Vocal Mastery

Harriette Moore BrowerProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 318K words
Chapters: 32

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Vocal Mastery by Harriette BrowerAuthor: Brower, Harriette, 1869-1928,Language: English, Class: MT: Music: Musical instruction and study, Composition, Release Date: Mar 23, 2005

Editor's review

A classic instructional guide in vocal study, by Harriette Brower, active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with a long-standing focus on singing pedagogy and vocal training. The book addresses core issues such as vocal production, breath control, resonance, and expressive singing, in clear, well-organized language, making it a methodological reference for vocal students with sufficient English reading ability. Its value lies not in quick-fix techniques but in helping readers build a systematic understanding of voice training and grasp the principles behind practice. Many of the fundamental issues discussed remain instructive today for students of bel canto, Chinese national, and popular singing alike. It is best read as a guidebook to be worked through slowly with practice alongside, not a theory book to skim once; use it together with actual vocal exercises and teacher guidance to avoid self-correction based on text alone.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Vocal students who want a systematic understanding of vocal production, breath, and resonance
Music teachers or choral directors seeking supplementary English-language vocal pedagogy references
Singing enthusiasts with some English who want to check their practice methods themselves
Music majors using it as extracurricular reading alongside voice lessons

Not a good fit for

Complete beginners with limited English reading, who will struggle with the terminology
Readers seeking quick-fix popular singing techniques or short-term results
Those who want to rely on the book alone without actual vocal practice
Readers looking for systematic music theory or ear-training content

Reading tips

Read the table of contents first, mark chapters relevant to your own vocal issues, then read those closely as needed
After each section, do five minutes of actual vocal practice to sense what the book describes
Note unfamiliar technical terms and clarify them with a teacher or dictionary rather than forcing your way through
Use alongside a voice teacher, treating the book's methods as reference points for class discussion

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book suitable for complete beginners with no vocal foundation?

The book is aimed at readers with some vocal study background and discusses vocal methods and training principles. Complete beginners may not fully grasp the terminology and intent of the exercises; it is better to start with a voice teacher and use this as supplementary reading.

Are the methods in the book still applicable today?

The fundamental issues it covers, such as breath, resonance, and vocal placement, are common concerns in vocal training, and the basic principles remain instructive. It is not, however, a modern vocal medicine or popular-singing textbook; readers should weigh it against current teaching systems and their teacher's advice.

Is the English original difficult to read?

The book is in English in an instructional style, with sentence structures that are not complex but with considerable vocal terminology. Readers at college English reading level can work through it with a dictionary and should build a glossary as they read.

Comments

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About the author

Harriette Moore Brower Author · American · 1869–1928

Harriette Brower (1869–1928) was an American music writer and teacher. Public information about her early life and education is limited; she is chiefly known as a writer on music for a general readership. She long introduced celebrated pianists and singers through interviews and biographies, writing with an emphasis on readability and accessibility rather than on abstruse discussion of professional technique. Three of her works are held in this collection: Piano Mastery, Vocal Mastery, and The World's Great Men of Music. They focus respectively on the experience and views of keyboard and vocal masters and on narrative lives of musicians, addressing ordinary readers and music students. Such books helped bridge the professional music world and the public in the early twentieth century, allowing readers to learn about musical art and performance through the words of distinguished artists.