26 Italian Songs and Arias: Medium High Voice

by John Glenn Paton

Book Overview

This authoritative edition of the world's most loved songs and arias draws on original manuscripts, historical first editions, and recent research by prominent musicologists to meet a high standard of accuracy and authenticity. Includes fascinating background information about the arias and their composers, as well as a singable rhymed translation, a readable prose translation, and a literal translation of every single word. This title is available...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 088284489X
• ISBN13: 9780882844893
• Release Date: March 1991
• Publisher: Alfred Music
• Length: 152 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 8.9" x 11.7"

Customer Reviews

Ideal Singing Investment

This is a great collection of early Italian songs. Unlike the 24 Italian Songs and Arias published by Schirmer, this anthology consists of original historically accurate versions of the songs,as the composer wrote them. The other book has arrangements of the songs that were not at all what the composer had written. Furthermore, this book provides pages of biographical data of the composer, the source of the work, and what the work is about. Plus, it includes a word by word translation and phonetic symbols to help pronounce the Italian text. Beyond that, the songs also have a non literal translation that makes more sense to an English native, and there is a singable text in English as well. Beyond all that, there is an appendix on Italian Singing and pronunciation. Moreover, having it with the CD makes hearing how the accompaniment sounds, as well as the feel of the piece very accessible if you do not have a pianist with you, do not have piano skills youself, or do not even have a piano! This is an ideal investment for all singers.

Yes!

Get this book if you are taking voice lessons or aspiring to be an opera singer/star. This is the book. The arrangements in the Yellow book--"24 Italian Songs and Arias" are really bad. Don't waste your time. Just get this one. However if you need the sheet music to "Pieta, Signore" get the yellow one as well.~Adele

Great Book

The accompanyment CD is TOO FAST! However Cecilia Bartoli's CD- If you Love Me- contains 6 or 7 of the best arias if you are intersted in hearing vocals.

5 Starts But With a Qualification

I own both this 26 song book/Cd as well as the 24 song book/CD from John Keene and Schirmer. I use the John Paton 26 song version in order to read the excellent one page introductions it provides for each song.. However my singing teacher feels that the piano accompaniments in the Paton book are pretentious, and he prefers the piano accompaniments in the Keene/Schirmer book. So, I use the CD and music from the Schirmer book but I do my research via the Paton book. The Keen/Schirmer book has a lot less melody ornamentation than the John Paton book. In my opinion, which is the opinion of a beginner, the ornamentation added to the melody in the John Paton book is excessive and is also confusing in that he never explains how to reconcile all the little notes he added, to the larger font melody notes that often seem to be at odds with the tinier notes. What is deeply, desperately need, I strongly feel, is a recording of tenors, sopranos, and baritones actually singing all 24 (or 26) of these songs! Please, if anyone knows of the existance of such as recording, post it in a user review. It would be a tremendous help. Also, note that in both the Keene/Schirmer version and the John Paton version, the piano accompaniment often does not include the melody. So, it can be "dicey" when trying to learn one of the songs to figure out the melody if the only resource available is the accompanying CD. Personally, I record the melodies into a sequencer program on my PC via a midi attached digital keyboard, but the average singer is not likely to have the technical expertise to do that. It would have been very helpful if the accompanying CD's had recorded each song twice, the second time with the melody superimposed on top of the accompaniment. My singer teacher tells me that these 24 (or 26) songs are the "bible" among singing students. Thus, a singing student really has no choice but to buy at least one of these two editions.

A must for students at all levels

This book updates the 100-year old Schirmer edition of 17th and 18th century Italian Songs and Arias, used for 4 generations by most serious students of singing in all English-speaking countries. Paton's edition is into in the Schirmer edition, adds optional (and appropriate) vocal ornaments, and simplifies the accompanying harmonies. Paton's edition is also more useful to singers, as it contains three different translations of each song (word-for-word, singable, and the underlying emotional idea), and it transcribes all text into the international phonetic alphabet. The page layout is attractive. I use my copy every day.