SINGING IN THE WESTERN ART MUSIC TRADITION: AN OVERVIEW

At the beginning of the third millennium, the variety of singing accorded the highest status in countries within the Western sphere of influence remains that employed by opera singers. Historically, opera is a European phenomenon which has taken root in most of the former colonies of the old British, French and Spanish empires as well as continuing to flourish in all of the individual countries of Europe itself. The singing has transcended national boundaries but retained its essential European-ness in a world teeming with other vocal varieties. The high status of opera in most world capitals generally ensures a well-organised infrastructure and the genre is traditionally supported by similarly well-funded national pedagogical institutions. No other variety of singing has embedded itself in the various national musical psyches to such an extent, though many countries have a form of national music that may have a wider appeal and much rock music comes close to the status of classical music in its seriousness of purpose.

The origins of this success can be traced back over several millennia. Many of the great world singing traditions share a common ancestry, which is hinted at in tomb paintings and inscriptions across a band of latitude north of the equator and south of the Tropic of Cancer. We know almost nothing about the nature of these types of singing but they are assumed to be monophonic – that is to say the essence of the music was conceived as pertaining to the sounds produced by one single instrument or voice without harmony as we would now understand it. The music was not written down, but was probably generated by a mixture of improvisation, memory and formulaic repetition and very much defined by the individual poet-singer who uttered it. Singing in the context of religious rituals may well have required chanting by groups of people singing the same material simultaneously. This mode of singing was a crucial part of Christian rituals as the religious sect transformed itself from a branch of Judaism to a supranational religious and administrative structure.