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

Formed to Perform
thought, sentiment and taste. Berg makes an important distinction, namely
that while some may consider taste a product of sentiment, he considered
it the result of the perfect proportions between the parts. He linked his
belief to didactic considerations, saying that the scale should be considered
the foundation, the backbone of the voice, a means of teaching proportion.
By the term “scale” Berg meant a set of important parts of his teaching
method, not the musical scale (Berg 1868, p. 11). Berg distinguished between
two levels of exercises: the scale and the vocalise or solfeggio. With
scale Berg counted, among other things, the speaking and singing voice,
instrumental and vocal tone, physiological and self-made faults, posture,
taking breaths, attack, timbre, registers, intonation and different scales (in
the usual meaning of scale; Berg 1868, p. 11). In short, most of the things
needed to form the voice. The second part of his manual was comprised
of vowels and consonants and how to join them with syllables, breathing,
rhythm and phrasing, accents, differentiating between vowels in depth and
height, portamento, slancio, 25 periods and cadenzas (Berg used the term “final
endings”) and the division in measures (Berg 1868, p. 12). Solfeggio
was used for learning to pronounce the language while singing as well as
for teaching phrasing. 26
Here we shall deal less with Berg’s views on art in general and concentrate
on the purely technical side of vocal education. In relation to Stieler’s
manual, the four areas of attention shall be studied closely.
The registers
Berg started his discussion on registers by saying that no one knew how
registers are formed and with what tools; moreover, there are many different
systems for dividing them. As long as science cannot look into working
vocal organs, Berg considered the mystery unsolvable. He therefore found
no reason to fabricate yet another system, as vague as the existing ones,
and instead reflected on the phenomenon from his experience. (Berg 1868,
p. 49)
In his second volume Berg gave a physiological explanation of the voice,
explaining that in the chest voice, the whole of the vocal chords vibrate,
25 The Italian phrase con slancio means with impetuosity and is best described as a burst
forward, that is, the singer gives a boost through increasing the subglottal pressure and
thereby the amount of air. (Apel 2000, p. 780)
26 Berg commented that many of his contemporaries considered vocalise and solfeggio
different things, but he does not tell us why, or in what respect. He himself thought
of them as the French and Italian versions of the same thing. In this article I will
henceforth use solfeggi to designate these small exercise arias. (Berg 1868, p. 10)
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