The Art if García: Recording Lineage

Recordings from the turn of the 20th century provide direct aural links to García’s verbal instructions. Only two of his students Charles Santley (1834–1922) and Marie Tempest (1864–1942) made recordings, however, there are many more recordings of students of García’s students spanning 1899 to 1937. Dr Koen van Stade, prepared a select list of singers who studied the expressive and technical practices espoused by García. These include nine singers who received indirect instruction and two singers who received, somewhat limited, but direct instruction. One of these was Santley who in the prime of his career received seven lessons from García. Although not a long-term student, García very much respected Santley’s singing artistry.

The popularity of García’s method for over almost a century is testament to the value of his teachings for understanding 19th-century bel canto. While much of García’s ideas remained the same as formulated by 1840, some variations and gradual shifts in his thinking are evident. In particular, later editions included the term médiocrement to describe interim laryngeal positions. This suggests an expansion of the possibilities of timbral colours that García encouraged his students to explore through various parameters. These parameters, clearly evident in the aural evidence, include: voice type, facility, tessitura, and placement.

Vocal Range and Repertoire Selection

The selection of repertoire in the soprano and mezzo soprano/contralto range from García’s lineage repertoire list poses some challenges. There are many examples of individual singers whose recorded repertoire exceeds modern notions of standardised voice type. This is precisely why the selection process should be carefully considered to achieve a balance between language, style, range, and timbral and expressive practices). It is important that the examples exhibit bel canto expressive effects and include clearly defined timbral shifts (through flexible laryngeal positions) and registral accentuation underscoring expressive sentiment of the text.

To assist with the selection process, categories of song have been established for each voice type for the five core (standard) languages: English, Italian, German, French and Latin, as these languages are the most well represented on the list. There are examples of repertoire in other languages, often sung in the native tongue of the artist. However, unless a module participant requests to emulate an example in a non-core language that is their native tongue, we recommend to focus on repertoire set in the five core five languages.

Voice Type Categorisation

Regarding voice type categorisation, a few examples predominantly of sopranos, have been redesignated as possible mezzo soprano examples for emulation because these highlight ranges at a lower tessitura and feature relevant timbral and registral qualities conducive to the aim of this module. These types of examples may be more accessible to participants with a lower (overall) vocal range. Whether this redesignation is wholly productive will be tested through the module. So many of the recordings demonstrate how technically versatile singers were (including male singers). They used all aspects of their range and didn’t seem to shy away from showcasing qualities of timbral effect in the furthest reaches of their vocal facility. Participant repertoire selections have therefore been flagged as soprano range/tessitura, mezzo range/tessitura, and so on to guide module participant choice.