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

70 Marianne Tråvén
Solfeggi
Stieler did not use the solfeggio syllables; it was the Italian system of vowel
exercises that was most prominent in his manual. His programme of study
started with single long notes in a comfortable register sung on the vowel
a. The vowel a, open as in “ack”, was the most important tool for the singer
and helped build the voice. The vowels should be given their right colour
and be pure and clear. In this Stieler adhered to eighteenth-century manuals
in which each vowel was to retain its sound. This also indicates that he
used a technique with a slightly higher larynx than was used in the late
nineteenth century (Stieler 1820, pp. 45–46). Stieler did not use the arialike
exercises, but seems to have concentrated his efforts on teaching boys
to sight-read and form the voice in a pleasing manner for congregational
singing. In this sense he had no use for the ornamental niceties of a Porpora
or Mancini.
To summarise, in Stieler’s manual we can trace the aesthetics of the
both the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The concept of registers is
clearly based on eighteenth-century ideas. The interest in breathing points
to the future, but the description of inhalation indicates an older technique.
Stieler removed the messa di voce from its central position as a learning
tool, something that places his teaching closer to the nineteenth century,
and the focus on single vowels instead of the solmisation syllables positions
his methods in the Italian realm more than the German. Stieler’s manual
contains both past and future; above all, he seemed to look at teaching as
a concept of individual understanding, not mere collective reproduction,
something that would be exceedingly important to later schools.
Isak Berg’s Testament
In his two volumes entitled “Anteckningar rörande Rösten, Sången och
Konsten: Testamentet till mina Lärjungar” (1868–1869), 24 Isak Berg discussed
the vocal art. He saw the foundation for vocal expressions in nature,
and he therefore based his theories on the laws of nature (Berg 1868, p. 5).
It was important to him that singing be more than vocal display. Art should
be a calling, not just a profession. Here a romantic view of the artist has
taken over from a more materialistic outlook; the idea of being creative has
succeeded that of being more reproductive. Song must fulfil the demands of
24 These two volumes, together with vocal exercises and solfeggi, can be found in the
Music and Theatre Library in Stockholm, Manuscript 258.