Unlocking Your Voice, Esther Salaman

Esther Salaman: Unlocking your Voice

Mezzo-soprano whose exploration of bel canto mader her a teacher of renown

Esther Salaman (1914-2005) was the youngest of the five children of Redcliffe and Nina
Salaman. She was born and brought up in a large house in Barley, Hertfordshire, but an
idyllic childhood was devastatingly interrupted at the age of 10, when her mother died and
she was sent to boarding school; first to Bedales school in Hampshire, and then Maltman's
Green school, Buckinghamshire, England.
She was proud of her parents: of her father's scientific and historical work and of her
mother's poetry and translations from Hebrew.
Like them, Esther was proud to be both English and Jewish, stimulating inter-communal
connections throughout her life.

She was a member of the Westminster Synagogue and sang as a soloist at many of their
major services.
After studying at the Royal Academy of Music (1937-38), she launched herself as a
professional mezzo-soprano with a broad repertoire, though she probably became best
known for collecting and singing English folk songs, which she featured in her frequent
broadcasts on the BBC Third Programme (now Radio 3) and recitals abroad; in the
immediate postwar period, she visited South Africa, Bulgaria, Austria and Holland.

During the war, she met Paul Hamburger, the pianist, teacher and writer on music, and they
toured together under the aegis of ENSA. Their marriage followed in 1948. It did not survive,
but their friendship and respect for each other's work did.

Unlocking Your Voice, Esther Salaman

 Unlocking Your Voice, Esther Salaman

In earlier years, she had enjoyed considerable success, with critics pointing to the flawless
diction, poise, phrasing and radiance of her singing in such roles as Polly Peachum in
Benjamin Britten's 1950 version of The Beggar's Opera, and in recitals embracing 17th-
century English and later Baroque song, lieder, negro spirituals and English folksong.

However, she found that her career was suffering because of vocal difficulties that she could
not resolve; once she had had the revelation of studying with Lucie Mann, she learned so
much from analysing her own problems that she became uniquely helpful to others.

The discovery she made at about the age of 50 came through Mann's researches into the
meanings of phrases used traditionally and sometimes inexactly in relation to bel canto, the
elegant Italian style of the 18th and early 19th centuries. Not only were these phrases, such as
inhalare la voce or rapporto, revealed as having absolutely specific musical and physical
meanings; taken together they proposed a version of singing which Esther transformed into a
method of teaching.

She became a consultant to the National Opera Studio and English National Opera, and a
visiting professor at Trinity College of Music and Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Her
work took her to many parts of the world; she ran masterclasses at the Dartington and
Marlborough summer schools for several years; and worked with such outstanding artists as
Willard White, Ian Bostridge and Dennis O'Neill.
Her work with children extended to choirs and individuals; the course she gave to trainee
teachers, called "More voice, less effort", helped them to use their voices productively and
without strain, so that they learned to understand how the voice is produced by a complex
and conscious sense of its physical and emotional sources.

Unlocking your Voice

Unlocking your voice is a book written with the following goals:
- To sing with freedom.
- To encourage the singing voice of the students.
- To develop the voice in quality and range.

Esther Salaman believed that singers have the necessity to express emotion through the voice
and for that reason says the voice should be free to do what the mind and imagination
suggest, as a natural alignment, referred to the Italian Bel Canto school.

Esther Salaman doesn't use excessive anatomical explanations, she prefers to describe the
sensation of the singing voice in action.
I personally think it is a good idea read this book from the beginning until the end to
understand better concepts and the reasons of what she proposes for the student. But I do
think the order for better understanding could be different. I would prefer to read the
chapters Resonances, Covering the sound and registers, Your daily vocal limbering,
Vowels and consonats, More About Bel Canto before the coloratura, vibrazione and
messa di voce chapters.

Unlocking Your Voice, Esther Salaman

 Unlocking Your Voice, Esther Salaman

Esther comes from England and I had the impression that this book is directed towards the
native English speakers. In the beginning and in the end remark the way the usually
communicate and deliver sound, different compared for example with Italians.
Also she related the Italian vowels to English words for people who are not used to the Italian
language.

As I mentioned in the biography of Esther, was a revelation study with Lucie Mann.
Esther started to become familiar with Italian terms as Inhalare la voce, chiaroscuro,
rapporto, messa di voce...
For example, she started to experience new feelings when she was singing, like the feeling of
drinking the sound and how her head was full of sound, like a ringing bell.

Esther puts a special emphasis to the quality of sound. And says that quality is more precious
than quantity. The voice of a singer should be homogenous and well balanced.
Quality means healthy ringing in the tone, ringing resonances. That is the heart, the kernel of
the singing.
She makes a sensible proposition in the preface: There should be more small opera houses
for young singers where they can develop correctly their voices.
Big opera houses require big voices and more and more young singers are worried about
immediate progress and become too competitive with themselves.

Esther starts to explain the Bel cantos basics attaching it to the posture of the singer. How to
engage the whole body, feel the lower tummy muscles and the connection with the larynx,
what she calls support.
It is important for her to use an appropriate lenguage and aimed, relaxation is not a term
related with singing.
She explains how to breathe correctly. In the book (usually after every exercise), she remind
her reader on how to do it correctly.
A healthy breathing should be silent. It should be as the feeling of happy surprise, (open
throat).

Constantly Esther supports her theories with words by acclaimed artists such as Carusso,
Joan Sutherland, Tito Schipa, Lilli Lehmann, Francesco Lamperti... As a reader it is nice to
read this affirmations because it gives the feeling of being reading the most trustable
information ever said about singing technique.

She proposes exercises throughout the book with very precise tips on how to execute them.
She explains them how to do them step by step and almost always reminding the back of the
mouth and throat should be open as she explained in the beginning.
During the course of the book it combines English with Italian exercises. Also sometimes they
come accompanied with an explanatory image.

As another basic point of Bel canto she explains where the sound starts and the area where
the vowel is formed. So for that she proposes exercises just with vowels with neighboring
notes and third intervals going up and down.
Even if the exercises proposed are clearly explained I would not suggest it to a person who
never sang before follow these instructions without the supervision of a singing teacher first.
The steps she mentioned should be checked with a profesional. It can be easily
misunderstood and the student can go too far with the feelings proposed.

Unlocking Your Voice, Esther Salaman

 Unlocking Your Voice, Esther Salaman

She mentions in this first chapter to go carefully through the passagio in the exersices but the
meaning of passagio didn't appear before in the book. She suggests using mixed voice in
that range of the voice. Personally I think this concept should be taught by demonstration or
more developed explanation.

Because she is a very experienced teacher, she recognizes where most of the singers
weaknesses are. For example for the dynamics she warns students to not push the breath
when doing a crescendo.
Or another example is in the chapter where she talks about fast moving passage and trills.
She makes aware the student of take care in the descending passages, were it is easy to
slacken the entire system and lose the quality on the sound.

She gives tips on how to study coloraturas, it should be done slowly and carefully.

Where she explains how to do a trill, there is a conversation between teacher and student.
These conversations between teacher and student appear often and usually add new
information to concepts already mentioned.
The student is struggling and the teacher gives some advice that can also be applied for other
questions: Do not over practice, it is a process that takes time..
Also the teacher adds more information about the descending passages: re-assert the
support, retain alertness of the face (feeling of happy surprise) and allowing arms to rise
freely as notes descend...
I found the last concept to rise freely the arms empty because it is not well argued.

I think is wiser to read the entire book before trying out what it is written in it. Because in
this conversations between teacher-student always adds new information suitable for other
exercises proposed. (For example; in coming chapters the teacher recommends to adjust the
tempo adequate to the student. This is a good example of what a student should know before
starting any of the previous exercises).

As usually a new concept is followed by an Italian expression. To explain how to do

portamento she use the expression Che non lega, non cantare - who does not blind, does not
sing

Another positive point of this book is she related every new concept with a moment in the
singing history. For example by linking coloratura with Bellini, Rossini and Donizzeti;
Vibration of the voice with Verdi... This basic information is always nice to repeat for the
students who are just starting out and do not know about it.

In the chapter of Messa di Voce, she talks about words. How important are the words and the
commitment to the text for a singer. It is the point where interpretation and technique go
along together with enhanced purpose. And also the instinct plays an important role.

After Ive read the book I came to the conclusion that this is what Esther Salaman deeply
wanted to let us know:
Opening up the back of the throat, literally the gateway to freedom and expressionand be in
the search of our own sound. I found useful the tips she mentioned about technique training
and also about performances time and routine before performance.
Thanks to this book I am impatient to bring new technical questions to my next singing
lesson.

Unlocking Your Voice, Esther Salaman

 Unlocking Your Voice, Esther Salaman

Interesting websites during my research:

-www.vocalodyssey.wordpress.com

-www.voice-talk.net/

-www.singerspace.com/articles/what-was-bel-canto-really/

Natalia Prez Rodrguez

Unlocking Your Voice, Esther Salaman