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).
