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In the modern scholarly literature about vocal music, there is little to be found regarding the parameters of vocal usage that constitute distinctive vocal idioms, that is, the specific vocal techniques used in the performance of particular styles of music. By contrast, the historical treatises of Giulio Caccini (1602),1 Pietro Francesco Tosi ( 1723, 1743),2 or Manuel Garcia II ( 1841, 1847),3 to name but three, linked certain vocal techniques to the musical styles of the day. These treatises included both vocal and musical advice, since vocal technique was considered inseparable from matters of musical style. Today, however, there seems to be a gulf between studies of musical style and studies of singing. Musicologists have concentrated on the printed musical score and have created an analytical concept known as the word-tone relationship, in which the value of a song depends upon the balance between textual and musical elements in the score, but this concept accords little attention to the essential role of the singer. In this sense, the word-tone relationship might better be called the word-note relationship. Vocal pedagogues, on the other hand, are concerned with methods of using the voice as a musical instrument. Their focus is on the vocal techniques generally associated with so-called "classical" singing styles, especially the bel canto techniques of Italian opera, with little attention to the broader spectrum of vocal styles or the popular forms of singing often referred to as "vernacular" styles. Voice scientists try to quantify the physiological and acoustical elements of the singing voice, most often in a laboratory situation, by using procedures that isolate aspects of the voice. But the scientific method is too specialized to address the complex question of diverse musical styles, and references to vocal idioms are fragmentary. I believe it is only through a rapprochement of vocal history, pedagogy, and science that an understanding of vocal idioms can be gained.
Idiomatic singing is not a peripheral element in the success of a song; it is an integral part of it. To illustrate this, I can think of no better example than the famous aria "Che faro senza Euridice?" from Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice. This piece has been harshly dealt with by some critics, from Eduard Hanslick in 1854(4) to Peter...