Being “politically correct” is very tricky. Many people who depend on university positions in order to support themselves or their families are unable to speak up vigorously about various departmental issues, lest they anger their colleagues and perhaps lose their jobs. This is particularly true of adjuncts, who have no protection, but can also happen with tenured professors who may not lose their positions, but can end up creating for themselves a toxic atmosphere in which to work.
Archives for July 2012
It’s Never Too Late
Perhaps because of my own vocal fold issues I have lately run into many people who are having similar ones. My own vocal fold is responding quite well to the exercises I am doing to help it get stronger and more able to make louder, clearer sounds. I can’t promise that they would work equally well on everyone but it’s better than accepting the idea that there isn’t any way to get better and that I’m stuck with gradually losing my ability to sing. I am performing on Sunday evening, in fact.
Empowering Your Own Voice
Your voice is only as powerful as you allow it to be. You have to look not only at how you sound, but what you do with how you sound, and what you think about that. You have to give some thought to the impact your voice has in the world, in the minds of others, and you have to be able to take responsibility for all of that.
Each Individual On His or Her Own
Wouldn’t it be great if we could really get inside someone’s head and transfer what we know, like a Vulcan mind meld? It surely would save a lot of time! There have been some truly brilliant minds in history and it certainly would have been a great blessing to have been able to transfer the knowledge and experience they had gathered in their lives to others who perhaps could have been “repositories” for that miraculous wisdom.
The Song Is Over But The Melody Lingers On
We don’t know how the great singers of the 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th centuries sounded. There are some writings about them and musicologists think they have figured out what the sounds were like. They have decided that certain things about music from those times are stylistically correct and others are not, based on what they have read. When they get new information, they change their thinking. One very big assumption was that there was generally no vibrato in the early days of classical singing. Straight tone was considered somehow “better” in certain circles, especially that of choral conductors, but now, that is held less rigidly as an idea. Things change.
When It Goes
I have recently been diagnosed with a vocal fold weakness. I noticed it because my voice began acting erratically in April and just wouldn’t “behave” no matter what I did. I sang at a benefit, two operetta pieces, and had almost no sound when I came in on A440.