1 THE ART OF ACCOMPANIMENT AND THE WORK OF THE REPETITEUR The role of the accompanist and the repetiteur

is often regarded as inferior to other roles for a pianist, especially in SA. I am not going to try to explain or defend the essential importance of this kind of work, but I would like to try to give you some insight into my career as accompanist and repetiteur and concentrate on the various aspects of this profession. For the talented piano student there are different divisions within the professional market. First of all, the concert pianist - though very few students get that far because of the high standards and the fierce competition. Then of course the music teacher, which is by far the most common career for music students. Lastly, the career of the repetiteur and accompanist. The latter can be divided into the accompanying of instruments and singers, and the unique tutorial role of the repetiteur. The difference between the accompanist and the rep is the teaching element. The rep. will work mostly in an opera house or an institution where opera students study. The training of both accompanist and repetiteur with regards to piano playing is basically the same. In both cases the requirements will be an excellent piano technique with all the aspects of music training. But at the professional stage it will be required of the accompanist. to have more refined technique, shading and especially the ability to melt with the singer. The rep. will concentrate more on the teaching aspects, such as preparing the singer to absolute perfection regarding intonation, rhythm, phrasing, style and interpretation. Very few aspiring accompanists can aspire to being solely a concert accompanist or repetiteur. , especially in SA that only needs to accompany the art song. In the first part of my talk, I would like to compare the work of the repetiteur. and the accompanist. with regards to singers. THE REPETITEUR The ideal abilities of the rep. Are good teaching skills, lots of patience, good technique and tuition. Most of all, excellent sight reading is important and perhaps also the ability to transpose a passage or two. I would not recommend transposing on sight- it could be dangerous! It is important to be able to highlight the most important notes in a piano reduction of an orchestra score. Sometimes the reductions are so unpianistic that it is impossible to play all the notes. Thats when I will recommend that the rep. listens to a recording and identify the most important lines that the singer will hear. The work of the rep. usually starts with auditions, especially in a training facility. It is not uncommon to have 50-100 auditions in an opera school or, as we have, the training facility in the BTE VO1SS. This is also where excellent sightreading ability will help a lot. There is no time to work with a singer beforehand or even look at the music. When the singer comes in and hands over his music, the rep must play!! I have played 1000s of auditions and it can be nerve racking, and sometimes even funny. Once I had the experience of a singer walking into the room with a CD in his hand and calmly telling me to go and listen to the recording and then play for him. Since then we ve made a rule that no singer can enter the audition room without sheet music. We must remember that most singers especially in SA discover that they have a beautiful voice at the age of 15 or 16 or even later, and then decide to have a career as an opera singer. Such a singer will have no music training. We would then advise that such a singer has to receive basic music training, such as piano playing, which incorporates also the reading of notes, theory, music history, languages and so on. In an institution like the trainee facility of the BTE VO1SS and opera schools the singers will automatically get all these classes. However, it takes a long time before the singer is capable to teach himself an aria or a more complicated opera role.

2 The most important work of the rep. then will be to prepare the singer for a concert or a role in an opera. I call this bashing or pumping in the notes. Nowadays most singers have cell phones with a recording function. I usually then ask the singer to take out the phone and I record the melody. I will play the melody with my right hand and play the basic rhythm with my left hand. This is a faster way of working because it is simply impossible for a singer to play his melody in a key (for example A flat major) with perhaps difficult rhythms. Remember, the majority of singers we train do not know the difference between a crotchet and a quaver or an A or B on the piano when they join us. Once the singer knows the notes the actual work starts. The second most important aspect is the language. Mostly the singer will have to sing in a foreign language, of which Italian is the most common. It is therefore of the utmost importance that the rep. knows the languages that the singers are likely to use. It is hard to be fluent in Italian, German and French, but it is expected of the rep. to be able to pronounce all the languages perfectly. If I have to prepare singers for an opera I usually find a translation and write it in. Singers should know the exact translation of every word they are singing and I expect them to translate every word. It is no problem to find translations on the internet. In this way the singer will understand what he is singing and the words will come alive! Now the singer has to be taught the musical aspects of the aria such as phrasing, breathing, dynamics etc. Of course some singers who have natural musical instincts will work faster and easier than others, but the rep will have to keep a close eye on all these aspects. Particularly important are the introductions and interludes. Sometimes one has to play the introductions many times before the singer has it in his memory. The singer has to know exactly where to breathe. There is no such thing as breathing on instinct this takes a lot of training and rehearsal. In most cases, a singer should also have a few emergency breathing spots for the performances where everything does not go according to plan. Teach the singer to strive for perfection! Note values should be obeyed and entries should always be perfect, especially in opera. The singer should rather shorten the last note of a phrase, breathe and then be on time for the next entry. Teach the singer to underline his part. This helps a lot, especially in ensemble work. When a singer is preparing a role in an opera role it is of vital importance that the rep is able to sing-in the other roles. In that way the singer learns to hear the other parts and knows what to expect when all the singers get together for the ensemble rehearsal. This is quite a job the other roles might be that of a bass or a coloratura. Just sing within a comfortable range, as long it is on pitch and rhythmically correct! If a rep finds it difficult to sing then I would advise that he plays the other parts. The singer can of course also listen to recordings to get the whole musical picture. Also teach the singer to mark. That is to sing only softly until he knows the part and then sing full voice. Never allow the singer to sing full voice all the time. That will result in losing the voice too early. Some singers can also concentrate on one thing at a time. In such cases work on one thing and after he has mastered one problem, tackle the next one. The singer should also be encouraged to learn the parts of his fellow singers. In a Mozart recitative, which is actually conversation, it is essential to know what the other singer is saying to be able to react in the correct way. Not all the singers have good ears. Some pick up a tune very easily but others struggle to find the pitch. In the last case, it is best to make the singer aware of what he will hear in the accompaniment, or to which instrument he has to listen in the orchestra. He can for instance also listen to what a fellow singer sings just before he enters, and get the pitch from a certain note in the phrase before he sings.

3 Once the singer is note perfect, the rep should teach him all about the character of the role he is preparing. Ideally the singer should do the research himself, but if the rep has the experience the rep can just contribute to the success of the singer by assisting with the interpretation. Interpretation is of vital importance. Teach the singer to listen to various recordings, but in the end come to his own interpretation of a role. Thats why the singer should start long before the time so that a role can grow on him. Then a singer should work on the whole role daily. (Sing the role in). It is one thing to sing an aria or ensemble from an opera, but it is a different matter to sing a whole role. A singer should know where he can save his voice, and not sing full blast all the time. Every singer should have a singing teacher for voice production. It is not the task of the rep to teach the singer any singing techniques. The rep should also work very closely with the singing teacher and never interfere with the technique. If a singer has a problem with for instance a high note, I will tell him to go to the singing teacher with the problem and ask for help. Also work closely with the teacher in the choice of repertoire. Never choose an aria for a singer without consulting the singing teacher. In the coaching of an art song, the procedure is exactly the same as in the coaching of an aria. But in the art song the text is even more important as the singer has only the text, the melody and a piano accompaniment. No fellow singers on stage, no costumes or a conductor. The singer is on his own, and thats why he has to know the meaning of each word, every nuance, the atmosphere of the piece etc. Here the rep can help him to choose the correct key and songs that is suitable for his voice. Please make sure that a male singer doesnt choose a song that is really meant to be sung by a woman, or vice versa. A rep should also know the personalities of the singers they work with. Singers are human beings and artists and no one is the same. Some really need to be handled with gloves and other can take a bashing. The rep that works in an opera house or training institution will often have to be the replacement for the orchestra in floor rehearsals before the orchestra joins. If these rehearsals start before the conductor joins, the rep will have to be in charge of the music. Sometimes it will be necessary to play with one hand and conduct with the other, or play with both hands and conduct with the head to help singers find their entries. Not easy, I promise you! Once the conductor joins the rep will become the orchestra and totally subordinate to the conductor. The rep should be flexible and play exactly as the conductor conducts. Singers often want to sing how they feel, and a good rep will mostly also be a good accompanist and will want to go with the singer. Never ever do that. Go with the conductor and never try to rub your musical instincts off on the conductor. A conductor might have a totally different interpretation of tempi or any other aspect of the music than the rep, but in the end the conductor stands in front of the orchestra and everyone has to follow him. However, most conductors are not monsters and if a singer really has problems with, say, a tempo, speak to the conductor and come to some sort of agreement. Ive now spoken a lot about the work of a rep. The question can arise how exactly does one learn all of this? The answer of course is: talent , study, hard work, devotion and experience. No one is born with experience, but it helps a piano student who is looking in the direction of working with singers to listen from an early stage to recordings of good singers, go to concerts and accompany for eisteddfods and fellow students.

4 In the end the rep can be seen as an extra pair of ears, or sounding board, for the singer. His or her job is to encourage and train the singer to be as good as they can be on the night, and forms an integral part of the singers performance. As such, working as an accompanist can be very rewarding when the target performance is reached and the singer outperforms his/herself. THE ACCOMPANIST. The concert pianist is very seldom a good accompanist and is also mostly not interested in doing so. Usually the concert pianist will also not have the time for accompaniments. The concert pianist stands alone and can portray his feelings without interference from anyone else. The first requirement of the accompanist is to be willing to make music with the singer. Sometimes he will have to lead and sometimes have to follow, but it should be teamwork. Youre looking for a symbiotic relationship of instrument and voice. The accompanist should have very good technique. Think of difficult accompaniments like Erlknig by Schubert or Springwaters by Rachmaninoff. These pieces are devilishly difficult and require a very good technique. The accompanist should also be very musical to be able to accompany sensitively and beautifully. Again a very good sightreading ability is advisable, otherwise the workload will be a bit much. A beautiful tone production and variety of touch is essential. The piano should live. Likewise the piano sound should be able to cry, love, rejoice and sing with the singer. Everything to help the singer interpret the text is essential. Accompanists usually play from a score but if there are difficult passages I would advise the accompanist to memorise those passages. Turning of pages could also give problems, but nowadays one can photocopy some pages and stick them together with the others. For big concerts I would suggest one gets a reliable page turner. Sometimes one knows a certain song in a certain key and then the next singer comes and wants it in another key. No solution for that one except to sit down and practise! I find it unfair of a singer to ask one to transpose and I would strongly advise not to do it on sight. There are means today of doing it on music programs on the computer, and I will just tell a singer to pay someone to do it. It takes a lot of time to write it by hand. When an accompanist has to accompany a whole recital or a big exam for a singer, the accompanist. should be very calm, or give the impression that he is calm. Remember, the singer might be nervous. Dont upset him in any way. When one looks at all the requirements that an accompanist has to consider, one should never underestimate the role of the accompanist. In Germany the singer and accompanist are seen as equals in a song recital. In the universities there the singer and accompanist work together and it is called Liedgestaltung which means that the both work together on the interpretation of the song . The accompanying of instruments are even more complicated due to the many sonatas and ensemble work and I think the word accompanist should not be mentioned there, but rather an equivalent title, for example "violin and piano". To conclude: I can look back on a long and rich career of accompanying and coaching that has absorbed every day of my life, and I am still busy doing what I love. Today I have much more experience than 40 years ago but I still learn every day. I dont think I would have exchanged this career for anything in the world.