Zingen

Singing and the Etheric Tone

Gracia Ricardo's Approach to Singing, based on her work with Rudolf Steiner

HILDA DEIGHTON and GINA PALERMO

Edited, with an Introduction and Afterword, by DINA SORESI WINTER
Anthroposophic Press

FOREWORD
Until the beginning of the twentieth century, singing was a natural part of human life. Many aspects of everyday life were accompanied by general singing or songs actually connected with a specific activity-loggers' songs, railway workers' songs, household songs. The last echo of these could still be heard until World War II in children's songs. Only songs of religious life have enjoyed, within their church setting, an unbroken continuity.
Singing is a divine gift bestowed upon human beings. Through singing, a human being can create balance and harmony in the physical, soul, and spiritual aspects of life. This study by Hilda Deighton, Gina Palermo, Theodora Richards, and Dina Soresi Winter provides a helpful source for those who wish to gain a deeper understanding of singing and of the work of Gracia Ricardo. We see how Gracia Ricardo's lifelong devotion to the art of singing merged totally with her deep dedication to anthroposophy. The insights she gained from Rudolf Steiner personally, and from his books and lectures, placed her in a unique position both as a singer and as a pioneer within the Anthroposophical Society from the early years of the twentieth century until her death in 1955.
This work may thus serve as a tribute to a special individuality as well as a practical guide for those who wish to discover new dimensions in singing.

VIRGINIA SEASE Dornach, Switzerland December 1988

A Spiritual Approach to Singing
Most modern training in singing is based upon methods which consider only the physical organism. Contemporary methods of voice production often include the showing of charts to students as part of the lesson-charts indicating the organs connected with singing (larynx, tongue, soft palate, hard palate, diaphragm). These charts are used to demonstrate what happens, or is supposed to happen, to the vocal organs as one sings. They are meant to be a conscious aid in learning how to sing better.
Despite these good intentions, I have known of several singers who initially had very good voices yet who emerged in complete desperation from these vocal studios, wondering if they would ever be able to sing again. Because they could not squeeze themselves into the fixed forms demanded of them by their teachers, they fled. Some sought their own paths and found the key which led them to their own individual singing freedom. Birgit Nilsson, the great Swedish soprano, was one who did. But not many can do so. Consequently, it often happens that singers who have been through a full university training which includes such a mechanical approach can hardly produce a joyful tone again. Their singing is tight, unfree, and certainly not a healing experience for themselves or for their listeners. It would have been far better for these singers if they had not undertaken voice training at all! This is not to imply that there are not good singing teachers in the universities and in private studios. There are, although it is not a common occurrence to find them. There are certainly gifted teachers who know a great deal about the voice, who still have an intuitive, innate feeling for good singing, and know how to use imaginative pictures and a fine sense of hearing to guide their gifted pupils to a healthy sound. Those who are considered the best teachers, however, will be unwilling to work with singers who have "no voice," no voice for a professional career. But what about all those who might wish to study voice for their own self-development, for the joy and well-being of singing; who sense the importance of singing well, both for themselves and for the sake of bringing a freer, more joyful tone to their singing in community? Singing, after all, is the birthright of every human being; expression of our humanity. "If more people would sing", Rudolf Steiner once said, "there would be less crime in the world." What would he have said today? We know that in our schools-especially our public schools-singing, along with the other arts, is often the first to be eliminated from the curriculum: when budgetary problems demand cuts, the arts are the first to go. Yet, if we wish to cultivate humanity in our in addition to making them smart and successful in the "hard world of reality," then we need to give them what will help them stand in the world as whole, balanced adults. The arts can help here, but they must be truly artistic, not just "arty." There must be knowledge and depth to them, Rudolf Steiner, for example, recognized the importance both of including the arts in a child's education and of an artistic approach to all the subjects, as may be seen in the curriculum of the Waldorf Schools throughout the world. He recognized that singing is an aspect of the human being that should not, must not be neglected. "Music is there to make us human." And of all the instruments available to us, singing is the most direct means of human expression. Singing, which is available to everyone, connects us with our divine, spiritual origins, with the truly human in ourselves and in each other. We need more of it, not less. To sing together as adults, with and for our children in a healthy and joyful way, is essential in the struggle to stay human. We cannot teach our children how to sing with formal singing lessons. They can only imitate what we hope will be a free and joyful sound. We must be able to lead them with our own free singing. For this, only an approach that recognizes soul and spiritual dimensions in the human being can be helpful. Methods based on physiology alone can only hinder the free expression of song.
In most of the accepted methods of teaching singing today, however, the prevailing concern is how the physical organs can be manipulated and controlled to produce tones. Only the very gifted singer knows instinctively how to avoid the pitfall of singing too mechanically. The artist in them often discovers a more spiritual awareness of singing and so avoids the tendency to get stuck in an approach that is purely physical. But, as such instincts forsake us more and more, we may well ask: What will the future have in store for singing and its representatives?
Gracia Ricardo asked this very question of Rudolf Steiner in the early years of the 20th century. He answered that singing is not a physical process. He said that singing must be freed from a mechanical approach and the singer awakened to an understanding of true tone, to an appreciation of tone as a spiritual reality. When this happens the singer can experience what Rudolf Steiner referred to as the "leading over of the tone into the etheric." And then a new approach to singing may arise wherein the singer will have the all-engrossing experience of his whole being as a "resounding column of tone." The entire etheric organization of the human being-all of his life forces-then becomes involved in the singing process. One's whole being sings. Great singers have had this experience. Now the path to it must become conscious for all. Not that we can all become professional singers, but we can all learn how to sing well. This is one way to help us find our humanity.

SINGING AND THE ETHERIC TONE

The Method and How It Came About

Gracia Ricardo was a professional singer. Early in her studies and while still a young girl she lost the use of her voice through vocal strain and an illness that kept her bedridden for several months. As her strength gradually returned she developed, while lying on her back, an approach to singing that returned the use of her voice. The new approach was the kernel of a singing method that would later take shape, form, and substance through her ever-deepening connection with anthroposophy and her numerous conversations with Rudolf Steiner. "You have the free tone," Rudolf Steiner would often tell her when she questioned him about her method of singing. Once, when faced with a concert in Los Angeles in a huge theater with a sixty-piece orchestra, she feared her voice might not carry. "Shall I alter my approach for this concert?" she cabled Steiner. Again he answered: "Alter nothing. You have the free tone."
Gracia Ricardo became part of an intimate circle of pupils surrounding Rudolf Steiner in the early years of anthroposophy. Encouraged by Steiner, and on the basis of her conversations with him, and through her study of the many references to singing, eurythmy, and music in his writings, Grada Ricardo evolved a new art of singing, an art that leads the singer to a real experience of the etheric activity in singing. Instead of beginning with physical functions, she started with the tone itself, which she understood as being based on the word. This word is best begun with the help of a consonant, which gives the tone an acoustical shell. Within this shell, all resonators can freely resound, thus revealing the full capacity of the voice.
The cultivation of a sense of hearing is an important part of this approach to singing. Tone is carried through the air to our ears, but it is the etheric which carries the real essence of the tone to our inner being. An intensified listening carries the outer tone within; and the subsequent inner experience greatly affects the tone that can then be sung. Goethe once wrote in his Tonlehre (Theory of Tone):
One should pay particular attention to the leading of the tone inward through the ear, which acts in a thoroughly stimulating and productive way on the voice. The activity of the voice is thereby awakened, set in motion, enhanced, and increased. The whole body is activated.
Besides the development of an inner sense of hearing-which carries the outer tone within-the attainment of the etheric tone in singing requires that we as singers find a path that allows us to bring our own true tone to birth. To develop the voice in a more conscious and healthy way that includes the spiritual dimension of the human being, we need to find a means whereby the tone we sing can reflect the universal tone that streams around us. When we link ourselves to this tone in the right way, it flows and resounds through us.
Theodora Richards, who studied with her aunt Gracia Ricardo for many years, maintained that the concept of the "embouchure" is essential to this approach. She referred to this "embouchure" (a concept used by wind instrumentalists) as the proper starting point of the tone and as the focal point for singing. Imagine a point on the lower lip, where the inner air meets the outer; imagine that the tone starts right there. Imagine that the tone comes as much from without as from within: where it meets is the embouchure, the imaginary point where, when we sing, the tone first comes to birth.
The tone referred to here is of course the tone as it sounds in the world. That tone comes toward the singer from without, and is met by a tone from within. This tone, that comes from within the human being, according to indications of Rudolf Steiner, has its place of origin at the pineal gland. Other singing methods, such as the Werbeck Method, are founded on this insight.

The two approaches are by no means contradictory. In truth, it is the combination of ear, pineal gland, and embouchure which, together with what comes from without, creates the birth of the sounding tone.
The embouchure must be employed in a comfortable range of the voice. There must be no vocal strain. (Teacher demonstration is essential at the beginning of the Ricardo method.) If this anchor for the voice, the embouchure, is properly found, as the voice soars upward or downward, the tones find their own placement -their own proper home in and around us. The body becomes the firm yet flexible instrument which gives the proper physical basis for each emerging tone. Our task as singers is then to consciously allow the necessary processes to take place so that the tones can be born through us in a free and healthy way. The whole body is activated from above the head to below the feet, so to speak, not in a state of tautness, but in a state of balance between relaxation and proper tension. The state is one of awake readiness. Like one listening for a distant sound in the dark, the singer must find his inner and outer balance on each tone and each tone must find its own balance in the singer.
Each rise or fall of the voice needs a new set of subtle inner adjustments, which the singer cannot possibly control in a purely physical way, any more than an archer can control each minor adjustment of arm and hand when drawing the bow to shoot an arrow. But the archer can keep his eyes on the goal and see to it that no rigidities prevent the taking of good aim. The ear is for the singer, what the eye is for the archer.
With the embouchure, we have a means of leading the tone into that etheric realm of which Rudolf Steiner speaks. Moreover, the embouchure provides the proper start of the tone by means of a word correctly enunciated on a given pitch. Once the tone is "there" in an unforced but definite way, the other tones can follow on the same stream and the organism experiences a balanced inner mobility. This process, of course, must include a flexible action of the diaphragm based on proper breathing. A healthy stream of sound for the entire range of the voice can thus be achieved. In singing, there is movement: not just an outpouring of sound, but a balanced inner and outer streaming of tones involving the whole organism and connecting us with the universal tone. The process of singing is a receiving as well as a giving.
Lamperti, the celebrated Italian vocal master of the nineteenth century, had a sense for this receptive aspect of singing when he spoke of "drinking in the tone" ("here il suono"). We activate this universal tone within us when we sing correctly. It is as if beings were weaving in, out, and around us in flowing movement as we sing. Indeed, Elizabeth Rethberg, the great Metropolitan Opera singer, once confided to Franz Winkler that she always knew when she was singing correctly: When the singing was right, she saw spiritual beings in movement around her. When the singing was not right, they were not there. By this, she knew whether she was achieving her true goal, irrespective of the audience's enthusiastic applause.
In her essay "The Singer as Instrument," Theodora Richards writes:
Those who wish to link their song with the tone streaming through the world around them cannot remain just as they are. They must lift their mood to another level and cultivate receptive quiet and attentive listening. These qualities are basic to becoming an instrument for the world of tone to play upon. The sound each species of animal instinctively makes has its own distinctive tonal timbre. This allows only a partial inflowing of the universal tone. Tones may be conjured forth from all sorts of inanimate objects. But a human being must deliberately undergo a spiritual discipline to become, with his own unique timbre, a fuller, more complete and individualized instrument of this universal tone.
This is what my aunt and teacher Grace Richards [Gracia Ricardo] did. Prompted by her study of anthroposophy and her personal conversations with Rudolf Steiner, she developed a new method of "etheric" singing.... This training starts with the cultivation of the right mood. First of all, one must find the calm to enter into a new dimension of reverent receptivity in order to experience the universal tone. Grace Richards used the phrase, Erwartungsvolle Ruhe-"Expectant calm." "Try not to try," she often said. The over-intensity that accompanies "trying hard" sets up tensions in the vocal instrument that block the free flowing of the tone. Naturally, the physical body, as the singer's instrument, must be accorded due consideration. To enhance relaxation, a student could begin a practice session in a sitting position, comfortably erect, and do a few deep breathing exercises. An exacting ear training is of the essence. This should lead to the ability to hear with accuracy and discrimination the nuances of the teacher's illustrations, as well as to judge properly one's own attempts. A teacher's vocal illustrations are indispensable for teaching this method. Unlike other methods, in which the tone production comes first, and the speech sound follows, the pupil is asked instead to concentrate upon the initial consonant which, properly centered, provides the "house," the shape within which the vowel is intoned on the desired pitch.
The centering or focusing of the tone is achieved through an articulated embouchure. A flautist finds an embouchure essential-so likewise a singer. This is by far the most unique and vital aspect of the method. One trains this embouchure by means of pictures.
Visualize a tiny spot or aperture, localized at the midpoint of the lower lip. Upon this imaginary pinpoint, the word is spoken in an unforced manner, centered and concentrated.... The breath in the singer's mouth comes in contact with the outside air around the lips. The outside air, molded by the properly formed, articulated speech sound, acts like a sounding board or acoustical shell for all the resonators of head, nose, chest, mouth, and so forth; in short, of the entire vocal instrument, thereby giving the voice a free, full, ringing quality. The vibration thus set in motion comes about through the interplay of the universal tone and the singer, not by a forced physical effort.... The inside and outside air then maintain a balanced interchange through the embouchure. This balance is called the focus, and is the seed-center which produces the freely floating, round, ringing etheric tone....
A focused word on the desired pitch is thus the crux of this method... and its lofty goal is the marrying of speech and tone-needless to say, a lifetime study.
We can be grateful to Theodora Richards for introducing us to Gracia Ricardo's comprehensive and rich view of singing. Richards' own significant contribution was in the developing of the understanding of this helpful technique of using the embouchure. Italian teachers of voice would refer to singing "on the lips" ("sulk labra") or "forward" "davanti"). Singing forward is not to be understood in any way as pushing or forcing the tone outward, which could only be detrimental to the voice and to good singing. Theodora Richards' explanation of the embouchure makes understandable the orginal meaning of this term in a way that is clear and usable for us today.
Gina Palermo and Hilda Deighton met Gracia Ricardo in New York City in the early 1920s. Through that meeting Gina Palermo and Hilda Deighton, already professional singers, both became Gracia Ricardo's pupils and lifelong friends. They recognized
what Ricardo-a devoted student of Rudolf Steiner and of anthroposophy-could offer them: a new dimension in singing, a practical training with a spiritual dimension and foundation, and a conscious understanding of what they were doing when they were singing well. For over twenty years they studied with Gracia Ricardo, following her back and forth from New York to Switzerland, diligently recording the results of their study. Gradually, a manuscript containing an exposition of the Ricardo method took shape. This was a life's work. They worked on it together until Gina's death in 1963. Hilda carried on and indeed was still working on it a few weeks before her death in 1976. The task then fell to Theodora Richards to bring this work to fruition. But much effort was still needed to organize and coordinate it into book form and my enthusiasm for the substance of the work led Theodora to ask my help in preparing it for publication. Singing and the Etheric Tone is thus the priceless legacy not only of Gina Palermo and Hilda Deighton's devotion to the art of singing and to their teacher's unique anthroposophical method, but also of Theodora Richards' loyal and tenacious will to see it in print.
Singing and the Etheric Tone presents a few indicators along the way toward freer and more joyful singing. It is not, however, meant to be a "do-it-yourself" manual, for no one can learn to sing from a book. But the open-minded singer who has already achieved a degree of freedom and good technique will be able to recognize and make use of sound vocal ideas and may find that this offering promotes a more conscious, and safer, approach to singing.
No one method or approach to singing should be regarded as the only one. Gracia Ricardo herself was the first to admit that her approach should be regarded as but one of the ways by which to achieve freedom in singing based upon the spiritual scientific principles given by Rudolf Steiner. Every healthy, sound approach to singing will find meeting points with other approaches to singing. The dimension which is new here is the spiritual-scientific view of anthroposophy. On this basis, the old can be understood in a new way, and a conscious approach, more appropriate to our day, can become the basis for a new school of singing that does not in any way ignore or minimize the wisdom of the past but, in fact, still draws fully upon it.
Singing, we open ourselves to those forces that lift us above the everyday world. When we sing together, we meet each other on a deeper level than usual. Rightly experienced, singing links us with the etheric realm, with each other, and with the spiritual source of tone itself.

DINA SORESI WINTER 1991

CHAPTER ONE

The Onset of the Tone (The Attack)
The Focus of the Tone
The Humming Approach
Separation of Word andTone
Listening for theWord
The Starting Point to Which the Vowel Returns
Muscular Interference
Proper Conception of Vowels and Consonants
The Consonant Form and the Vowel
The Supporting Breath
The Diaphragm
Release

The Onset of the Tone (The Attack)

With the onset or start of the tone, sometimes called the "attack," the word (the clear vowel and consonant sound) is of primary importance, for it is the position and the correct form of the word that determine the freedom and beauty of the tone.
In singing, a student needs the help of imaginative pictures. Just as the horn player must acquire the embouchure in order to play his instrument, so must the singer find the point of contact for the start of the tone. The tone is a spiritual reality, which comes as much from outside, toward the singer, as from within. The point of contact is an imaginary point where outside and inside tone meet. This is the singer's embouchure. The horn player must gain control of the muscles of his lips, but the singer must not consciously call these muscles into action. As one speaks the vowel on a pitch, the life forces (etheric forces) activate the (physical) muscles and set them in motion. The impulse to sing does not originate in the muscles; rather, the muscles follow the impulse.

The Focus of the Tone

The mental picture of a tiny spot or aperture on the middle of the lower lip must rise before the singer, and the word is to be intoned upon this imaginary pinpoint. (It must be understood that we are referring here primarily to the middle and lower range of the voice and not to the higher tones which require a different placement.) The word must be small and highly concentrated, as it cannot grow if it is too large in the beginning. Every vowel must be spoken into the imaginary "dome of the consonant." For instance, in singing the word "bode," the "b" is the consonant into which the "o" is sounded; or, in the word "see," "s" is the consonant into which you pour the "ee." The "ee" form has a natural focusing quality. Therefore all the vowels must contain the thought of "ee," so that the focusing resonance in "ee" may become the center point and kernel of every vowel.
This "ee" resonance lifts the voice out of heaviness, giving it a quality of light. The "ee" should live in every word that is sung and rise into the resonators of the head. But this "resonating ee," which resonates through all the vowels, should not be confused with the simple vowel "e." The simple "e" vowel should, of course, also contain the "ee" resonance.

CHAPTER ONE

The Humming Approach

In some singing methods, pupils are taught to precede the starting of a tone with a slight humming sound in the nose. This amounts to starting the tone by trying to sing the consonant "m," instead of a vowel, and is directly at variance with the approach we are describing. Humming is the consonant "m" prolonged. It closes the lips and draws the sound into the nasal cavities. It is sometimes considered helpful in relieving tension in the throat, but when "m" is used in this way the teacher is correcting one vocal fault by replacing it with another. The resonance, which some seek through humming, must be attained not by activating the resonating cavities of the head with the "m" consonant, but by coming to an understanding of the natural focusing resonance of the vowel "e" in every intoned word. It is impossible to sing a tone on a consonant. The singer can produce no musical tone except through the medium of a vowel. Though many teachers believe that humming helps to focus the voice, the effort of consciously directing the voice through the "m" sound can be a cause of strain. Tone is not a material substance and it cannot be put or placed anywhere. It is not mere sound, which can be measured according to its vibrations. In his course of lectures on "Light," Rudolf Steiner made a statement that was not intended particularly for singers but that is of great significance for them:
Just as the light is not a result of mechanical vibrations, but a form of existence or being, so also is tone something that exists of itself, not something that arises out of mechanical vibrations. Rudolf Steiner, Light Course
Once the tone is there, it can be measured, but the mechanical vibrations are not the source of the tone. Here one can truly say that the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Deighton, Hilda, The Earliest Days of Anthroposophy in America, privately printed.
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang, Tonlehre. Greene, Herbert Wilber, The Singer's Ladder. Greene, P., Interpretation in Song.
Lehmann, Lilli, How to Sing, Northbrook, Illinois: Whitehall Publishers, 1972.
Steffen, Albert, Meetings with Rudolf Steiner (translated by Rex Raab, Erna McArthur, Virginia Brett), Dornach, Switzerland: Verlag für Schöne Wissenschaft, 1961.
Steiner, Rudolf, and Steiner-von Sivers, Marie, Poetry and the Art of Speech (translated by Julia Wedgwood and Andrew Welburn), London: London School of Speech Formation, 1981.
Steiner, Rudolf, Art as seen in the Light of Mystery Wisdom (translated by Pauline Wehrle and Johanna Collis) London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1984..
Light [First Scientific Lecture Course (Light Course)] Ten lectures given in Stuttgart, December 23, 1919 to January 3,1920 (translated by George Adams) Forest Row, East Sussex RH18 5JB, England: Steiner Schools Fellowship Publications, Michael Hall, 1987.
The Inner Nature of Music and the Experience of Tone (translated by Maria St. Goar), Hudson, New York: Anthropsophic Press, 1983.
"Die Völkerseelen und das Mysterium von Golgatha" ("Folk Souls and the Mystery of Golgotha"), Lecture, March 30,1918: in Erdensterben und Weltenleben. Anthroposophische Lebensgaben. Bewusstseins-notwendigkeiten für Gegenwart und Zukunft (GA181), Dornach, Switzerland: Rudolf Steiner Verlag, 1967.