Training Soprano Voices

For my money (and the book is not cheap) this manual lacks a certain hard-to-define element that is connected with the fact that it is written by a man, and no man can ever know exactly what it feels like to sing with a woman's voice. If you read, say, Lili Lehmann, you find an extra dimension - one that stems from her particular experience as a soprano - that is missing in Miller's rather clinical approach, which, by his own admission, deliberately shuns the use of imagery to convey sensation. He always gives excellent advice, with helpful vocalises, but only rarely manages to communicate what the singing process should feel like, as opposed to what it is supposed to achieve.

Just as I could not describe what it feels like to sing Sarastro's low notes or Tonio's high Cs as well as a bass and tenor could, so a man can only describe at a theoretical level what sensations sopranos must look for, and what difficulties they tend to encounter and why. Registers and passaggi in male and female larynges do not operate in identical ways. The sensations for females are bound to be subtly different overall (granted that they will of course vary between individuals of the same sex) and need to be described from the perspective of someone who inhabits a female body, preferably with a soprano larynx in her throat and with experience of having sung at least some of the repertoire that he discusses in the book. Miller would have produced a more useful book if he had collaborated with a reputable soprano vocal pedagogue who could have provided that extra input, and who could also have addressed certain other important aspects of the way a soprano's body functions and alters throughout her career, from her teens to her sixties, with some attention to how hormonal changes and ageing processes can affect vocal production. Miller does touch upon some of these things, but only superficially and not particularly sensitively.

It is a book that teachers will find useful but that practising sopranos may find frustrating. It is nevertheless a step in the right direction because very few reputable books on singing technique have been published, and even fewer on the soprano voice in particular.

Again Richard Miller has written an insightful and learned book about singing. Compared to his earlier work, The Structure of Singing, this book has a more focused approach: it is written for sopranos (or their teachers) and about sopranos.

Drawing from his experience with soon-to-be prima donnas, Miller has produced an easily approached yet scholarly presentation. The viewpoint Miller has selected is very practical, and very succesfull: this book tells about singing in a way a singer can comprehend, yet the opinions Miller asserts are thoroughly discussed and firmly based on facts and experience, not just statements given from position of authority. The suggestions on repertoire were enlightening and the voice development exercises are most useful.

This book does not replace The Structure, but amends it. If the Structure is a text book, then the Training is more like a manual. A very good manual, that is.