Voice and Speech Review

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Historical Landmarks in Singing Voice Pedagogy

Matthew Hoch

To cite this article: Matthew Hoch (2019) Historical Landmarks in Singing Voice Pedagogy, Voice
and Speech Review, 13:1, 43-60, DOI: 10.1080/23268263.2018.1527585

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VOICE AND SPEECH REVIEW
2019, VOL. 13, NO. 1, 43–60
https://doi.org/10.1080/23268263.2018.1527585

Historical Landmarks in Singing Voice Pedagogy

Matthew Hoch
Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
This article provides a brief overview of some of the most seminal Singing voice pedagogy;
and important events in the history of singing voice pedagogy, bel canto; acoustic theory;
from the earliest historical writings through the most recent vocology; contemporary
twenty-first century developments. Topics include primary sources commercial music (CCM);
semi-occluded vocal tract
from the Renaissance through the romantic eras; an exploration of (SOVT) exercises
bel canto concepts and methodologies; reflections on figures such
as Manuel García II, William Vennard, Ralph Appelman, and Richard
Miller; the history of professional organizations in the United States
and their role in shaping scholarly discourse in voice pedagogy; the
revelation and influence of acoustic theory, vocology, and contem-
porary commercial music (CCM) pedagogy in recent decades; and a
look at the pedagogical horizon in the coming decades. Readers are
provided with additional resources for further study.

Introduction
This article provides a brief overview of some of the most seminal and important events
in the history of singing voice pedagogy. While the list, like any list, is subjective—the
inclusion of some topics over others is endlessly debatable—the following are certainly
landmark moments and essential emergent themes that are worthy of discussion and
reflection.
Although we start at the beginning with a brief survey of historical writings for the
voice, the article places greater emphasis on the modern era, particularly the twentieth
century, which witnessed some of voice pedagogy’s greatest revelations as technology
and scientific knowledge of the voice rapidly evolved. Some of the latter topics are
illustrations of current trends that have received much scholarly attention in the early
twenty-first century. The article will conclude with speculation on what the future may
hold for singing voice pedagogy.
It should be noted that—due to the survey nature of this article—all of these topics
are, to an extent, incomplete discussions. Each one of these topics could have been
expanded into a book in its own right (and many have been). Important names,
resources, and topics will not be mentioned simply due to the confines of this short
article. It is my hope that the reader interested in delving more deeply into any one of
these topics consult the many resources that are listed in the endnotes and bibliography.

CONTACT Matthew Hoch mrh0032@auburn.edu

© 2019 Voice and Speech Trainers Association
44 M. HOCH

One final comment should be made. This article focuses exclusively on the canon of
Western music. The discipline of singing voice pedagogy—as it has been shaped by
treatises, traditions, conferences, and professional organizations—has its roots in
European classical music. Although pedagogies for various types of world music
certainly exist, they are both outside the scope of this article and the expertise of the
author.

The Recorded Beginnings: Tosi and Other Early Writers

It is difficult to pinpoint the beginnings of voice pedagogy, but it is safe to say that
humans have been singing since prehistoric times. The thinkers of the Ancient Greek
world, such as Plato (427–347 BCE) and Aristotle (384–322 BCE), wrote of the
importance of singing as part of a complete humanistic education (Sell 2005, 186).
Likewise, the Judeo-Christian writings of the Tanakh/Old Testament also include
passages in the books of Exodus, Judges, 2 Chronicles, and Ecclesiastes, and—most
important—the 150 Psalms of David that are intended to be sung.1 Soon after the
establishment of the early Roman Catholic Church, an official “school of singing”
(presumably a choir school) was founded by Pope Sylvester (285–335) in Rome for
the purpose of training young singers for liturgical services. Thus, voice pedagogy
must have existed in some form, but unfortunately, there are no writings that have
been preserved from this era that outline the specifics of pedagogic strategy or
approach.
During the Renaissance, however, selected pedagogic works begin to appear in
writing. Horst Günter (1997) proposes that the first book on singing was the
German scholar Conrad von Zabern’s de modo cantandi choralem cantum in 1474
(Miller [1977] 1997, 9–12). Karen Sell (2005) and Richard Miller (2017), in their
attempts to survey the early history of singing voice pedagogy, also list Franchinus
Gaffurius (1451–1522), Bénigne de Bacilly (1625–1690), Maffei (fl. 1562–1573),
Zacconi (1555–1627), and Giulio Caccini (c. 1545–1618) as important early figures.
Nicola Porpora (1686–1756) was perhaps the most important singing teacher of the
early eighteenth century, but unfortunately, he wrote little. Porpora’s reputation
rests almost entirely upon his outstanding legacy of successful pupils, including
the castrati Caffarelli (1710–1783) and Farinelli (1705–1782) as well as the female
sopranos Regina Mignotti (1722–1808) and Catarina Gabrielli (1730–1796).
Most discussions concerning the early history of voice pedagogy begin with discus-
sion of Pier Francesco Tosi (c. 1653–1732). Tosi was an Italian castrato, composer, and
writer of music. He is best known for his early treatise on singing, Opinioni de’ cantori
antichi, e moderni (1723), which is one of the first voice pedagogy treatises to have been
preserved in its entirety. In 1743, twenty years after it was first written, the treatise was
published in English as Observations on the Florid Song. Still available in print, Tosi’s
work is especially valuable for its catalog of various baroque ornaments utilized by
singers at the time. This tendency to focus on style, execution, and the literature as
opposed to confronting vocal technique and voice production directly is a hallmark that
spans most of the earliest treatises on singing voice pedagogy. Tosi was also primarily
concerned with castrati. He is, however, the most agreed upon starting point for
scholars of historical voice pedagogy.
 VOICE AND SPEECH REVIEW 45

For many years, the most reliable anthology of historical documents related to voice
pedagogy was Berton Coffin’s Historical Vocal Pedagogy Classics (1989). This book
influenced an entire generation of singing teachers interested in exploring historical
pedagogy. It is no accident that Coffin begins with Tosi’s treatise; he then proceeds
onward to Giambattista Mancini (1714–1800), Manuel García I (1775–1832) and his
son, Manual García II (1805–1906), Mathilde Marchesi (1826–1913), Julius
Stockhausen (1826–1906), Enrico Delle Sedie (1822–1907), Francesco Lamperti
(1811–1892) and his son, Giovanni Battista Lamperti (1839–1910), and Lilli Lehmann
(1848–1929). Some of these figures will be discussed later in this article.2

Bel Canto Traditions

One of the most ubiquitous terms in voice pedagogy is bel canto, which literally means
“beautiful singing” in Italian. Bel canto, however, is a broad concept that is difficult to
grasp in large part due to the multifarious nature of the definition itself. The term is at
once an aesthetic concept and tonal preference (which varies according to context and
style period), a reference to flexible and florid singing, a specific operatic repertory, and
a school of voice pedagogy. In addition, bel canto can mean different things depending
on the social-historical context of the time period in question. In my 2014 book, A
Dictionary for the Modern Singer, I attempted to confront this complexity as concisely
as possible by defining bel canto as follows:
bel canto. (1) An Italian phrase meaning “beautiful singing,” referring to a flexible,
coloratura style of singing. In this sense, bel canto was used to describe the florid operas
of George Frideric Handel (1685–1759), the arias from which showcased the virtuosity of
the singer. The same phrase was used to describe florid singing in later eras of Italian
opera as well.

(2) A label for the specific brand of Italian opera that emerged at the beginning of the
nineteenth century in Italy, featuring florid-style singing and legato Italian melodies.
Gioacchino Rossini (1792–1868), Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848), and Vincenzo Bellini
(1801–1835) represent the apotheosis of the genre. Many of Giuseppe Verdi’s (1813–1901)
operas retain elements of the bel canto school of Italian opera.

(3) A school of voice pedagogy roughly equivalent to the International Italian School.
While the specific tenets that define bel canto pedagogy can be somewhat ambiguous—and
vary widely from teacher to teacher, all of whom may claim to subscribe to bel canto ideals
—a practical definition assumes a reverence to the treatises and method books of the great
Italian pedagogues, with an emphasis on the central canon of Italian operatic repertoire.
Some pedagogues have defined the bel canto school of pedagogy more narrowly, for
instance, Lucie Manén, in her 1987 treatise, Bel Canto. (Hoch 2014, 24)

While there are literally hundreds of introductions to bel canto concepts—both

historical and contemporary—one of the most impactful single-volume resources is
James Stark’s 1999 book Bel Canto: A History of Vocal Pedagogy. In this work, Stark
offers an in-depth exploration of the historical schools of voice pedagogy over the
course of 300 pages. Toward the conclusion of his book, he includes an essay entitled
“Bel Canto: Context and Controversy,” which discusses how the term bel canto has
meant different things to different singers, pedagogues, and eras. Stark synthesizes this
multitude of meanings into his own definition of bel canto as follows:
46 M. HOCH

Bel canto is a concept that takes into account two separate but related matters. First, it is a
highly refined method of using the singing voice in which the glottal source, the vocal
tract, and the respiratory system interact in such a way as to create the qualities of
chiaroscuro, appoggio, register equalization, malleability of pitch and intensity, and a
pleasing vibrato.3 The idiomatic use of this voice includes various forms of vocal onset,
legato, portamento, glottal articulation, crescendo, decrescendo, messa di voce, mezza voce,
floridity and trills, and tempo rubato.

Second, bel canto refers to any style of music that employs this kind of singing in a tasteful
and expressive way. Historically, composers and singers have created categories of recitative,
song, and aria that took advantage of these techniques, and that lent themselves to various
types of vocal expression. Bel canto has demonstrated its power to astonish, to charm, to
amuse, and especially to move the listener. As musical epochs and styles have changed, the
elements of bel canto adapted to meet new musical demands, thereby ensuring the
continuation of bel canto in our own time. (Stark 1999, 149)

Stark attempts to crystalize bel canto by exploring various topics through primary
sources, including the coup de glotte, chiaroscuro, registration, appoggio, vibrato, and
ornamentation, and he succeeds as masterfully as anyone reasonably can.4 His
exhaustive approach, however, reveals how difficult it is to define bel canto as a
cohesive vocal technique. Perhaps no one stated this as directly as Richard Miller,
who in The Structure of Singing writes:

Why not just put ourselves in the hands of someone who teaches “The old bel canto
method” and be done with it? We cannot because there is no specific codified system of bel
canto waiting for the vocal neophyte to pick up and assimilate. Despite some claims that
certain teachers have a direct link to “the old Italians,” no modern teacher can honestly
profess to teach some clearly delineated method that is universally recognized as being “the
bel canto method.”

Anyone who has studied with teachers who trace a historical lineage to other persons often
cited as major teachers of bel canto (for example, pupils of pupils of Giovanni Battista
Lamperti) must admit that the specifics, the actual techniques of acquiring the art of
beautiful singing, are only imprecisely enunciated by them. A careful reading of the
pedagogical literature of the historical bel canto period must lead to a similar conclusion.
The term bel canto has become a twentieth-century shibboleth, with opposing methodologies
staking out highly suspect claims for its possession. This is because of the indefinability of the
term beyond its literal meaning: beautiful singing. Skills of sustaining and moving the voice
(cantilena and fioritura) are required to execute the bel canto literature; those skills join to
produce “beautiful singing.” They call for the most exacting technical accomplishments, in
whatever century. (Miller 1986, xx–xxi)

In spite of Miller’s apparent cynicism, there are actually many hallmarks of bel canto
within the “International Italian School” for which he so passionately advocates. It was
Miller, more so than any single figure who contributed to the trove of historic bel canto
writings, who distilled a cohesive, systematic approach in The Structure of Singing.
However, this kind of prescribed, formulaic approach to technique was not part of the
conscious agenda of the Italian bel canto masters. Rather, broader concepts were.
Perhaps no Italian master was more influential upon twentieth-century American
voice pedagogy than Lamperti, who wrote the following to his pupil William Earl
Brown at the conclusion of his studies with Lamperti in Dresden in 1893:
 VOICE AND SPEECH REVIEW 47

The mantle of my father, Francesco Lamperti, fell upon me. It now descends to you, for
you have grasped the truth of the Old Italian School of Singing, which descended from the
Golden Age of Song, by word of mouth. It is not a method. There is no “bell canto” [sic]
system of teaching. Mental, physical, and emotional reactions are the fundamentals of this
old school.” (Brown 1931, 127)

Bel canto pedagogy should not be thought of as something that is merely historical. Bel
canto traditions—now labeled by many, thanks to Richard Miller, as the “International
Italian School” of voice pedagogy—persisted throughout the twentieth century and into
present day practice. In the twenty-first-century, scientifically informed or “fact-based”
singing teachers coexist somewhat peacefully alongside those who identify as old-
fashioned teachers from the bel canto tradition, and still more singing teachers draw
from both traditions in their pedagogy.
While scientific singing voice research—mostly acoustic and biomechanical—tends
to dominate present day singing conferences, most significantly the annual Voice
Foundation and PAVA symposiums and the biennial NATS conference, there is still a
vibrant (if less robust) community of scholars still interested in the significance of
historical pedagogy. Perhaps the most important scholar who has contributed to this
field is Stephen F. Austin, Professor of Voice at the University of North Texas. His
regular column, “Provenance,” has appeared in the Journal of Singing regularly since
2004, comprising an extensive repository of writings on various aspects of historical
pedagogy.5 Other excellent resources include recent writings by Daniela Bloem-
Hubatka (2012) and Michael Trimble (2013).

Methodologies: Skill-Acquisition-Based Pedagogy

During the nineteenth century, various methodologies for the voice exploded. These
graduated “practice books” established themselves in singing studios and were used
throughout most of the twentieth century, although their ubiquity seems to have
waned considerably in recent decades. Many performers, particularly of more
experienced generations, were raised on vocalises by Nicola Vaccai (1790–1848),
Giuseppe Concone (1801–1861), Henrich Panofka (1807–1887), and Mathilde
Marchesi (1821–1913), to name four of the most famous examples of methodology
composer-authors.
A method book, by itself, is not a comprehensive approach to vocal technique.
Virtually none in this nineteenth-century tradition are unaccompanied by any kind of
prose explanation of appoggio, registration, messa di voce, coup de glotte, or any other
core bel canto concept.6 Rather, it is up to the teacher to apply context, explanation, and
—most important—technical advice when working with the student through these
progressive exercises. The primary purpose behind a methodology is skill acquisition,
particularly skill acquisition that works toward the goal of singing a very specific
repertory: nineteenth-century Italian bel canto repertoire. In other words, the goal of
a methodology is the successful execution of the literature. In and of themselves, they
do not attempt to unravel the mystery of vocal function.
Other important authors of nineteenth-century methodologies include Franz Abt
(1819–1885), Pasquale Bona (1808–1878), Giovanni Marco Bordogni (1789–1856),
Adolphe-Léopold Dannhauser (1835–1896), Louis Lablache (1794–1858), Francesco
48 M. HOCH

Lamperti (1811–1892), Giovanni Battista Lamperti (1839–1910), Bernhard Lütgen (1835–

1870), Salvatore Marchesi (1822–1908), Auguste Mathieu Panseron (1796–1859),
Gioacchino Rossini (1792–1868), Giovanni Battista Rubini (1794–1854), William
Shakespeare (1849–1931), Ferdinand Sieber (1822–1895), Max Spicker (1858–1912),
and Pauline Viardot (1821–1910).7

Manuel García II: The Dawn of the Modern Era

James Stark (1999) writes the following about the Manuel García II’s unique position in
the history of singing voice pedagogy:

If there was a single point in music history when the tradition and science of singing met,
it was in the life and work of Manuel García II. Perhaps it would be more correct to say
that with García, tradition and science not only met, but collided with a force that is still
felt today. García was one of those seminal historical figures whose career marked a
watershed between the past and the future. An heir of the old Italian school of singing,
at the same time he belonged to a generation of scientific minds who wished to look
beyond the mere appearance of things to their underlying ideas. (4)

Thus, García fils—to distinguish him from his father, the great Rossini tenor García
père or García I—marks the beginning of the march toward a twentieth century,
anatomical understanding of the singing voice. His achievements in voice pedagogy
are manifold, and his primary contributions to the discipline are twofold: the concept of
the coup de glotte (“stroke of the glottis”—a unnecessarily but inevitably complex
discussion topic that is beyond the scope of this article) and his writings, particularly
the treatise Hints on Singing (1894).
In spite of these achievements, the contribution for which García II is perhaps most
famous is the invention of the laryngoscope in 1854.8 For García, this early laryngo-
scope was essentially a mirror attached to the end of a stick so that the vocal folds could
be observed indirectly. García, after many observations of his own larynx, published his
findings in Observations of the Human Voice in 1855, the first laryngological publication
of its kind. He quickly developed a reputation throughout Europe as a teacher of
injured voices, and he was famously credited with restoring the voice of Jenny Lind
(1820–1887), the “Swedish Nightingale.”
Interestingly, García’s work was viewed with derision in many circles of the singing
world, particularly the old-school bel canto community, who had little interest in
physiologic function and saw it as too drastic a departure from “golden era” approaches
to the voice. I am inclined to think that this scorn was due in large part to García II’s
place within his famous singing family. His father, Manuel García I, was a student of
Porpora and one of the most famous tenors in Europe. His many roles included
Almaviva in Rossini’s original 1816 production of Il barbiere di Siviglia. In addition,
Manuel’s two sisters were the world-class mezzo-sopranos Maria Malibran (1808–1836)
and Pauline Viardot (1821–1910). Naturally, a major career was expected of Manuel
García fils as well, but it was not to be. After several false starts, he retired from singing
and went about his pedagogic endeavors.
Perhaps this status as the only “non-singer” alongside such esteemed kinship
contributed to García II’s mixed legacy. Thankfully, García fils’s reputation has aged
 VOICE AND SPEECH REVIEW 49

well—no history of singing voice pedagogy would be complete with substantial

discussion of his unique legacy.

The Birth of Professional Organizations

Formal professional organizations for singing teachers were largely a twentieth-century
phenomenon. The first organization for singing teachers in the United States was the
New York Singing Teachers Association (NYSTA), which was established in New York
City in 1906. First named the National Association of Teachers of Singing, the organi-
zation acquired its current name officially in 1917.9 NYSTA’s origins were firmly
grounded in the teachings of the Italian bel canto tradition. The original ten-member
board of directors numbered five known exponents of Manuel García II, Pauline
Viardot-García, or one of their students. In the second year of incorporation, NYSTA
concerned itself with examinations and certification for singing teachers, holding public
meetings to foster discussion and debate. This effort to establish standards was directed
under the leadership of the first chairman, Herman Klein. A prodigious author, editor,
and voice teacher, Klein had the imprimatur of Manuel García who remarked in a
published letter: “It is gratifying to me to know that the great American people
appreciate the sound theories of the old school, and they will assuredly find in you
one among its few capable exponents” (Shigo and Ohrenstein 2006, 6–7). NYSTA’s
professional development program, which was founded many years later by Oren
Lathrop Brown (1909–2004), is still at the very heart of the organization’s mission,
delivering core courses in vocal anatomy and physiology, voice acoustics and resonance,
vocal health for voice professionals, singer’s developmental repertoire, and comparative
voice pedagogy. VOICEPrints—the journal of NYSTA—is published five times annually.
The world’s largest association of singing teachers, the National Association of
Teachers of Singing (NATS), was founded in 1944. Unlike NYSTA, which remained a
local organization for the tristate area throughout the entirety of the twentieth century,
NATS was founded with national ambitions. By the twenty-first century, NATS mem-
bership had grown to more than seven thousand. The association’s members primarily
come from the United States and Canada, but twenty-five other countries are also
represented. NATS hosts biennial national conventions, and student auditions occur at
the chapter, regional, and national levels. The NATS Intern Pro- gram, a prestigious
mentoring program for young teachers of singing, is also offered each summer. The
Journal of Singing—the official publication of NATS—is published five times annually.
Founded in 1969 in New York City by the physician Wilbur James Gould, the Voice
Foundation brings together physicians, scientists, speech-language pathologists (SLPs),
performers, and teachers to share their knowledge and expertise in the care of the
professional voice user. The mission of the Voice Foundation is to enhance knowledge,
care, and training of the voice through educational programs and publications for voice
care professionals and public and professional voice users, and through supporting and
funding research. Since 1972, the Voice Foundation has sponsored an annual sympo-
sium entitled “Care of the Professional Voice.” This interdisciplinary academic con-
ference is a showcase for the most current and cutting-edge voice research not only in
the country, but the world. “Voice Pedagogy Sunday,” which occurs on the last day of
the symposium, is a favorite among singing teachers. Since 1989, the Voice Foundation
50 M. HOCH

has been led by Robert Thayer Sataloff, an internationally renowned otolaryngologist

who is also a professional singer and conductor, as well as author of more than 600
publications, including more than thirty-six textbooks.
International Congress of Voice Teachers (ICVT) began convening in 1987. It is not
a professional organization per se, but rather a consortium of professional organizations
from all over the world that now gathers once every four years. The first nine ICVT
events were held in Strasbourg, France (1987); Philadelphia, United States (1991);
Auckland, New Zealand (1994); London, England (1997); Helsinki, Finland (2001);
Vancouver, Canada (2005); Paris, France (2009); Brisbane, Australia (2013); and
Stockholm, Sweden (2017). The next congress will be held in Vienna, Austria, in 2021.
The Pan-American Vocology Association (PAVA) is a membership-driven group of
voice professionals from all voice-related vocations including vocologists, SLPs, physi-
cians (otorhinolaryngology), professional singers, singing teachers, voice and speech
trainers, and voice therapists. PAVA is an association, not a foundation, with elected
officers whose terms rotate every two years according to a set of bylaws. In this sense,
the organization combines the interdisciplinary nature of the Voice Foundation with a
governance structure that is more similar to NATS. The mission of PAVA is to advance
the scientific study of voice for artistic and professional use by fostering vocology in all
countries of the Western Hemisphere through research, dissemination of knowledge,
training, and the creation and development of professional standards and credentialing
in voice habilitation.
Conferences held by the four organizations mentioned above—PAVA, NATS,
ICVT, and (especially) the annual Voice Foundation Symposium—have been quin-
tessentially important in uniting the profession, increasing interdisciplinary studies,
disseminating scientific research, and exploring new lines of pedagogic inquiry. There
are also numerous other professional organizations, conferences, summer workshops,
and symposia emerging each year, so many that one cannot possibly keep up with all
of the opportunities that are available. The impact of professional organizations on
late-twentieth and twenty-first-century voice pedagogy cannot be overstated. They
have firmly established themselves as an integral part of the modern pedagogic
landscape.

Vennard, Appleman, and the Dawn of a Fact-Based Era10

The year 1967 heralded the dawn of a new “fact-based” era in voice pedagogy.11 This is
almost entirely due to the publication of two seminal textbooks in the history of singing
voice pedagogy: D. Ralph Appelman’s The Science of Vocal Pedagogy: Theory and
Application and the revised and enlarged (and definitive) version of William
Vennard’s Singing: The Mechanism and the Technic. The appearance of these two
books in the same year revolutionized undergraduate and graduate voice pedagogy
classes in universities across the United States for the next two decades. Vennard’s book
was particularly ubiquitous, enduring for almost twenty years until Richard Miller’s
landmark The Structure of Singing was published in 1986.
Like many seminal events in intellectual history, the timing was right for the
appearance of these two books. The profession not only was ready for them, it needed
them. In the latter half of the twentieth century, a fundamental shift occurred as our
 VOICE AND SPEECH REVIEW 51

knowledge of voice science increased, clarifying aspects of vocal function and demys-
tifying many aspects of singing and the teaching of singing. While some myths were
debunked, many tenets of traditional bel canto teachings that had worked for centuries
were validated by modern science.
Thus, modern singing pedagogues often divide voice pedagogy into two eras, a
historical era that was followed by a fact-based one as knowledge of science increased.
There is a strong argument to cite 1967 as the dividing line between these two eras due
to the publication of Appleman’s and Vennard’s treatises, both of which are firmly
grounded in anatomy and physiology and focus on vocal function. This emphasis on
vocal function—as opposed to imagery or other historical approaches—is an essential
feature of fact-based era pedagogy.
While the works of D. Ralph Appelman and William Vennard might seem dated
today, their importance in the history of American voice pedagogy cannot be over-
emphasized. Both The Science of Vocal Pedagogy: Theory and Application and Singing:
The Mechanism and the Technic reflect pedagogic truth as they—and the profession—
understood it in 1967, and much of what they wrote is still remarkably relevant. Most
important, the developments in voice pedagogy that would occur throughout the 1970s,
1980s, 1990s, and 2000s could not have occurred without their pioneering work.

Acoustic Theory: Sundberg, Coffin, and Contemporary Figures

In virtually all contemporary voice pedagogy courses and textbooks, there is substantial
discussion of the basic acoustics of the singing voice. Even many undergraduate music
majors now understand the concept of formants. This was not always the case, however,
and acoustic theory is actually a rather recent development in singing voice pedagogy.
Although Peterson and Barney (1952) published their pioneering article in the Journal
of the Acoustical Society of America as early as 1952, and although Vennard ably
touched on the topic in 1967, it would not be until the 1970s and beyond that the
common singing teacher began to seriously wrestle with formants and their implica-
tions when teaching vowels, registration, and tone quality.
In 1977, Scientific American published a definitive article by Johan Sundberg (1977)
on vocal acoustics. In the words of Jeannette LoVetri, Sundberg:
discovered that classical singers’ voices exhibit a certain amount of consistency in terms of
both physiologic response and acoustic parameters. These hallmark characteristics are
some of the ingredients classical singers need to acquire, either through training or by
natural tendency, or both, if they are to succeed at the highest levels. (as quoted Hoch
2014, 210).

Sundberg would eventually publish The Science of the Singing Voice (1989), which
would become the essential “bible” of acoustic theory for an entire generation of singing
teachers.
Berton Coffin (1910–1987) was also an early pioneer with a more practical approach.
Unlike Sundberg, who is a voice scientist first and foremost, Coffin was a singing
teacher with an interest in voice science. Although he authored many publications,
his most important two books were The Sounds of Singing: Vocal Techniques with
Vowel-Pitch Charts (Coffin [1976] 1987)) and Overtones of Bel Canto: Phonetic Basis of
52 M. HOCH

Artistic Singing with 100 Chromatic Vowel-Chart Exercises (1980). His most famous
pedagogic tool was a “chromatic vowel chart” that, when spread across the piano
keyboard, advocated systematic vowel modification in various parts of the vocal range
to achieve resonance via scientific and acoustic principles.
Contemporary voice pedagogy resources—such as Scott McCoy’s Your Voice: An
Inside View (McCoy [2004] 2012)—have become increasingly masterful at simplifying
the concept of formants for students and teachers of singing. In the second decade of
the twenty-first century, Ken Bozeman’s two books—Practical Vocal Acoustics (2013)
and Kinesthetic Voice Pedagogy (2017)—have been greeted with sincere enthusiasm by
the broader singing community. Acoustic theory is no longer a topic reserved for PhD
students; these are basic concepts now understood by an increasing majority of singing
teachers. In 2016, Ian Howell published his theory on Absolute Spectral Tone Color
(ASTC), a revolutionary concept that is certain to generate considerable discussion as
acoustic theory enters its next decade of research.

Richard Miller: The Formulation of a Systematic Approach

In 1998, Richard Miller (1926–2009) wrote that “the influence of the Lamperti maxims
[have] never been surpassed by other pedagogic writing in the twentieth century.”12 I
argue that the influence of Lamperti’s maxims have perhaps been surpassed only by the
writings of Miller himself. Miller is arguably the most prolific and important modern
classical voice pedagogue, and inarguably one of the most influential among North
American singing teachers. More modern singing teachers affirm Richard Miller’s ideas
than any other single pedagogue.
Miller’s landmark 1986 treatise, The Structure of Singing, introduced a systematic
approach to voice pedagogy that is still widely in practice among singing teachers.
Miller’s long career as a singing teacher was spent almost entirely at the undergraduate
institution of Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. There, he founded the Otto B.
Schoepfle Vocal Arts Center, one of the first vocology laboratories in the United
States dedicated to studying the singing voice. In addition to The Structure of Singing,
Miller wrote many other books, the most important of which is National Schools of
Singing (Miller [1977] 1997)), the result of hundreds of hours of observing singing
lessons in England, France, Germany, and Italy. Miller concluded that the
“International Italian School” was the most physiologically practical approach to sing-
ing, particularly emphasizing the importance of appoggio breath management.13
The Structure of Singing dissects vocal technique according to function and into the
specific subsystems of respiration, phonation, resonation, and articulation, prescribing
specific exercises for various aspects of singing technique. Miller’s paradigm is orga-
nized according to the following categories (the numbers indicate chapters in The
Structure of Singing):

1. Onset and Release

2. Breath Management
3. Agility/Flexibility
4. Resonance
5. Vowel Balancing
 VOICE AND SPEECH REVIEW 53

6–7. Resonance (nasal and non-nasal consonants)

8. Sostenuto
9–10. Registration (male and female)
11. Vowel Modification
12. Range Extension
13. Messa di voce and Dynamic Control
14. Vibrato and Vocal Timbre
15–17. Extra-Technical Concerns

In many ways, Miller’s approach is an augmentation of the skill-acquisition-based

approach of many of the bel canto methodologists, who prescribed exercises assigned
to sequentially develop specific aspects of vocal technique (and with the intent of
singing—both in their case and in Miller’s case—classical vocal repertoire). Miller,
however, goes far further than his predecessors by thoroughly annotating each set of
exercises with lengthy prose, detailing the physiology at work behind the technique.
This decoding of vocal technique—making the invisible if not visible, at least more
understandable—is The Structure of Singing’s most important contribution to the
pedagogic literature.
Miller’s systematic approach revolutionized voice pedagogy over the course of the
next two decades, uniting the profession. His impact was especially felt among aca-
demic singing teachers; the groupthink of the NATS community is still very much in
the Miller lineage, especially among classical singing teachers. In the coming years, new
pedagogic works by Barbara Doscher ([1988] 1994), Clifton Ware (1998), and Scott
McCoy ([2004] 2012) would become important descendants of the systematic, fact-
based approach to singing that was advocated by Miller, carrying his concepts into the
twenty-first century.

Vocology: The Science and Practice of Voice Habilitation

The term vocology entered the lexicon relatively recently in the history of voice
pedagogy. Vocology was first coined in conversation in 1988 between Ingo Titze, a
voice scientist at the University of Iowa, and George Gates, an otolaryngologist at
Washington University in St. Louis. It was then introduced at a conference in 1989
by Gates and published in an article by Titze the following year (1990). Titze and Gates
defined vocology as “the science and practice of voice habilitation” and viewed it as a
discipline that would parallel audiology. Audiology, the branch of science that studies
hearing, balance, and related disorders, is a well-established field with a long history
behind it. Vocology, however, is much newer as a systematic discipline. Vocology is
perhaps even more interdisciplinary in nature, involving voice scientists, speech-
language pathologists, ENTs, and voice practitioners.
The most significant ways in which vocology parallels audiology is the emphasis on one
major organ (ear versus larynx) and acoustic-mechanical-electrical energy transduction.
One could devise the following respective academic and professional definitions:
Audiology (A): The study of hearing
Audiology (P): The diagnosis and treatment of hearing disorders
54 M. HOCH

Vocology (A): The study of vocalization

Vocology (P): The science and practice of voice habilitation

In addition, both (at least in recent years) have respective professional organizations:
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)
Pan-American Vocology Association (PAVA)

It should be noted that “habilitation” is distinct from the related term, “rehabilitation.” They
are not interchangeable. Whereas voice rehabilitation specialists (speech-language patholo-
gists) help to restore injured voices to normal function, habilitative specialists (vocologists,
singing and acting voice teachers), train healthy voices to do extraordinary things. Habilitate
means to enable, equip, or capacitate. Titze makes the following observations:
Voice habilitation is more than repairing a voice or bringing it back to a former state, even
if that state may have been judged statistically as normal; rather, it is the process of
strengthening and equipping the voice to meet very specific and special demands. [. . .]
Asking a stock trader at the New York Stock Exchange, or a coach along the sidelines of a
basketball court, to “hold down” the voice is like telling a boxer not to get hit or a ballerina
not to get on her toes (Titze 1990, 21).

Exceptional vocal skills, according to Titze, may include the following: (a) Loudness and
pitch ranges beyond normal conversational speech; (b) duration of vocalization beyond
a population norm; (c) amplified versus unamplified voice for professional and recrea-
tional needs; (d) voice quality variations, including the use of multiple sound sources;
(e) voice impersonation, mimicking, disguise, accent training; and (f) high-effort
vocalization (shouting, screaming, calling, and other ”primal sound” making).14
Perhaps Titze’s greatest contribution to the contemporary singing voice teacher is
the research on and the inclusion of semi-occluded vocal tract (SOVT) exercises in the
practice regimen. The most popular SOVT exercise used by singing teachers is what
many call “straw phonation” (singing through a straw as part of a warm up or technical
exercise. In the following passage, Titze both defines SOVT exercises and explains the
science behind them:
My team and others around the world have discovered, scientifically, the merits behind
various different voice therapy techniques. They can be all covered with one phrase called
“semi-occluded vocal tract” methods. What we mean by that is, in order to make the vocal
folds function in the most efficient way, one needs to practice with the mouth almost
closed. So we do exercises like lip trills, or making a sound through a thin straw. I have a
video on YouTube explaining straw phonation. It has been viewed by close to one hundred
thousand people now. There are other varieties of semi-occluded vocal tract exercises, such
as tongue trills and hums. Some people promote water bubbling with a straw. All of these
techniques have one thing in common: They create a pressure in the oral cavity that helps
to set the vocal fold into their ideal position. The nearly closed tube also helps to create a
feedback so that the acoustic pressures in the mouth help to drive the vocal folds,
increasing the efficiency of the sound production. That to me has been a most significant
discovery that reaches across speaking, singing, and every other kind of vocalization.15
(communication on the “Voice Forum” Facebook group, July 3 2016)

In 2000, Titze founded the Summer Vocology Institute (SVI) under the auspices of the
National Center for Voice and Speech (NCVS). SVI is a summer academy for vocology
training, attracting singing and acting voice teachers, speech-language pathologists,
 VOICE AND SPEECH REVIEW 55

Table 1. Milestones in The History of Vocology.

1992 Specialty training track at the University of Iowa established
1994 Publication of Principles of Voice Production (Titze 1994)
1997 Journal: Logopedics, Phoniatrics, Vocology (Europe)
1998 Manual: “Guide to Vocology” (Verdolini)
2000 Summer Vocology Institute (SVI) founded
2005 Wikipedia entry (without trademark identity)
2012 Vocology textbook published (Titze and Verdolini Abbott 2012)
2013 Specialty Training in Vocal Health (STVH) symposium
2014 Pan-American Vocology Association (PAVA) founded

choral directors, and other voice professionals. The coursework consists of 9.0 graduate
credits offered in three blocks over a period of eight weeks. The organization and credit
distribution are as follows:
Block I: Principles of Voice Production (3.0 credits)
Block II: Voice Habilitation (2.0 credits)
Instrumentation for Voice Analysis (2.0 credits)
Block III: Voice for Performers (2.0 credits)
The institute began in Denver (2000–2008) and is now located in Salt Lake City
(2010–present). There are currently over 200 alumni teaching in universities and
working at clinics all over the United States and internationally. Table 1 shows the
chronological development of many vocology milestones.
Vocology is yielding important discoveries in voice research that has important
implications for twenty-first-century singing teachers, and the nature of vocology—to
habilitate the voice and facilitate exceptional voice use—has important implications for
acting voice teachers and professional voice users as well.

Contemporary Commercial Music (CCM) Pedagogy

One of the most important developments in singing voice pedagogy that has occurred
over the last several decades is the overwhelming acceptance of non-classical or con-
temporary commercial music (CCM) styles into mainstream voice pedagogy.16 As
recently as the 1970s and 1980s, there was hardly anyone available to teach singing
lessons that were not classical in nature. This is perhaps due to the training that singing
teachers received—all university degrees were classical as well.
What is astonishing about this reality is that popular singing styles dominated
virtually the entire twentieth century—on Broadway, on jazz records, and on radio
and television. Why was this teaching style not being? Performers were left to figure it
out on their own, sometimes avoiding classical singing teachers for fear of contaminat-
ing their style with undesirable “classical” sounds or colors. There is a famous anecdotal
story dating from 1930, when George Gershwin heard Ethel Merman sing “I Got
Rhythm” for the first time. Enthralled by her robust belt voice, he asked:
Gershwin: “Ethel, do you know what you’re doing?”
Merman: “No.”
Gershwin: “Well keep doing it, and never go near a singing teacher.”
56 M. HOCH

This was probably excellent advice at the time, as it would take another forty years
before specific pedagogies to deal with non-classical styles would begin developing.
Perhaps it is not surprising that some of the earliest events in the history of CCM
pedagogy occurred in and around New York City, which had long been established as
the music theater capital of the world, as well as the home to a plethora of other CCM
styles. Specifically, four seminal figures emerged as pioneers during the 1970s and
1980s: Jo Estill, Jeannette LoVetri, Seth Riggs, and Robert Edwin.17
It cannot be overstated that Robert Edwin was an extremely important figure—
perhaps the most pivotal one—in convincing professional organizations like NATS to
support other styles beyond classical singing. This was primarily due to his regular
“Bach to Rock” column, which appeared in the NATS Bulletin and the Journal of
Singing from 1985 through 2002. According to Edwin:

In the early 1980s, Richard Miller was editor-in-chief of the NATS Bulletin, and he asked
me to develop the first regular column dedicated to “nonclassical” voice pedagogy and
repertoire. The “Bach to Rock Connection” debuted in the last issue of the NATS Bulletin
in June of 1985 and continued to appear regularly for seventeen years in the NATS Journal
from 1985 to 1995 and then in the Journal of Singing from 1995 to 2002. In 2002, I became
an associate editor of the Journal of Singing and the column was retitled “Popular Song and
Music Theater.” That column continues to this day and—thanks to my colleague and
friend Jeannette LoVetri—we now have a legitimate name for our work: contemporary
commercial music (CCM) voice pedagogy rather than the vague and somewhat demeaning
“nonclassical.” (personal communication, May 26 2017)

In 1983, the New York Singing Teachers Association (NYSTA) hosted an event entitled
the “Music Theater and Popular Music Symposium,” which featured several presenters,
including Oren Brown and Jo Estill. The symposium proved to be controversial to the
establishment because the concept of “legitimizing” these nonclassical styles was alarm-
ing to many of the classical voice teachers who served on NYSTA’s board of directors.
According to Jeannette LoVetri, immediately after the symposium “the NYSTA board
of directors met, and half of them resigned in protest because people were ‘dragging the
organization down’ by promoting ‘that’ music, which was really just noise” (personal
communication, May 15 2017). While there was obviously still much work to do, the
first steps toward establishing CCM pedagogy as a bona fide discipline had been made.
Seventeen years would pass before the National Association of Teachers of Singing
(NATS) would follow in NYSTA’s footsteps. In 2000, NATS sponsored its first-ever
“belting workshop” at the University of Miami. Norman Spivey and David Ward were
the organizers, and presenters included Liz Caplan and Neil Semer, who were both
teachers who lived and worked in New York. The success of this workshop led to a
second one a year later, in 2001. This time, it was held in New York City. Neil Semer
returned, along with Jo Estill, Jeannette LoVetri, and Mary Saunders Barton. By this
time, the seeds of a new pedagogy were planted. With NATS finally supportive of
exploring “nonclassical” styles, the road was paved for more progress to be made.
As Edwin mentions above, LoVetri’s coining of the term “contemporary commercial
music” represents another pivotal moment in the history of CCM pedagogy. According
to LoVetri, she first began using this term around the year 2000 (personal communica-
tion, May 15 2017). The term first appeared in print three years later in a research paper
by Jeannette LoVetri and Edrie Means Weekly (2003). In the early 2000s, several NATS
 VOICE AND SPEECH REVIEW 57

chapters began offering annual music theater auditions alongside their classical ones,
and eventually the national organization followed suit, encouraging these auditions. It is
now unusual to find a NATS chapter that does not offer a music theater category at
their student auditions. In 2014, with the inauguration of the National Student
Auditions, national guidelines were established for both classical and music theater
singers.
Four decades ago, no one could have predicted the presence and importance that
CCM has achieved in the voice pedagogy community. Its flourishing as a discipline
worthy of standing alongside classical singing has been steady and—recently—rapid,
and advances in CCM pedagogy show no signs of slowing down. In fact, the number of
individuals singing and teaching CCM is growing exponentially. With youth and
enthusiasm on its side, it will be fascinating to see what the coming decades will
bring. It is almost certain that CCM pedagogy will continue its ascent and influence
in the pedagogic world.

Conclusion: Envisioning the Future

In May of 2018, I attended a symposium at the University of Southern California
entitled “The Art and Science of Great Teaching: Celebrating the Legacy of William
Vennard.” The symposium celebrated not only Vennard’s important contributions to
voice pedagogy, but also acknowledged the inauguration of the Vennard Collection:
a new archive of Vennard’s personal writings, research files, and memorabilia.
Keynote speakers at the symposium included Stephen F. Austin, Kenneth
Bozeman, Thomas F. Cleveland, Cindy Dewey, Lynn Helding, Scott McCoy, and
Kari Ragan.
While all of these speakers offered fascinating insights into twenty-first-century voice
pedagogy, perhaps the most forward looking were the lectures by Helding and Ragan.
Helding presented a session entitled “The Missing Mind: The Third Pillar of Voice
Pedagogy.” In it, she convincingly argued that singing voice research over the past
several decades has focused overwhelmingly on biomechanics and acoustic theory, but
the brain’s role in singing—including topics such as cognition, perception, procedural
learning, neuroplasticity, and motor learning theory—has been a largely neglected
aspect of voice pedagogy.18 Ragan proposed a dynamic new approach to the intersec-
tion of the interdisciplinary “voice team”—a term for the triumvirate core group
consisting of the singing teacher, speech-language pathologist, and otolaryngologist—
which she labels “Evidence-Based Voice Pedagogy.” The interdisciplinary nature of our
field has never been more front and center.
Looking at the history of voice pedagogy reveals a microcosm of the history of
intellectual thought. The early Greek philosophers dabbled not only in philosophy, but
also science, religion, mathematics, and a host of other topics. They were the great
thinkers of the era, and all of these disciplines were young at the time. No mathema-
tician studies “mathematics” (broadly) anymore—rather, they specialize. Polymaths like
Vennard, Coffin, and Miller were pivotal figures who left an indelible mark during the
earliest years of the fact-based era, but the twenty-first century suggests that a new
paradigm is necessary.
58 M. HOCH

The ever-expanding body of knowledge makes it increasingly impractical—if not

impossible—for a singing teacher to be up-to-date in all arenas, making it all the more
necessary to rely on a network of voice professionals who collectively represent various
areas of expertise, including biomechanics, acoustic theory, psychology, and cognition,
holistic practices, and all of the related health and wellness fields that are the province
of medical professionals. The Big Bang of singing voice pedagogy continues to expand
at exponential speed.

Notes
1. The Song of Deborah (Judges 5) and Miriam’s Song of Triumph (Exodus 15:21) are two of
the most significant psalm-like passages in the Tanakh/Old Testament.
2. I recommend this anthology as an ideal collection of “core readings” and as a basic
introduction to topic of historical singing voice pedagogy.
3. Chiaroscuro, which means “light and shadow” in Italian, is a term that comes from visual
art and painting. In voice pedagogy it refers to a classical tone quality that is balanced—
neither too dark nor too bright. Appoggio—Italian for “support” or “lean”—refers to a
breath management technique rooted in bel canto classical singing that advocates rib-based
expansion and engagement of the thoracic-abdominal muscles during phonation.
4. Consult Stark’s entire study for an in-depth exploration of the bel canto concept within the
context of historical voice pedagogy.
5. These collective writings have recently been republished by Inside View Press under one
cover as the title Provenance: Historic Voice Pedagogy Viewed through a Contemporary
Lens (2017). Important predecessors to this column include series by Berton Coffin
(“Vocal Pedagogy Classics,” published from 1981–1984) and Craig Timberlake (“Practica
Musicae,” published from 1993–1997). Coffin’s articles were collectively published in 1989
as Historical Vocal Pedagogy Classics.
6. Coup de glotte is a French term that translates as “stroke of the glottis.” It was type of onset
advocated by Manuel García II. The term is also controversial; pedagogues have long
argued about the term’s exact meaning and how the onset should be executed.
7. While there are many technique books available for purchase, most methodologies used in
North American voice studios are in the public domain and can therefore be downloaded
free of charge from such websites as imslp.org. Another collection entitled Vocal Exercises:
The Ultimate Collection is available from CD Sheet Music, LLC.
8. Sell cites Galen (130–200) as the first laryngologist (2005, 190). If one accepts these two
figures—Galen and García II—as pioneers, it is interesting that 1700 years elapsed before
the invention of the laryngoscope.
9. NATS, which now uses this name, was founded in 1944.
10. This portion of the article is a crystalized version of a longer article published in a previous
issue of the Voice and Speech Review. See “The Legacy of William Vennard and D. Ralph
Appelman and Their Influence on Singing Voice Pedagogy: Reflections after 50 Years”
(Hoch 2017).
11. I credit Scott McCoy for coining the term “fact-based.” I first heard him use it in a lecture
in 2007.
12. Miller is referring to Vocal Wisdom: Maxims of Giovanni Battisa Lamperti, translated by
William Earl Brown.
13. Miller’s other books include Training Tenor Voices (1993), On the Art of Singing (1996),
Singing Schumann (1999), Training Soprano Voices (2000), Solutions for Singers (2004),
and Securing Baritone, Bass-Baritone, and Bass Voices (2008).
14. Personal correspondence with Ingo Titze, June 14 2017.
 VOICE AND SPEECH REVIEW 59

15. Titze offered this explanation in person in as part of his “Principles of Voice Production”
course at the Summer Vocology Institute (SVI) at the National Center for Voice and
Speech (NCVS). The author enrolled in this class in June of 2013.
16. Much of the content in this section derives from the author’s chapters previously pub-
lished in his 2018 book, So You Want to Sing Contemporary Commercial Music (CCM)
(Matthew 2018).
17. Riggs would soon settle in Los Angeles, where he established huge reputation as a teacher
of famous singers in the recording industry. He also developed the Speech Level Singing
(SLS)TM method.
18. The term “biomechanics,” is used in this article to refer to the study of biological structures
and function, not the method of actor training developed by Vsevolod Meyerhold (1874–
1940).

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor
Matthew Hoch, DMA, is an Associate Professor of Voice and Coordinator of
Vocal Performance at Auburn University. He is the author of several books,
including A Dictionary for the Modern Singer. He holds the BM from Ithaca
College, MM from the Hartt School, and DMA from the New England
Conservatory. Hoch is the 2016 winner of the Van L. Lawrence Fellowship,
awarded jointly by the Voice Foundation and NATS. He actively performs art
song, opera, chamber music, and in professional choral settings. He was
recently appointed to the editorial board of the Voice and Speech Review
and was a presenter at the 2017 VASTA conference in Singapore.

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