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Meribeth Bunch Dayme. The Performer's Voice. Realizing Your Vocal Potential. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2005. Cloth, xviii, 234 pp., $24.95, ISBN 0-393-06136-1. Paper, $21.25, ISBN 0-393-97993-8.
www.wwnorton.com
The Performer's Voice is an owner's manual. Addressed to all who use their voices every day, from singers to trial lawyers, the book succinctly explains how the voice works, and how to maintain vocal health. Meribeth Bunch Dayme is the author of several other books that are well known to voice teachers, including the reference text Dynamics of the Singing Voice (Fourth Edition, Wien: Springer-Verlag, 1997) and the class voice textbook The Singing Book that she coauthored with Cynthia Vaughn (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004).
Those familiar with Dayme's earlier books will recognize aspects of The Performers Voice, both in content and in style. She makes even the most complicated principle easily understandable. Relying upon simple, yet detailed diagrams, and writing in a clear, common sense style, Dayme ably explains the voice and its workings. The text is divided into three sections. The first deals with the mechanics of the voice, beginning with an overview of the anatomy of the entire body, and moving through respiration, phonation, resonance, and articulation. While the explanation is not...