and acquire a firm but flexible technique. Finally you will have a singing voice that is: personal beautiful easy accurate true on the note, and carries well in a large hall with clear diction & the ability to move your audience. As Verdi said, any art worthy of the name must be natural, spontaneous and simple. These singers explain how they kept to this ideal, staying clear of scientific 'discoveries', over-muscularity, and teachers with set 'methods'. These singers worked with Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, Auber, Meyerbeer, Weber, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Verdi, Wagner, Brahms, Gounod, Massenet, Debussy, Puccini, Strauss, Elgar, etc & kept to nearly all the recommendations that came from the castrati in the previous two centuries. James Anderson is a musician who has worked for the Arts Council of Great Britain and has run major European Festivals. Regretting the scarcity of supreme singing today, he has spent the last 30 years researching and collating this advice. He now helps young singers through the Singers Legacy website. For your information, the second volume (ISBN 978-84-940477-9-4) is entitled Why it was better and contains further evidence & reasoning from singers 1800 to 1960. Volume 2 is 260 pages long and has 20 illustrations.

498 pages, Paperback

First published October 19, 2012

About the author

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Reviews

[Luke Dailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend to anyone interested in the art of classical singing and opera. There’s so much practical and timeless advice, which can and should be quite inspiring and refreshing to anyone interested in pursuing the art in today’s culture.

[Milan Perišić · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a wonderful collection of personal accounts and trivia about singers, but quite useless in terms of finding out 'how to sing'. Although the fundamental principles found within the book are, without a shadow of a doubt, correct and of absolute necessity for good singing, a student thirsty of knowledge will find close to none of the information on how to accomplish those goals. Not to mention, we ARE still talking about opinions and accounts unique and personal to each of our marvelous singers and witnesses, and just as today we have audiences and critics who praise certain abominations of art, so too it could have been the case in the past, although the recordings left to us speak mostly otherwise. Still, it is clear that many of the singers from the past speak in vague terms which make it ever so difficult for a young attempt at singing to actually understand anything. Terms like head tones, head voice, chest tones, on the breath etc. are none the more clearer as they are repeated throughout. Always singing with your 'natural voice', never forcing, singing gently etc. can also be interpreted to the absolute detriment of a voice. This is to say that, although this book offers invaluable information, one should proceed with caution and using logic. Making use of the available recordings and (albeit limited number of) videos of past star singers is the most valuable knowledge vault we have. That should be your first reference when you read this book and interpret the meaning of its writings. I, for one, have a pretty good understanding of the old singing, but deciphering some of the writings is still an arduous task - not to mention that there are contradictory information every now and then, and some of it downright wrong, although statistically on the low side.

[Annabelle Kern · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ✨