Laura Claycomb's Young Artist Corner

BOOKS ON DICTION/STYLE/ REPERTOIRE/ACTING

This is a compilation of books taken almost verbatim from the VocaList list of books... In its entirety, you can download it at http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/mdo1/vocbooks.txt

Many thanks to Michael Olitz, who compiled the original!!

Only books in BOLD are those expressly recommended by me.

Sorry I don't have time to include links to click through to buy each book, but I have a career to follow and a life to lead!! Here are GOOGLE or AMAZON.COM, so you can cut and paste the title into the search engine and either find it via its own publisher or on Amazon.

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DICTION AND PRONUNCIATION

Castel, Nico
- A Singer's Manual of Spanish Lyric Diction. New York: Excalibur Publishing, 1994. "Includes important regional variants, uses IPA" $15.95.
- The Complete Puccini Libretti in Two Volumes. No other info. IPA transcriptions, word-for-word translations, linguistic explanations, performance notes. $55.00 each volume.
Coffin, Berton et alia.
Phonetic Readings of Songs and Arias. Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, 1982. "Transcriptions into IPA of standard songs and arias. Definitely not error-free, but arguably a good first step." $27.50.
Colorni, Evelina
Singers' Italian: a manual of diction and phonetics. New York, G. Schirmer, 1970.
Copeman, Harold
Singing in Latin, or, Pronunciation explor'd. 1990. also The Pocket Singing in Latin published by author: 22 Tawney St, Oxford OX4 1NJ, England
Cox, Richard G.
The Singer's Manual of German and French Diction. New York, G. Schirmer, 1970.
de Boor, Helmut, Hugo Moser, and Christian Winkler, eds.
siebs Deutsche Aussprache: Reine und gemaessigte Hochlautung mit Aussprachewoerterbuch. Berlin, Walter de Gryter & Co., 1969 "The standard pronouncing dictionary of German; uses IPA."
Grubb, Thomas
Singing in French: a manual of French diction and French vocal repertoire. New York, Schirmer Books, 1979. "Uses IPA.Includes a medium-sized catalogue of French vocal literature."
Kenyon, John S. and Thomas A. Knott
A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English. Springfield, MA: G. & S. Merriam Company, Publishers, 1953. "Uses IPA. Some consistent discrepancies with Madeleine Marshall's rules, e.g. uses [e] not [EI], uses American [r] exclusively. Valuable nonetheless." $12.95.
Marshall, Madelaine
The singer's manual of English diction. New York, G. Schirmer, 1953.
Moriarty, John
Diction: Italian, Latin, French, German: the sounds and 81 exercises for singing them. Boston, E.C. Schirmer Music Co., 1975.
Odom, William
German for Singers: A Textbook of Diction and Phonetics. New York: Schirmer Books, 1981. "Uses IPA." $15.00.
Piatak, Jean and Regina Avrashov
Russian Songs & Arias: Phonetic Readings, Word-by-Word Translations, and a Concise Guide to Russian Diction. Dallas: Pst...Inc., 1991. "Uses IPA. Diction rules; transliterations and translations of 150 songs/arias."
Uris, Dorothy.
To sing in English; a guide to improved diction. New York, Boosey and Hawkes, 1971. [not only phonetics but also phraseology and expressiveness]
Wall, Joan
International Phonetic Alphabet for Singers: A Manual for English and Foreign Language Diction. Dallas: Pst...Inc., 1989. $20.95.
Wall, Joan, Robert Caldwell, et alia.
Diction for Singers: A Concise Reference for English, Italian, Latin, German, French, and Spanish Pronunciation. Dallas: Pst...Inc., 1990. $29.95.

REPERTOIRE (BOOKS ABOUT WHAT TO SING)

Banfield, Stephen
Sensibility and English Song. Cambridge University Press, yr? ca. $30 "[discusses] early 20th century British composers." includes bibliography with research suggestions.
Challis, Natalia
The Singer's Rachmaninoff. Pelion Press, 1989. "[incl.] extensive explanation of IPA specific to Russian and pronunciation of same"
Coffin, Berton
Singer's Repertoire, 2nd ed. New York, Scarecrow Press, 1960-62.
- pt. 1 -- Coloratura soprano, lyric soprano, and dramatic soprano.
- pt. 2 -- mezzo soprano and contralto.
- pt. 3 -- lyric and dramatic tenor
- pt. 4 -- baritone and bass
- pt. 5 -- program notes for the Singer's repertoire.
Dean, Winton
Handel's dramatic oratorios and masques. London, Oxford U. Press, 1959.
Dunlap, Kay and Barbara Winchester
Vocal chamber music: a performer's guide. New York; Garland, 1985.
Eaton, Quaintance
- Opera Production I: A Handbook. New York; Da Capo Press, 1961
- Opera Production II: A Handbook. Minneapolis; U. Minnesota Press, 1974 Operas are listed giving a short history of composition, setting, synopsis, length of scenes and/or acts, major roles with ranges and comments on difficulty, lesser roles by voice type, chorus requirements, orchestra requirements, listings of companies which have performed the opera, photo availability, and rental or purchase sources for the materials (as of the date of publication of the book).
Espina, Noni
Repertoire for the solo voice (2 volumes). Metuchen NJ, Scarecrow Press, 1977.
Fischer-Dieskau, Dietrich
- The Fischer-Dieskau book of lieder: New York, Limelight Editions, 1984, c.1976.
- Schubert: a biographical study of his songs. London, Cassell, 1976.
Goleeke, Thomas.
Literature for Voice: An Index of Songs in Collections and Source Book for Teachers of Singing. Metuchen, N.J., Scarecrow Press, c1984.
Kagen, Sergius
Music for the Voice: a descriptive list of concert and teaching material. Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1968.
NATS
repertoire books; Art Song in the United States: An Annotated Bibliography. 1976.
Ord, Alan J.
Songs for Bass Voice: An Annotated Guide. Scarecrow Press.
Pilkington, Michael
Gurney, Ireland, Quilter and Warlock. Bloomington, IN, Indiana University Press, ?. approx. $25. "guide to the solo songs written by the composers with descriptions: range, tonality, meter. ...comments on difficulty (voice & piano) and preferred vocal type for the song."
Price, Curtis Alexander
Henry Purcell and the London Stage. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK 1984.
Reinhard, Thilo
The Singer's Schumann. New York, Pelion Press, 1989.
Seaton, Douglas
The Art Song: A reference and information guide. New York, Garland,1986. "a source book, containing the titles of many other books concerning [American art song]"
Sams, Eric
- The Songs of Hugo Wolf. Bloomington: Indiana U. Press, 1992.
- The Songs of Robert Schumann. ibid, 1993.

ENGLISH PROSE TRANSLATIONS

Cockburn, Jacqueline and Richard Stokes
The Spanish Song Companion. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1992. $39.95.
Coffin, Berton
- Word-by-Word Translation of Songs and Arias: German and French. New York, The Scarecrow Press, Inc. "A standard. Translations are a good starting point, but sometimes not adequate if left undoctored." $37.50.
- Word-by-Word Translation of Songs and Arias: Italian. ditto.
Gruber, Paul, ed.
The Metropolitan Opera Book of Mozart Operas. New York: Harper-Collins Publishers, 1991.
Miller, Philip L.
The Ring of Words: An Anthology of Song Texts. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1973. $14.95.
Wigmore, Richard
Schubert--the complete song texts: texts of the Lieder and Italian songs. New York, Schirmer Books, 1988.

MUSICAL STYLES AND VOCAL INTERPRETATION

Bernac, Pierre
The Interpretation of French song. New York, Praeger, 1970.
Donington, Robert
- A performer's guide to Baroque music. New York, C. Scribner's Sons {1974, c1973}
- Baroque music, style and performance: a handbook. New York, W.W. Norton, 1982.
Goldovsky, Boris and Arthur Schoep.
Bringing soprano arias to life. New York, G. Schirmer, 1973, and Metuchen, N.J. : Scarecrow Press, 1990.
Greene, Harry Plunket.
Interpretation in song. New York: Da Capo Press, 1979. [c1912]
Kloiber
Handbuch der Oper. Baerenreiter. it is the blue print used in the German theatres. This is what they are expecting when you audition. [Among other things, discusses fachs]
Lehmann, Lotte
More than Singing: The Interpretation of Songs. Translated by Frances Holden. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1945. "Detailed interpretive suggestions for about 85 songs...intended not as a recipe book but as a beginning point and inspiration." $4.95.
Neumann, Frederick
- Ornamentation in Baroque and Post-Baroque Music, Princeton NY, Princeton U. Press, 1983 c1978
- Ornamentation and Improvisation in Mozart. ditto, 1986.
- Poetry into Song: Performance and Analysis of Lieder by Deborah Stein, Robert Spillman (Contributor)

ACTING AS A SEPARATE DISCIPLINE, AND DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION

Berry, Cicely.
Voice and the actor. New York : Collier Books, 1991 [c 1973]
Boleslavsky, Richard.
Acting: The first six lessons. New York, Theatre Arts Books, 1949.
Brook, Peter
The open door: thoughts on acting and theatre. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1995. [c1993] "anything PB writes is useful"
Bruder, Melissa.
A Practical Handbook for the Actor. New York, Vintage Books, 1986.
Chaikin, Joseph
The presence of the actor. New York, NY: Theatre Communications Group, 1991. "development of character in the modern context"
Checkov, Michael
To The Actor: on the technique of acting. New York, Harper, 1953.
Gregory, William Alfred
The director; a guide to modern theater practice. New York, Funk & Wagnalls, 1968. "Best description of the rites and [roles] of drama"
Grotowski, Jerzy
Towards a poor theatre; London, Methuen, 1969. "Grotowski is the primal force in modern movement technic."
Hagen, Uta
Respect for Acting. New York, Macmillan, 1973.
Stanislavsky, Konstantin.
- An Actor Prepares. New York, Theatre Arts Books, 1948.
- Building a Character. New York, Theatre Arts Books, 1949.
- Creating a Role. New York, Theatre Arts Books, 1961.
- My Life in Art. New York, Meridian Books, 1948.

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updated 2/1/2004