Handel and the Voice Practitioner: Perspectives on Performance Practice and Higher Education Pedagogy

Abstract

This chapter addresses Baroque performance practice through the perspectives of higher education pedagogy and practical applications in the music of a seminal composer of the Baroque period, George Frideric Handel (1685�1759). The account of the data is motivated by the author�s dual role as a vocal pedagogue in tertiary education and professional singer regularly performing the solo tenor repertoire of the Baroque period.

The literature indicates structured pedagogy in historical performance practice within conservatoires and universities in the United Kingdom lags behind the academic methodology of institutional equivalents in North America. The empirical data within the current research supports this phenomenon, suggesting performers emerging from conservatoires and university music departments in the United Kingdom and Australia experience limited formalised academic training in the theoretical and practical constituents of Baroque performance practice.

Following a qualitative research paradigm, the research reports on findings from semi-structured interviews with a range of professional singers. The methodology also employs reflexive practice and draws upon related literature, offering a critical narrative grounded within dominant topics from the data.

The research findings present themes critical to higher education pedagogy. These matters include comparative analysis and discourse upon primary and secondary sources, and tuition in oratorical vocal practices inherent in the affective performance of Baroque vocal music. The study also suggests the function of the performer-teacher fulfils a significant pedagogic role in student: instructor dialogue, while evaluative listening in the context of recordings and experiential scenarios in choral singing present vigorous academic applications.