Juergen Wendler

Singing and Science

Juergen Wendler, Berlin

Still, an old debate is going on if professional singing requires profound knowledge of how it works, or not — art by science or art just on its own? There is, certainly, no universal answer. But, a whole lot of distinguished singers cannot help searching for the reasons of extraordinary voice production. They want to understand, in particular, when they are teaching. The lecture will refer to some of them. Starting out from Manuel Garcia (who was blamed for his “marrote scientifique”!) attention will be paid to the work of outstanding personalities having excelled both in performing arts as well as in scientific elaborations, like Dušan Cvejic, Rolf Leanderson, Donald Miller, Wolfgang Pfau, Wolfram Seidner, Johan Sundberg, Ingo Titze, Tran Quang Hai, William Vennard, and Erkki Vilkman. One focus will be the controversies about the principles of voice production as provoked by Raoul Husson and his revolutionary ideas, another emphasis is put on the influence of the vocal tract on the formation of the sound of the voice. Both of these topics offer the opportunity of referring to the basic contributions of the Groningen voice research pioneers Janwillem van den Berg and his scholar Harm Schutte whose retirement provides the splendid frame of this noble meeting. A couple of video and audio clips will contribute to a kaleidoscopic compilation of a series of selected fragments representing the fascinating field of the human voice, in admiration of the artists’ performances as well as the scientists’ endeavours, and in deep respect for the unexplainable miracles reflected in vocal behaviour.

Prof. Dr. med. Juergen Wendler
An der Wuhlheide 230 E
D – 12459 Berlin
Phone: +49 (30) 424 70 25
Email: juergen.wendler@charite.de