Shaping the sound of a mixed choir through the holistic method “Voice, Body and Spirit in Balance” – through conscious appoggio and cooperation between the body and the breath

Abstrakt

Shaping the sound of a mixed choir requires reproducibility of results. A pedagogue presenting computer visualisations of spectral analysis of sound supports flawless stylistic and musical transformations in interpretation. The ability to intonate the sound of chords with the voice through coordination of bodily impulses in accordance with the harmony of a musical phrase requires exercises in auditory sensitivity. The holistic method “Voice, Body and Spirit in Balance” combines shared elements of the performance traditions of the Slavic, Italian and German vocal schools with the author’s 40 years of concert, opera and teaching experience in Poland, Austria and Germany. Inhaling through the nose facilitates free support of sound on the breath (appoggio), enabling mastery of a conscious strategy of bodily cooperation. Exercises using sensorimotor cushions in conjunction with the resonance of the voice’s harmonic components shape the carrying power of noble choral sound.