I am a practising classical soprano. After more than 20 years of professional singing, I re-trained my voice according to principles of the old Italian school of singing. In this essay, I examine the origins and priciples of bel canto, with special focus on appoggio and chiaroscuro, two key ingredients in the bel cantao tradition. I explore the relationship between science and the craft of singing, and what modern voice science has to say about the efficiency and health aspects of this technique, I also describe the profound effect it has had on me as an artist.

Transferring words and ideas from one language to another has always been a puzzling and difficult matter for those involved in it. For centuries, English-speakers and translators have dealt with these difficulties by enforcing, through professional codes of ethics and through publishing contracts, what Lawrence Venuti calls "the translator's invisibility," as chronicled in his book by the same name. By evaluating translation solely on the transparency and fluency of the target language translation (that is, by making a translation not seem like a translation), English translators and audiences assured that translators remained faithful to original authors' intents, or so they thought. Contemporary linguistic theory, namely poststructuralism, has changed the way we think about language and has suggested that meaning is created just as much in the mind of the audience as in the hands of the author. Translation adds a third locus—that of the translator—in the creation of meaning, and many contemporary translation scholars promote a recognition of the inevitable intervention of translators. Ann Patchett's 2001 award-winning novel Bel Canto explores the way translation functions in contemporary global society. Through the microcosm of the novel, the main character, a professional translator named Gen, suggests that the acceleration of globalization that has contributed to the recent increase of translation and translation studies has also made the idea of the translator's invisibility obsolete. Instead, he finds that the linguistic awareness of his audience allows him a visibility for which his professional translation training has left him poorly equipped. To deal with his visibility, Gen must find new ways of creating responsibility in his audience and better ways to achieve ethical translation. Unlike Venuti's framework of translators who must one-sidedly demand attention and force breaks in tradition, Bel Canto suggests a cooperative re-evaluation of tradition that cautiously assesses translation strategies in terms of both the translator and the audience. In the spirit of global communication, Bel Canto presents translation as a multi-dimensional communicative situation that, with deliberate changes in the promotion of ethics, can enable international understanding and serve as an example of productive evaluation of tradition.

Bel canto is "the best in singing of all time." Authors on vocal literature (Miller, Celletti, Duey, Reid, Dmitriev, Stark, Whitlock among others) agree that bel canto singing requires complete mastery of vocal technique. The "best in singing" means that the singer should possess immaculate cantilena, smooth legato, a beautiful singing tone that exhibits a full palette of colors, and evenness of tone throughout the entire vocal range. Furthermore, the singer should be able to "carry the tone" expressively from one note to another, maintain long lasting breath, flexibility, and brilliant virtuosity. Without these elements, the singer's mastery is not complete. In addition, proper mastery of bel canto technique prolongs the longevity of the voice. For centuries, --emulating beautiful singing has been a model for violin performers. Since the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods, a trend toward homophonic style, melodious songs, and arias had a tremendous influence on pre-violin and violin performers, and even on luthiers. The earliest known four-stringed violins created by Andrea Amati, and Gasparo da Saló in the sixteenth century already possessed a tone that resembled the qualities of a human voice. Today, it has become more difficult to differentiate the tone of one violinist from another. The individual quality of the singing tone, which was the hallmark in violin playing of the golden age of Ysaye, Kreisler, Heifetz, Menuhin, Oistrakh etc. has deteriorated. The purpose of this monograph is to analyze the fundamental principles of bel canto and to apply these principles to violin performance. Teachers, students, and performers will find practical ideas to improve or solve various aspects of violin playing. I will focus primarily on tone production and tone formation (breathing, resonance, vibrato etc.), tonal shading (messa di voce), and range (blending positions). Through understanding the bel canto principles of singing and applying those principles to violin performance, one would have more means to give the tone its distinctive qualities. / Music Performance

An enduring Italian tradition of celebrating the voice and the Italian language as seen by the Italian perception and interest in opera has created an environment of celebration for Italian dubbers. The long-established history of opera in Italy, as well as the modern reception of Italian opera, have effectively placed the voice at the forefront of the Italian entertainment industry. This can be seen through an examination of the careers of Italian dubbers and the success that they saw in their industry. The United States did not have a longstanding operatic tradition, and when opera was introduced it was under vastly different circumstances, without the same respect Italy holds for voice and language. American entertainment valued the concept of "celebrity" and the importance of visuals in art over vocal contributions. It provides a flipped version of the Italian model and thereby produced a comparatively negative reaction to dubbing in the United States. This can be seen in an examination of the careers and reception of American dubbers and dubbed films in the United States.

As it was established in its origins, the compositional form of the bolero consists of 32 measures divided into two sections of 16 measures. The melodies incorporate sequences of melodic lines that are usually 4 measures long and are easily accessible, helping students to practice musical memory and stimulating their ear-training development. The poetry in Spanish gives the student the opportunity to be trained to sing pure vowels that are essential for the unification of the registers and the development of a healthy singing technique. This dissertation discusses the teaching the Latin American bolero genre to undergraduate mezzo-sopranos, combining it with the bel canto approach, as found in four elements from the method of the famous pedagogue, Manuel Garcia (1805-1906). These four elements are the clean onset or coup de la glotte, the unification of the registers, legato, and expressive devices or bel canto idioms like timbre and tempo rubato. The guidelines used to choose the repertoire are range, tessitura, simple meter and rhythm, tonal melodic lines, and piece duration. The boleros chosen for this study are "Solamente una vez" by Agustín Lara (1897-1970), "La gloria eres tú" by José Antonio Méndez (1927-1989), "Bésame mucho" by Consuelo Velázquez (1916-2005), "Aquellos ojos verdes" by Nilo Menéndez (1902-1987), "La mentira" by Álvaro Carrillo (1921-1969), "Tú me acostumbraste" by Frank Domínguez (1927-2014), "Alma mía," and "Así" by María Grever (1885-1951).

Syftet med detta arbete är att undersöka huruvida bel canto-teknik kan vara ett verktyg för sångutveckling inom kadens och koloratursång. Arbetet görs utifrån ett antal frågeställningar där analys görs till stor del utifrån bel canto-övningarnas resultat på tre olika koloraturkadenser i en Bellini aria. Mina frågeställningar är: Kan jag med hjälp av bel canto-teknik få mer egaliserad och övertonsrik röstklang? Hur påverkas intoneringen i kadenserna med hjälp av bel canto? Hur påverkar bel canto-övningarna balansen i avspänning-anspänning? För att kunna svara på dessa frågor kommer ett antal frågeställningar ligga till grund för mina reflektioner. Frågorna är: Hur känns det att göra dessa övningar? Hur känns det att sjunga kadenserna i arian? Kan jag lättare stanna i samma klangliga rum med god placering? Att undersöka om bel canto-övningar fungerar som ett bra verktyg för att arbeta med för koloraturer och kadenser.Metoden jag använde för detta arbete är en kvalitativ metod där jag med loggbok dokumenterat varje övningspass. I loggboken beskrev jag min dagsform, hur passet gick och kändes. För att ha möjlighet att analysera detta spelas det in löpande under dessa pass. Jag använde mig även utav en musikhistorisk metod för att hitta de övningar jag valt men också för att få en större förståelse för sångteknikens historia. Slutligen gick jag igenom mitt material av undersökningen genom att lyssna och analysera resultaten av övningarna och arian utifrån min loggbok och inspelningar.Mitt resultat visar att bel canto kan användas för sångutveckling inom kadens och koloratursång men för att få ett större resultat behövs en större utredning göras då sångteknik tar tid att befästa och utveckla.

Les narrateurs du Bel Inconnu de Renaut de Beaujeu, de Florimont, d’Aimon de Varennes et de Partonopeu de Blois se démarquent par leur statut ambigu. Ils posent leur voix dès le prologue et s’affirment à travers un dialogue avec les dédicataires dont la lecture ou l’écoute actualisent le processus narratif. Un transfert à la fois énonciatif et scriptural parachève cette élaboration, offrant la possibilité aux auteurs de se couler dans la fonction du narrateur, appréhendé dès lors comme l’unique médiateur du récit. Dans une perspective plus large, l’intrication des formes et des matières favorise la complexité et la richesse du « je » polymorphe à venir. Les narrateurs deviennent alors conteurs et maîtres d’une narration qu’ils organisent à leur guise. En adoptant des stratégies narratoriales diverses, ils demeurent la voix unique et font figure d’instance narrante surplombante dans une perspective exclusive, globale et cohérente. Mais surtout, ils combinent leur « je » conteur à leur « je » amoureux dont les interruptions au caractère plus intime permettent la réalisation. Le récit subsume ainsi le discours lyrique, le fait sien, l’espace romanesque devenant le lieu d’une mutation lors de laquelle les narrateurs se projettent dans les personnages eux-mêmes, conçus tels des outils au service du « je ». Nous assistons ainsi à une narration plus intériorisée et à la manifestation d’un narrateur-auteur qui, en tant que sujet empirique, se sert de la fiction comme d’un véritable espace d’expérimentation. Cette figure auctoriale se cristallise lorsque le « je » exhibe ses capacités d’écrivain ou lorsqu’il livre des considérations pseudo-autobiographiques semblant marquer le texte du point de vue d’une conscience. / The narrators in Le Bel Inconnu by Renaut de Beaujeu, Florimont, by Aimon de Varennes and Partonopeu of Blois stand out due to their ambiguous status. They establish their voice in the prologue and assert themselves through a dialogue with the dedicatees, whose reading or listening updates the narrative process. A transfer, which is at the same time enunciative and scriptural, completes this elaboration, offering the authors the possibility to sink into the function of the narrator, understood from then on as the sole mediator of the narrative. From a broader perspective, the entanglement of forms and materials fosters the complexity and richness of the future polymporph "I". The narrators then become storytellers and masters of a narrative that they organise as they see fit. By adopting diverse narratorial strategies, they remain the sole voice and act as an overriding narrative authority from an exclusive, comprehensive and coherent perspective. But above all, they combine their storyteller "I" with their romantic "I" whose interruptions to the more intimate style allow for their realisation. The narrative thus subsumes the lyrical discourse, adopting it as its own, the romantic space becoming the place of change in which the narrators project themselves into the characters themselves, conceived as tools in the service of "I". We are thus witnessing a more internalised narrative and the manifestation of a narrator-author who, as an empirical subject, uses fiction as a truly experimental space. This auctorial figure crystallises when the "I" exhibits his capacities as a writer or when he provides pseudo-autobiographical considerations seeming to mark the text from the point of view of a consciousness.

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.

In this thesis we investigate the superenergy tensor that was introduced by Chevreton in 1964 as an electromagnetic counterpart to the Bel-Robinson tensor for the gravitational feld. We show that in Einstein-Maxwell spacetimes with a source-free electromagnetic feld, the Chevreton superenergy tensor has many interesting properties. It is a completely symmetric rank-4 tensor and it gives rise to conserved currents for orthogonally transitive 1- and 2-parameter isometry groups. The trace of this tensor is divergence-free and it is related to the Bach tensor. We investigate the implications for when the trace vanishes and we are able to determine the full set of such spacetimes. We use this to treat the problem of Einstein{-Maxwell spacetimes that are conformally related to Einstein spaces and we find new exact solutions with this property.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.