La ‘maschera’ e l’‘affondo’

Storia e analisi di due tecniche vocali foniatriche

One of the most widespread clichés in the singing world holds that the "maschera" is a vocal technique for amplification of sound aimed at enhancing the acoustic component of brilliance and "projection," and that it was invented in Italy at the very birth of opera. Another cliché holds that the "affondo" is a "turbo" vocal technique aimed at enhancing the roundness and power of the sound, and that it was invented in Italy in the first half of the twentieth century. The first of these clichés has been embraced (and passed off as historical fact) by authoritative scholars and historians of singing, while the second has been embraced (and passed off as scientific fact) by authoritative exponents of what is now known as "artistic phoniatrics" or "vocology." The reality, as this book demonstrates based on precise historical and physical-acoustic evidence, is quite different, revealing a completely different picture of the nature, development, and relationship of these two vocal techniques to what has gone down in history as the vocal technique par excellence, the Italian bel canto technique. Ultimately, it turns out that this has remained the true technical-vocal foundation of the greatest singers throughout the history of singing, and that, compared to this, the "mask" and the "affondo" reveal themselves for what they truly are: two mechanistic deviations of opposite meaning.