I'm about to take grade 8 singing and have a question about stlye:

For my last accompanied piece, Can't Help lov'in dat Man from Show Boat, should I sing this in classical stlye or should it be sung a little more like the Broadway-type Show Song that it is?

Also, in the same vein, should the unaccompanied folk song be sung in folk style, or should it be sung with classical voice?

Answers appreciated soon as I'm doing it in about 3 weeks !

Thanks.

hi helen!

kern is usually sung with something that we mt-people refer to as 'legitimate voice', which is basically a classical sound. apart from that, kern himself classed 'show boat' as an operetta, which also gives you a clue. don't think verdi, think sullivan, then you know what sound to use

maybe your teacher also has a few ideas?

I agree, and the folk may be sung in your natural voice. Last week I had a girl get distinction in her grade 8 and the examiner commented that it was nice to hear someone so comfortable with all the different styles, so yes, it is something they look out for and it's good you are thinking about it. Good luck!

That's an interesting question re 'Can't Help lov'in...' I have accompanied it in a G8 exam and also many times in concerts, but am always faced with difficult musical decisions re style, because with piano it can sound boring if done exactly as written in the score. I am never sure if any of it should be 'swung' as I suspect that it was composed before the swing style became popular - however it does work swung! I suspect that for an exam I would incline towards the 'operetta' style of performance, but with a few felicitous tempo variations - and maybe get the accompanist to elaborate slightly on the pedestrian reduction printed in the vocal score, so as to add a slight 'cabaret' feel to the performance.

Well I did it! I decided to sing the folk song (against my natural inclination) and the Kern in a classical style - the way my teacher advised (she's 80 and very good!). The examiner didn't comment upon the style at all and I passed with merit.

Many thanks to all who answered my question.

Congratulations on your result - it's excellent !

As you were examining with ABRSM you probably took the best decision - they primarily judge everything against classical criteria.

In general, it makes me cringe when I hear non-legit show numbers sung in classical style, or folk sung in classical style (as I imagine people would cringe if they heard Verdi sung in a folk style) - yet people seem to persist in thinking that the classical way of singing them is somehow better... I don't get it. In real life, the best way to sing a song is the way that 1) reflects you as an artist and 2) remains as close to the original idiom as possible.

We don't improve show tunes by singing them classically - yet many teachers seem to think we do. I've heard I don't know how many classical versions of Memory from cats - and it totally misses the point. What makes the song hard is the emotional factor and the belted section at the end. If you talk out the belted section, the song becomes a very easy melody indeed - so rather than improving it - we end up destroying it somewhat - or at the very least, simplifying it beyond the point of recognition.

I can't imagine anyone accepting us completely changing a classical composer's wishes, singing the song in a different idiom and calling it better - yet we persist in doing this the other way around.

Sorry for the mini-rant - this is just something that I continually fight for - classical is not better, it's one style among many - all of which are equally valid and it's about time music teachers updated their knowledge and came to realise this.

Of course this applies to real world singing, rather than exam singing - you did absolutely the right thing for your ABRSM exam as they appear to take only classical voice into consideration.

congrats on making the right/comfortable choice in your exam.

rosfrog is absolutely right, i hate things like that as well. nothing worse than jekyll and hyde in a classical style. however, that's probably the reason why the abrsm hardly has any contemporary musical theatre on their syllabus. that's why i actually prefer trinity and lcm.