PERFORMANCE

Te Ao Hou, June 1964, Page 37

PERFORMANCE Breathing. With most songs it is customary for the performer to sing without any breaks for breathing such as occur at the cadence points in European songs. When two or more people are singing this is easy to achieve since the singers concerned can take breath at different moments during the song. In the case of the solo singer however, to sing without break is impossible. It is for this reason that solo singing—except for a few song types such as the tauparapara—is not greatly favoured. A solo singer makes the best of things by singing for as long a time as possible on one breath. When he does take a breath, it may or may not be at the end of a line. It is more likely to be in the middle of a line and may even be in the middle of a word.

Meaningless syllabifying and leader solos. Part of the technique for getting on to the right note at the beginning of a musical phrase involves the extension of the previous line by the addition of meaningless syllables. This excursion takes the singer above the note to which he is going. These often highly melismatic sections of meaningless syllabifying usually occur at the end of each repetition of the basic melody (see later under Form) bridging the end of one repetition and the beginning of the next. The device is commonly known as the ‘drag’. In group performance, the ‘drag’ is usually performed solo by the leader while the rest of the group take opportunity to catch a breath. Frequently these leader solos are highly ornamented and are often responsible for much of the beauty of the song. ‘Riding in.’ When a singer, who for some reason has temporarily dropped out, wishes to sing again with the rest, he often ‘rides in’ to the note which the rest are singing by beginning a 3rd or 4th higher and filling in to the unison. This ‘riding in’ to a note seems always to take place from above a melody note rather than from below. The added notes—since they are incidental to the performance—are not generally thought of as forming part of the melody. Ambiguity of song beginnings. Very often, singers require a phrase or two to establish the melody. In both solo and group performances the beginning of a song may seem rhythmically vague and uncertain in comparison with the remainder. The tendency is, in fact, common enough to be considered a part of the style. Not infrequently the beginning differs from the basic melody, as later established, melodically as well as rhythmically. In such a case the tendency is usually for the beginning to be of narrower range. Singing faults. There is a highly developed terminology of singing faults associated with the traditional chant. Faults may be melodic, rhythmic, or textual in their nature. (a) Melodic. ‘Rangi-rua’ (literally two melodies) or parallelism. Here, one singer gets on to a note a 4th or 5th apart from the rest and sings throughout in parallel intervals. (b) Rhythmic. ‘Taupatupatu’ (literally, up and down) out of beat. (c) Textual. ‘Haua whakahua’, faulty pronunciation, ‘Haua kama’, faulty enunciation or articulation and ‘kunanunanu’, uncertainty as to words.