Customer Reviews

24 Italian Songs and Arias: Medium High Voice (Book/CD, Vocal Collection)

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

I own both this 26 song book/Cd as well as the 24 song book/CD from John Keene and Schirmer. I use the John Paton 26 song version in order to read the excellent one page introductions it provides for each song.. However my singing teacher feels that the piano accompaniments in the Paton book are pretentious, and he prefers the piano accompaniments in the Keene/Schirmer book. So, I use the CD and music from the Schirmer book but I do my research via the Paton book. The Keen/Schirmer book has a lot less melody ornamentation than the John Paton book. In my opinion, which is the opinion of a beginner, the ornamentation added to the melody in the John Paton book is excessive and is also confusing in that he never explains how to reconcile all the little notes he added, to the larger font melody notes that often seem to be at odds with the tinier notes. What is deeply, desperately need, I strongly feel, is a recording of tenors, sopranos, and baritones actually singing all 24 (or 26) of these songs! Please, if anyone knows of the existance of such as recording, post it in a user review. It would be a tremendous help. Also, note that in both the Keene/Schirmer version and the John Paton version, the piano accompaniment often does not include the melody. So, it can be "dicey" when trying to learn one of the songs to figure out the melody if the only resource available is the accompanying CD. Personally, I record the melodies into a sequencer program on my PC via a midi attached digital keyboard, but the average singer is not likely to have the technical expertise to do that. It would have been very helpful if the accompanying CD's had recorded each song twice, the second time with the melody superimposed on top of the accompaniment. My singer teacher tells me that these 24 (or 26) songs are the "bible" among singing students. Thus, a singing student really has no choice but to buy at least one of these two editions.

My voice teacher insisted I purchase this book and I am glad I did. We use it each week for development work, vocalizing, and learning new pieces. These songs are incredibly useful for working out the kinks you may have with other pieces, as well as just being a pleasure to sing for their natural beauty. I have a second copy of the book with the CD; I agree with the other reviewers that the CD accompaniment is way too fast. I have Cecilia Bartoli's CD, referenced by another reviewer, also and I have used it to help learn or refine some of these songs. Even so, the accompaniment CD has been useful for me in practice since I can't accompany myself. If you have a choice, I would get the version with the accompaniment CD. If you don't like the CD, you're not out more than a couple of extra dollars over what you pay for just the book.

This is the quintessencial collection for vocal studies for the medium high voice. A real tradition.

Although the Schirmer book has been used by countless students (including me!), the John Glenn Paton edition is pretty widely acknowledged as an improvement. Unless you're specifically instructed to, I wouldn't waste your money on this antiquated edition! Beginners and newcomers to Italian will appreciate Paton's addition of IPA and diction instructions, as well as accurate (NOT singing) translations.

No offense to the countless teachers who have worked with this edition over many years--for a very long time, it was the only publication of arie antiche that was widely available (i.e. outside university libraries, and in print). But... move over, Schirmer, now there's something better.

The accompaniments in this book may seem prettier than Paton's--but that's because they were written in the nineteenth century. Paton made more of an effort to use the older publications from the period, which is *why* his piano parts are sparse. Buy the Paton--or better yet, go to your local university and look for the old Parisoti.

I personally do not like any of John Glen Paton's writings, so I probably will not buy his book even if it does contain translations. This book however is great, but I would suggest that the teacher and student focus on building vocal technique through progressive vocal exercises and even some Vaccai before attempting the songs in this book. This is not a book I would recommend for the early beginner, but I do feel that all should have it in their music library. An addition book that I like even more is from Dover called "Classic Italian Songs for Medium Voice". There are a couple of songs in that book that are in an entirely different key than either of the Schirmer editions and which I prefer. Of course, these are all just my opinions, but I hope they may help someone.

Apply this and bring it to all of your voice lessons. Singing Arias assists in your singing of ANY song and ANY Genre. If your teacher is unable to get you to reach this point, I suggest a new teacher.

Thanks for the music book!!! It was exactly what I was looking for and it was what I needed so thanks!!!! It came with the cd!! I went to a store to purchase it but they wanted to much!!! So thanks for the music book and cd!!!!! It really came in handy!!! I would buy from the seller again!!!

I am totally content with the service received and the quality of the item I bought. It was a Good deal.

Thank you for selling this to me. I enjoy using it inside of my music classes, and it is helping me a lot to learn how to sing more properly.

The book came clean and looking brand new. I forget if there was still that plastic wrapping on it when it came but either way, I was very pleased. It also came with a CD. I don't know how well the CD works because I never needed to use it but it didn't look scratched.