BREATHING TECHNIQUES IN THE PARIS SINGING TREATISE (MÉTHODE DE CHANT, PARIS, 1803)
BREATHING TECHNIQUES IN THE PARIS SINGING TREATISE (MÉTHODE DE CHANT, PARIS, 1803)

Summary/Abstract: This article tries to identify the breathing techniques proposed in the Paris Singing treatise, published in 1803. The method gives us the description of the respiratory movement practiced by singers before the institutionalization of knowledge according to scientific research. The aim of the French school was to produce a natural tone and to deliver beauty in the act of singing without physical limitations or excesses imposed on the body or voice. We found that the French school aims to respect the length of the sentences and this to the detriment of the quality of the sound emitted. Regarding the physiology of breathing, the method uses analogies with images that allow singers to imagine what is “hidden” in their body, and explain the functioning of different parts, according to the “tasks” assigned to them. The teachers of this method suggest to the practitioner not to think about breathing and uses the term natural breathing, as there is no difference between the breath needed to sing and the breath needed to speak. Their abstraction is that the performer does not think about breathing while speaking, so there is no need for a breathing-oriented thinking process even during singing.

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