The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of guided musical analysis and guided attention to textual understanding on the speed of solo memorization by selected university vocal students. The guided musical analysis consisted of instruction to a subject regarding the melodic elements, rhythmic elements, phraseology, form, and key relationships of the experimental songs. The guided attention to textual understanding consisted of instruction to a subject regarding the meaning and phraseology of the experimental song texts. Subjects were required to rhythmically scan the texts in a declamatory manner. It was concluded that the three conditions of memorization were equally effective. Memorization rates were not significantly altered by historical period of song. Differences in memorization rates appeared to parallel the subjects' academic performances and their performances on the Drake Musical Aptitude Tests. Findings of this study indicated that future memorization experiments should be conducted with larger samples of subjects of a single sex who are music majors.

The teaching of singing is fraught with psychological problems not met with in the other branches of applied music. The inordinate physical and mental concepts with which the singing teacher must deal result in the necessity that the singing teacher, to be highly efficient, must be a practicing psychologist. In the writer's experience, first as student and then as teacher and observer of the work of other teachers, it has become obvious that in the minds of the majority of pupils, diction problems are so paramount that they supercede the purely vocal aspects of singing. As the language sounds are rightly but a point of departure for the building of a beautiful and expressive singing tone, it seems absolutely essential that the way must be pointed whereby language in singing can find its proper place in the pupil's development, where it can assume the position of a help rather than a hindrance in vocal achievement.

An assessment of the standard voice instructor or performer collection of printed music would likely reveal numerous operatic repertoire volumes in anthology format appropriated to the primary four voice categories. However, thorough investigation divulges little in comparable printed material accessible to the countertenor. This scarcity of systemized collections is especially evident in the territory of comprehensive countertenor operatic repertoire. This project fills that present void by creating a compilation of sixteen countertenor arias drawn from various styles and historical periods for suggested application in studio instruction and performance. Perhaps, a more meaningful project intent is the presentation of a beneficial graded literature continuum resource for the studio teacher who instructs a countertenor in various stages of vocal development. For this purpose, each of the 16 arias is categorized into four difficulty levels based on considerations of range, tessitura, coloratura demands, rhythm, sustained phrase length, tonality, melodic considerations/overall musical difficulty, accompaniment support, and ornamentation requirements. The project also addresses common issues of pedagogy and ornamentation for voice teacher consideration when instructing a developing countertenor.

This dissertation is about the influence of body image on classical vocal performance in collegiate women singers. Those trained in classical singing are familiar with the phrase, “your body is your instrument.” A focus on the physical body is apparent in the vocal pedagogical literature, as is attention to singers’ mental and emotional states. But the intersection of emotions and the body—how one thinks and feels about their body, or body image—is largely absent from the vocal pedagogical literature. As voice teachers continue to necessarily address their students’ instruments (bodies), the field has not adequately considered how each singer’s relationship with their instrument (their body) might affect them, as singers and as people. This initial foray sought answers to just two of the myriad unanswered questions surrounding this topic: Does a singer’s body image influence her singing? If so, when and how? It employed a feminist methodological framework that would provide for consciousness-raising as both a method and aim of the study. Four collegiate women singers served as co-researchers, and data collection took place in three parts: a focus group, audio diaries, and interviews. The focus group was specifically geared towards consciousness-raising in order to provide co-researchers with the awareness necessary for examining their body image. Co-researchers then recorded semi-structured audio diaries for one month after practice sessions, voice lessons, and performances. One-on-one interviews concluded data collection and provided a situation of co-analysis wherein the researcher and co-researcher could deeply examine data from the focus group and diaries. The major discovery of this research is a pervasive sense of separation between a woman singer’s “everyday body” and her singer’s body. Self-objectification served as a barrier to a conscious recognition of embodied experience and effectively split the singer in two. The various states of the relationship between these two seemingly separate entities resulted in specific outcomes for singing, including restriction, unawareness, inconsistency, and focus. The discussion concludes with a consideration of how a positive body image may encourage effective and artistic vocal performance and how voice teachers might help foster a positive experience of one’s body.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of verbal communication and vocal performance during university-level applied studio voice lessons. Specific emphasis lay on the relationship between verbal communication, vocal performance, and instructional segments as defined by technical and song literature vocal repertoire.

The purpose of this study was to explore adolescent self-views of singing ability through both implicit theories and self-concept meaning systems. A secondary purpose of this study was to examine these self-views specifically in the context of a choral hierarchy. Using a researcher-designed survey instrument, I gathered data from middle- and high-school students currently enrolled in a choir program organized in a hierarchical structure. I analyzed descriptive statistics of survey responses to items designed to measure implicit theories of singing ability, singing self-concept, and goal orientation. I also examined differences among participants by ensemble placement in implicit theory and self-concept scores, correlation between implicit theory and self-concept, and whether implicit theory, self-concept, goal orientation, or current enrollment could predict future enrollment decisions. In addition to these quantitative measures, I coded open-ended responses to two failure scenarios and examined participant responses by ensemble and gender. Both implicit theory and self-concept scores were higher for participants at the top of the choral hierarchy than at the bottom. Open-ended responses, however, did not align with the implicit theory scale and a number of students presented a false growth mindset. Open-ended responses also indicated that failure scenarios were likely to result in an altered view of the self and shame in placement in an ensemble at the bottom of the choral hierarchy. The means scores for participants in the middle- and high-school ensembles in both implicit theory and self-concept were significantly different, with participants in the high-school ensembles having higher scores in both constructs. Implicit theory and self-concept were significantly related, and self-concept, goal orientation, and current enrollment significantly predicted future enrollment decisions.

The purpose of this research is to program cycles or units of study which may be used with the Cyclo-Teacher Learning Aid, a commercial teaching machine produced by the Field Enterprises Educational Corporation of Chicago. The program will consist of the mechanics of music and will be designed for use with the seven- and eight-year-old child in primary choirs of the graded choir program of Southern Baptist churches.

This treatise has been prepared largely because of an increasing interest in contemporary music and an awareness on the part of many music educators of its merits in the curriculum of public schools and colleges. Since contemporary music is a controversial subject among directors, it has become necessary to search for specific, positive approaches to the teaching of contemporary music in high school.

The purpose of this study was to investigate, through stylistic analysis, the choral problems in twelve selected choruses from George Frederick Handel's oratorio, Messiah. The twelve choruses were selected for analysis in this study after consultation with several authorities in the field of choral music and on the basis that they are representative of problems encountered in the remaining choruses. Each of the twelve choruses was analyzed individually. Chapter I of this study presents the purpose of the study, the sub-problems involved, definitions of terms, delimitations, the basic hypothesis of the study, the basic assumptions of the study, methodology and the plan of the report. Chapter II of this study contains a brief biographical sketch of Handel, a discussion of the circumstances surrounding the composition of Messiah, and a survey of the Handelian oratorio Chorus. Chapter III presents the results of the analysis relevant to a discussion of each of the twelve choruses followed by a sectional presentation of the choral problems. In Chapter IV, a summary, some conclusions and recommendations are offered. Appendices A and B present reviews of selected recordings and vocal-piano editions of Messiah respectively.

Mathilde Marchesi played a significant role in vocal education during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Marchesi taught many of the prominent female vocalists of her time and published a wealth of material based on the bel canto style and her own vocal methods. The research presented includes an examination of musical influences in early years, and provides information related to Marchesi's studies with Manuel Garcia II who played an important role in Mathilde's training and future devotion to the bel canto style. Section II defines the Marchesi method, with analysis of her techniques and methodology. Information on three of her most well known students - Nellie Melba, Emma Eames, and her own daughter, Blanche Marchesi, is presented in Section III along with narrative offering insight into Marchesi's personality and character. The thesis concludes with discussion of the viability and applicability of Marchesi's vocal pedagogy one hundred years after her death. / by Joanna Craik. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.