Cornelius L. Reid

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Cornelius Lawrence Reid (born February 7, 1911 in Jersey City , New Jersey , † February 3, 2008 in New York City , New York ) worked as a vocal teacher in New York. Reid coined the term functional voice training . He was a specialist in bel canto technology and wrote several books on bel canto and the mechanics of the voice , which have been translated several times.

biography

Trinity Church 1914

At the age of nine, Cornelius Reid sang as a choirboy at Trinity Church in New York. When his voice changed from soprano to baritone after puberty, Reid took lessons from various teachers in New York, including the vocal scientist Dr. Douglas Stanley , as his assistant he worked from 1934 to 1937. Constant overexertion of his voice because of confusing and contradicting instructions from his singing teachers forced Reid to give up his desire to pursue a singing career. He questioned the current singing methods, which led him to develop a functional vocal training based on the teachings of the Italian bel canto era and connected with the latest scientific findings.

In the years after 1940 Cornelius Reid was active in researching the early writings on singing technique by singers and singing teachers from the 17th to 19th centuries. As a result of this activity, Reid wrote seven books and many articles on singing, bel canto and functional voice development.

Until shortly before his 97th birthday, he taught singing in New York for almost 75 years. Many of his students became eminent singers and singing teachers. He was invited to give master classes in North America, Europe, Japan and Australia. His teaching had a great influence on teaching methods in North America, Europe and Asia. Several cities in Germany have been able to win Reid for one to two-week master classes for years.

criticism

Reid and other authors who write and have written about Belcanto today have basically swum against the current and risked criticism in the process. In contrast, Pedro de Alcantara (a teacher of the Alexander Technique ) supported both Reid's theses and those of Husler / Rodd-Marling, who published the book Singen - The physical nature of the vocal organ in 1965 : “The freethinker Reid and the author duo Frederick Husler and Yvonne Rodd-Marling provided solid arguments for the correct relationship between cause and effect, regarding breathing and singing. Their books were highly controversial, but their opponents tended to retreat to the ad hominem point of view , calling the authors 'crazy' than having substantiated or refuted their criticisms ”.

When Reid's first three books were published as a trilogy in 1975 , Richard Dyer-Bennet wrote the following: “The present day seems to fluctuate constantly between a mechanical and a mystical approach to problems. As always, the path lies between the two extremes. Due to partial misinterpretation and rejection, today's educators have strayed far from the old teaching, the productive principles of Belcanto. As an author and teacher, Cornelius Reid not only rediscovered these principles, but redefined them based on his own findings and there is no longer any reason not to follow this path ”.

Publications about Belcanto

Reid's first book, Bel Canto: Principles and Practices, from 1950, was followed by two more volumes, The Free Voice: A Guide to Free Singing, in 1965 and Voice: Psyche and Soma , in 1975. These three books were re-published in 1975 by the Joseph Patelson Music House -Published as a trilogy. In 1977 Reid received a grant from the Ford Foundation with the task of developing a dictionary on vocal terminology : A Dictionary of Vocal Terminology - An Analysis , the only dictionary of its kind worldwide today. This was followed by several books in the nineties including the books Essays on the Nature of Singing and a German translation by Leonore Blume and Margaret Peckham of the manuscript of Vocal Exercises: Their Purpose and Dynamics , which was published in 1994 by Schott-Verlag in Mainz, under the title Functional voice development - the purpose and sequence of movements of voice exercises appeared.

To Reid's 90th birthday which was published Festschrift The Modern Singing Master: Essays in Honor of Cornelius L. Reid. Debra Greschner wrote in the Journal of Singing : “The history of vocal pedagogy is full of references about singing teachers of the bel canto era. In selecting the subjects for this book, editors Ariel Bybee and James E. Ford were aware that the simultaneous recognition of the pedagogical tradition and homage to Cornelius L. Reid, the teacher whose theories they believe in, are reflected in this book must reflect. Reid's publications are well known to any serious student of voice pedagogy ”.

Some of his books are available in Japanese, Korean and German.

pedagogy

Reid's teaching is based on the writings of famous teachers from the 17th to 19th centuries such as Giulio Caccini , Pier Francesco Tosi , Giovanni Battista Mancini , Domenico Corri , Francesco Lamperti , Giovanni Battista Lamperti , Manuel Patricio Rodríguez García , Isaac Nathan and Julius Stockhausen .

In the celebratory publication The Modern Singing Master , the American vocal researcher and professor of voice and vocal pedagogy at the University of North Texas, Stephen F. Austin, honors the vocal scientist Cornelius L. Reid and his students with the following words: “You rarely find one a singing teacher who teaches the way vocal registers were used in the bel canto era, the period in which singers had attained maximum throat skill. Once one has discovered such a teacher, one comes to the realization that that teacher was influenced, directly or indirectly, by a single man, namely Cornelius L. Reid. This made a unique contribution to vocal pedagogy, because he not only teaches the traditional lessons from the heyday of singing, but also makes them usable again for the requirements of an opera company of the 20th and 21st centuries and was able to prove their practical suitability ".

A summary of Reid's teaching appeared in the Journal of Singing , the official journal of the National Association of Teachers of Singing : “The approach of Reid's teaching is based on the two-register theory and the knowledge that the only factors that make a voluntary To bring about control of an involuntary muscle system, the three basic elements of which are pitch, intensity (volume), and vowel. Voice exercises in which the most varied combinations of these three basic elements are linked and the use of 'functional hearing' as well as a careful analysis of the register balance will produce a free technique ”.

see also: Functional voice training and vocal register

Musical career

  • Choirboy at Trinity Church Choir, Wall Street, New York, 1920-1925.
  • Private singing lessons with Dr. George Mead, New York, 1929.
  • Private singing lessons with Marie Wagner (student of Lilli Lehmann ) New York, 1929–1930.
  • Private singing lessons with Frieda Hempel , New York, 1930.
  • Coaching with Povla Frijsh, New York, 1932–1940.
  • Private singing lessons with Dr. Douglas Stanley, New York, 1934-1937.
  • Studied at: New York College of Music, New York, 1945–1947.
  • Singing: Ruth Kisch-Arndt .
  • Coaching with Dr. Frederick Kurzweil.
  • Piano: Carl Werschinger, Professor Angela Weschler.

chronology

  • Singing teacher, 1934–2008 in New York City.
  • Assistant to Dr. Douglas Stanley, 1934-1937.
  • Conductor, WPA Music Project Chorus, 1939-1940, 1939 New York World's Fair, Flushing, NY.
  • Singing Teacher, 1940-1941, Marymount College, Tarrytown, NY.
  • Conductor, Ars Musica Guild Chorus, 1941–1943, Flushing, NY.
  • Conductor, Consolidated Edison Chorus, 1941–1943, Queens, NY.
  • Conductor, 107th US Navy Seabees Band, 1943-1945.
  • Speech Education Teacher, 1946-1969, General Theological Seminary, Chelsea, NY.
  • Associate Professor, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City, 1992–2008.

Publications

Books

  • Bel Canto: Principles and Practices . Boston: Coleman and Ross, 1950. Reprint, New York: Joseph Patelson Music House, 1975. ISBN 0-915282-01-1 .
  • The Free Voice: A Guide to Natural Singing . Boston: Coleman and Ross, 1965. Reprint, New York: Joseph Patelson Music House, 1975. ISBN 0-915282-02-X .
  • Voice: Psyche and Soma . New York: Joseph Patelson Music House, 1975. Reid's first three books were printed in 1975 as a trilogy. ISBN 0-915282-00-3 .
  • A Dictionary of Vocal Terminology - An Analysis . New York: Joseph Patelson Music House, 1984. Reprinted, Huntsville, TX: Recital Publications, 1995. ISBN 0-915282-07-0 .
  • Essays on the Nature of Singing . Huntsville, TX: Recital Publications 1992. ISBN 0-9663862-1-3 .
  • Functional voice development: purpose and sequence of movements of voice exercises . Translated and supplemented by Leonore Blume and Margaret Peckham. Mainz: Schott, 1994. Original title: Vocal Exercises: Their Purpose and Dynamics . Manuscript, New York, 1988. ISBN 3-7957-0268-2 and Functional Voice Development: Fundamentals and Practical Exercises. New edition ISBN 3-7957-8723-8 .
  • The Modern Singing Master: Essays in Honor of Cornelius L. Reid . Edited by Ariel Bybee and James E. Ford. Lanham, MD and London: Scarecrow Press, 2002. ISBN 0-8108-4241-6 .
  • Belcanto legacy - basis of functional voice training , translated and supplemented by Leonore Blume and Margaret Peckham: Mainz: Schott, 2009 (in preparation).

Essays

  • "Voice Science: An Evaluation". Australian Voice , Issue 11, (2005), pp. 6-24.
  • "Eighteenth Century Registrational Concepts". Journal of Singing , No. 56, No. 4, (March / April 2000), pp. 31-38.
  • "Vocal Mechanics". Journal of Singing , No. 54, No. 1, (Sept./Oct. 1997), pp. 11-18.
  • "The Nature of Resonance". The Journal of Research in Singing , Volume XIV, (December 1990), No. 1, pp. 1-26.
  • "The Nature of the Vibrato". The Journal of Research in Singing , Volume XIII, No. 1, (June 1989) pp. 39-61.
  • "The Nature of Natural Singing". The Journal of Research in Singing , Volume XI, No. 2, (June 1988) pp. 3-29.
  • "The Intensity Factor in Vocal Registration". The Journal of Research in Singing , Volume IX, No. 1, (December 1985), pp. 43-60.
  • "Science and Vocal Pedagogy". The Journal of Research in Singing , Volume VII, No. 2, (June 1984), pp. 21-33.
  • "Functional Vocal Training" (In 2 parts). The Journal of Orgonomy , No. 4, No. 2, (December, 1970), pp. 231-249, and No. 5, No. 1, (March, 1971), pp. 36-64.
  • "Liturgical Speech". Bulletin of The General Theological Seminary , 1965.
  • "Belcanto - The Idea and Its Realization in Practice". (Original title: "Bel Canto - Principles and Practices"), translated into German by Leonore Blume and Margaret Peckham. Frankfurt am Main, 1995.
  • "Questions and answers". (Original title: "The Free Voice"), translated into German by Leonore Blume and Margaret Peckham. Frankfurt am Main, 1996.
  • "The Falsetto". (Original title: "The Falsetto Register"), translated into German by Leonore Blume and Margaret Peckham. Frankfurt am Main, 1997.
  • "Functional Voice Training - Its Basics and Its Application". (Original title: "Functional Vocal Training"), translated into German by Leonore Blume and Margaret Peckham. Munich, 1997.

Master classes

Pupil of Cornelius Reid

Web links

References

  1. ↑ Cornelius L. Reid. "Sixty Years on the Bench". In: The Modern Singing Master: Essays in Honor of Cornelius L. Reid . Lanham, MD and London: Scarecrow Press, 2002, p. 307.
  2. ↑ Cornelius L. Reid. "Sixty Years on the Bench". In: The Modern Singing Master: Essays in Honor of Cornelius L. Reid . Lanham, MD and London: Scarecrow Press, 2002, pp. 308-314.
  3. ↑ Blume, Leonore and Peckham, Margaret: The influence of Cornelius Reid's Pedagogical Ideas on Voice Teaching in Germany in: The Modern Singing Master: Essays in Honor of Cornelius L. Reid . Edited by Ariel Bybee and James E. Ford. Lanham, MD and London: Scarecrow Press, 2002
  4. ↑ Frederick Husler and Yvonne Rodd-Marling. Singing - The Physical Nature of the Vocal Organ: Instructions for Unlocking the Singing Voice . Mainz: Schott, 1965.
  5. ↑ Pedro de Alcantara. Indirect Procedures: A Musician's Guide to the Alexander Technique . New York: Oxford University Press, 1997, pp. 91-92.
  6. ↑ Richard Dyer-Bennet. Book cover: Trilogy . New York: Joseph Patelson Music House, 1975.
  7. ↑ "Bookshelf". Debra Greschner. In: Journal of Singing ( National Association of Teachers of Singing ) Issue 60, No. 4, (March / April 2004) 411.
  8. ↑ http://music.unt.edu/tcmm/faculty-directors/austin
  9. ^ "Scientific Support for the Two-Register Theory". Stephen F. Austin. In: The Modern Singing Master: Essays in Honor of Cornelius L. Reid . Edited by Ariel Bybee and James E. Ford. Lanham, MD and London: Scarecrow Press, 2002, p. 75.
  10. ↑ "Bookshelf". Debra Greschner. In: Journal of Singing ( National Association of Teachers of Singing ) Issue 60, No. 4, (March / April 2004) 411.
personal data
SURNAME Reid, Cornelius L.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Reid, Cornelius Lawrence (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American singing teacher
DATE OF BIRTH February 7, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Jersey City
DATE OF DEATH February 3, 2008
Place of death New York City