• Bio
  • Contact Ian

Ian Sidden

Subscribe

  • Email
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Craft
  • My News
  • About the Music
  • The Rest of Life

Vocalise: Handel “Tornami” Runs

October 28, 2009 By Ian Sidden

Handel Tornami Runs

A student of mine is working on “Tornami a vagheggiar” from Handel’s Alcina. It’s a tricky piece, and near the end of the A section, there is a melismatic passage that is particularly difficult. Thus I designed this vocalise to work on the some of the challenges outside of the aria itself. (This pattern begins around 1:35 in the video below. BTW….Joan Sutherland rocks)

The challenges of that section include the catch breaths. They must be quick or else the tempo drags. In this vocalise, there must be catch breaths before each [a] or “ah” on the eighth notes. Use a metronome to assure rhythmic consistency.

If you want to make it more similar to the aria, change beats two and three of those measures to a half note with a trill. Still sing beat one and have a catch breath after it.

The chords underneath have nothing to do with Handel’s composition. The melody sounds like a 50’s lovers lament tune mixed with “Vedrai carino” with the rhythms of “Tornami”. 3 for 1!

[sibembed score=”http://beginning-singer.iansidden.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Handel-Tornami-Runs.sib” height=”896″ width=”604″ align=”bottom”/]

If you don’t have Sibelius Scorch yet, why not try it out? You can transpose and change the tempo right from your browser. It’s totally free. (No, I do not work for Sibelius. I just like interesting and useful technology. Though, I do wish they’d make a Linux friendly version).

Related posts:

Default ThumbnailVocalise: Belmonte Leap Plus Seconds Default ThumbnailVocalise: Scale plus 9th Default ThumbnailVocalise: Up 3rds, down seconds Default ThumbnailVocalise: Onset Variations Feb. 20,2009

Filed Under: Craft Tagged With: Vocalises

« Leadership Styles…of Conductors
When Singing is Frustrating »

About Ian

Ian Sidden is currently a bass member of the Theater Dortmund Opera chorus. Read More…

Latest Posts

Training Singing, Practicing Strength

In the past few years, I’ve begun viewing my singing work in a similar manner to my weight training. And vice versa. The two share obvious similarities. We use time and effort to get better: We want more power. We want more endurance. We want more agility. We want to be more durable. We want […]

Premiere: Fernand Cortez

Tonight we premiere our production of Gaspare Spontini’s Fernand Cortez, ou La conquête du Mexique at Opernhaus Dortmund. This is after a two year delay; originally we were to have premiered this in 2020, but history intervened. There are many versions of this opera floating around, and we are doing a version that has – […]

Premiere: Frédégonde

Here’s one I’ve been looking forward to for awhile. Tonight at Opernhaus Dortmund, we’re premiering Frédegonde for the first time in Germany. It’s a work inspired from the early history of the Merovingians in what is now France and the ongoing feud between two of the queens, Brunhild and Frédegonde. The work was composed by […]

“Ständchen” by Schubert, Guitar and Voice Arrangement

Here is a performance of my self accompanied guitar arrangement of Franz Schubert’s “Ständchen”.

PREMIERE: Tosca

Tonight at Opernhaus Dortmund, we’re premiering our “Tosca”, which is the first premiere including the chorus since March 13, 2020.

Copyright © 2023 · WordPress