(Cambridge University Press, 2012)
While I was editing the Cambridge Companion to Singing I realised that there was room for a book that was not just a history of singing in western art music, but something that also gave a broader picture of the varieties of singing to be found all over the world. The original proposal was for a single-authored book written from my point of view as a singer, but even accepting the fact that such a volume could only scratch the surface of world singing it soon became obvious that the topic was too vast for one author. So I invited the distinguished ethnomusicologist Neil Sorrell to join me, which greatly increased the chances of it getting finished. In fact, neither of us was very good at sticking to the deadlines the very patient CUP gave us, so it still took a very long time.
We haven't owned up to who wrote which bits as we take joint responsibility for all of it. But most of the western bits are mine, and most of the non-western bits are Neil's, as you would expect; some are joint efforts. The most significant areas where we stray into each other's disciplines are Wagner (which is mostly Neil) and the circumnavigations of northern and southern latitudes (many of which are mine).
No singing has an audible history that goes back much further than about 1900 which means that the book is inevitably skewed towards western singing, the history of which continues in written form for many hundreds of years into the past. We've tried to explain how this came about, and to give some idea of the rich varieties to be found elsewhere on the planet. The final chapter consists of a substantial reference section, so that readers can follow up on aspects that interest them as well as some topics that we don't deal with in the main text (we should stress that it's A History, not The Cambridge History of Singing (Cambridge Histories are all multi-authored and of a comprehensiveness that we certainly can't match).
My contributions are written from the point of view of someone who's performed quite a lot of the historical repertoire, and although I've aimed at a historian's objectivity there are some areas which are distinctly coloured by performative subjectivity. With this in mind, I've put together a short Prezi selection of YouTube clips of music I've recorded that (more or less) coincides with particular aspects of the book. It's really intended to draw attention to the fact that I actually do it as well as write about it (or vice-versa, depending on where you're coming from), and is obviously limited by what people have decided to post on the net; there's a complete discography of my stuff here, which obviously covers a great deal of historical music; but you'd have to buy them or listen to them on Spotify or similar. A Google search will of course redress the balance for those who'd like other interpretations.
The Prezi...
Prezi is a bit like Powerpoint, except that all of the slides are on the same canvas and are linked by zooming from one to the other. It works best on full screen. You press the play button to change slides, and you can zoom in or out using the mouse wheel or the side buttons. You might need to hover over the YouTube videos if you can't see the Play button. It goes in chronological order, though you can zoom to the whole canvas and choose your own path.
For example, the earliest relevant music consists of the Red Byrd Leonin recordings, so the first slide has a page reference to Leonin in the book and a YouTube link to a music example. Mostly these are audio only, but the Hilliard Perotin clip enables you to follow the manuscript as the piece is sung. There are also a couple of videos by Mick Lynch (troubadour songs) and part of an Open University film (18th century ornamentation), each with appropriate page references in the book. The CDs referred to are these:
Magister Leoninus: Sacred Music from 12th century Paris
Red Byrd
Helios CDH55328
A Scottish Lady Mass: Sacred Music from Medieval St Andrews
Red Byrd
Hyperion CDA67299
Perotin
Hilliard Ensemble
ECM 1385 837 751-2
Monteverdi: Madrigali concertati
Tragicomedia
Teldec 4509-91971-2
Notenbüchlein für Anna Magdalena Bach
Tragicomedia
Teldec 4509-91183-2
In darkness let me dwell
ECM New Series 169 465 234-2
Care-Charming Sleep
The Dowland Project
ECM New Series 1803 476 052-2
Romaria
The Dowland Project
ECM New Series 1970 476 5780
Berio: A-Ronne, Cries of London
Swingle II
Decca Enterprise 425 620-2