Life
Childhood
As a boy of nine Reid became a chorister in the choir of Trinity Church, New York. This time of regular singing in a good choir at a young age had a profound influence on him: "Retrospectively, one of the great advantages of the training given the choirboys of Trinity Church at that time was that the technique of tone production was never a matter for discussion. To the contrary, we were simply encouraged to sing musically and to pronounce the words distinctly. Singing itself was the object of study, not the mechanics of singing. Looking back over the many decades I have been teaching singing, this has been a continuing emphasis, the purpose being to communicate through the act of singing itself."
Vocal fatigue
When his voice changed from soprano to baritone, he had voice lessons with various teachers in New York, including the vocal scientist Dr. Douglas Stanley for whom he was an assistant from 1934 to 1937. Through vocal strain brought on by confusing and contradictory voice training, he was forced to abandon a career in singing. He began to question the teaching methods being used and this induced him to develop his own ideas on functional vocal training, which, while completely based on earlier Italian methods, were combined with insights afforded by modern science. "...I spent hours at the New York Public Library researching books on vocal pedagogy. I had been so outraged because of the incompetence of the teaching I had experienced and witnessed that I was determined to search for better answers. I had come to realize that my vocal situation was not unique in that many promising young singers had been victimized. Indeed it appeared to be the rule rather than the exception." Dr. Stephen F. Austin also supports the researching of earlier books on bel canto: "...there are wonderful sources that can help us get back on track. Tosi's Observations on the Florid Song, Mancini's Practical Reflections on the Art of Singing are two great places to start. At first you may find the lack of detail frustrating. Specific exercises are rare, but the principles are stated clearly, and therein lies their greatest worth. These early writings lay the foundation for the work of C. Reid. He didn't invent the two-register theory, but he certainly rediscovered it and has made it available and useful. There are many valuable resources that every voice teacher should know: the writings of the Lampertis, García, Stockhausen, and of course, Cornelius Reid."
Research and teaching
In the 1940s Cornelius Reid was a pioneer in the research into the writings of singers and teachers (17th to 19th century) on early vocal techniques. This led him to write seven books and many articles on singing and bel canto. He taught voice in New York City for almost seventy five years, teaching until shortly before his 97th birthday. Many of his students have become well-known singers and voice teachers. He was invited to give many master classes in North America, Europe, as well as in Japan and Australia. His teaching has had influence on the teaching of singing in North America, Europe and Asia. Several cities in Germany offered 1- and 2-week master classes with him for up to eight years. His influence in Germany can easily be seen in the German version of Wikipedia: see the article: "Gesangsregister".
Criticism
Reid and others who have written about bel canto in the modern period, have inevitably been going against the mainstream and thus have always been open to criticism. Pedro de Alcantara, an Alexander teacher, supports both Reid as well as Husler/Rodd-Marling, who published Singing: The Physical Nature of the Vocal Organ in 1965: "The free-thinking Reid and the collaborating duo of Frederick Husler and Yvonne Rodd-Marling have put forth watertight arguments for the correct relationship of cause and effect as regards breathing and singing. Their books have proved highly controversial, yet their detractors, rather than disproving the points made by their writers, have resorted to ad hominem attacks such as 'He is crazy.' Alexander was fond of saying that 'it doesn't alter a fact because you can't feel it'. We can expand the dictum to say that it does not alter a fact because you cannot understand it, nor because you can not accept it." When Reid's first three books were published as a Trilogy in 1975, Richard Dyer-Bennet wrote: "Today's world, in all its aspects, seems to vacillate between mechanistic and mystical approaches to problems. As always, the true path lies somewhere between the extremes, and Reid indicates the path. Due partly to misinterpretation and partly simply to neglect, contemporary teachers have deserted the old, productive principles of bel canto. As author and teacher, Reid has now firmly re-established these principles and, with added insights of his own, leaves us with no excuse to again lose our way."
Writings on Bel canto
Reid's first book Bel Canto: Principles and Practices came out in 1950 and was followed by The Free Voice: A Guide to Natural Singing in 1965 and Voice: Psyche and Soma, 1975. These were later reprinted by the Joseph Patelson Music House in 1975 as a Trilogy. In 1977 he was awarded a grant by the Ford Foundation to compile A Dictionary of Vocal Terminology - An Analysis - the only one of its kind. Several more books came out in the 1990s including Essays on the Nature of Singing and a translation of Vocal Exercises: Their Purpose and Dynamics was published in Germany. For his 90th birthday a festschrift The Modern Singing Master: Essays in Honor of Cornelius L. Reid was published. Debra Greschner wrote in the Journal of Singing: "The annals of voice pedagogy are filled with references to singing masters of the bel canto era. Editors Ariel Bybee and James E. Ford, in their choice of title for this compendium, simultaneously acknowledge that pedagogical tradition and pay homage to the teacher they believe follows in that lineage: Cornelius L. Reid. Reid's publications are well known to any serious student of voice pedagogy." Several of his books have also been translated into German, Japanese and Korean.
Read more about this topic: Cornelius L. Reid
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“The literature of the poor, the feelings of the child, the philosophy of the street, the meaning of household life, are the topics of the time. It is a great stride. It is a sign,—is it not? of new vigor, when the extremities are made active, when currents of warm life run into the hands and the feet.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The fancy that extraterrestrial life is by definition of a higher order than our own is one that soothes all children, and many writers.”
—Joan Didion (b. 1934)
“There is a delicate balance of putting yourself last and not being a doormat and thinking of yourself first and not coming off as selfish, arrogant, or bossy. We spend the majority of our lives attempting to perfect this balance. When we are successful, we have many close, healthy relationships. When we are unsuccessful, we suffer the natural consequences of damaged and sometimes broken relationships. Children are just beginning their journey on this important life lesson.”
—Cindy L. Teachey. “Building Lifelong Relationships—School Age Programs at Work,” Child Care Exchange (January 1994)