Opera on the Move in the Nordic Countries during the Long 19th ...

The Björling ‘<strong>Opera</strong>’
reason for avoiding “the treble voice” (voce bianca), which for the Lamperti
School meant unestablished breath support. The problem was that it could
not be properly regulated by the positions voce chuisa, (closed voice) and
voce aperta (open voice) These voice positions are connected to the significant
concepts chiaroscuro (a bright, dark voice quality) and appoggio (the
breath system) in the Lamperti School (cf. Stark 1999, pp. 33f, 42-45, 56,
91-93; Brown 1957, pp. 53, 137; Liljas, p. 384).
David Björling worked with a method that reflected the intermediate
position and encouraged care with high notes before the voice was fixed
(cf. Liljas 2007, pp. 353, 385). He declared that the quality of the tone was
much more important than a big vocal range: “Never strive for a high or low
note that you cannot produce with ease; it will come in time by itself, and as
for the tones that you can produce, practise them and make them as round
and beautiful as possible and with plain enunciation of the text” (Björling
n.d., p. 7). The criteria also included adapting the repertoire to the voice’s
individual character, pedagogical instructions that David Björling followed
religiously. In his determination subsequently to adapt the repertoire according
to the voice’s state of development he was continuously working on
transpositions (Liljas 2007, pp. 316, 368; cf. Björling 1945/1994, p. 22).
Contemporary connoisseurs did their best to create a picture of the voice
character that made more than one critic raise his eyebrows:
Considering our own boys’ and girls’ light voices, we were expecting
something purely innocent [...] instead we got to hear mature singers
with powerful voices, a masculine timbre, a well-worked-out musical approach
and feeling, and convincing in their declamation. 24 (Agda Schultz
in Engelholms Tidning; 13 December 1922)
A critic in Mönsteråstidningen attempts to capture the unusual, but at the
same time exclusive, voice timbre:
The voices were as clear as a bell and strikingly metallic with a solemn,
intense tone. 25 (Mönsteråstidningen; 26 February 1923)
24 “Med tanke på våra egna gossars och flickors ljusa röster väntade vi oss något
serafiskt oskuldsfullt, något af detta oberörda i uttrycket som vi hittills trodde
nödvändigtvis medföljer barndomen. Istället fingo vi höra mogna sångare med kraftiga
röster manlig bröstklang, väl utarbetat musikaliskt fördrag, och känsla och öfvertygelse
i deklamationen.”
25 “Rösterna voro klockrena och frapperade malmfyllda med en mörkt fyllig ton.”
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