{"id":34962,"date":"2023-11-07T12:26:20","date_gmt":"2023-11-07T11:26:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/9cd69f11-74de-4ac6-9908-411812a9f5e4"},"modified":"2023-11-17T17:41:21","modified_gmt":"2023-11-17T16:41:21","slug":"justina-gringyte-the-secrets-of-singing-mahler","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/justina-gringyte-the-secrets-of-singing-mahler\/","title":{"rendered":"Justina Gringyte: The secrets of singing Mahler"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Justina Gringyte\n <\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 07 November 2023 at 11:26 AM<\/p>

\n\n

Mezzo-soprano Justina Gringyte reflects exclusively for BBC Music Magazine on the joys and challenges of singing Mahler.<\/em><\/p>

‘Mahler is unlike any other composer’<\/h2>
Mahler<\/a><\/strong> is unlike any other composer. I keep returning to him time and time again – just in the last few months I have sung both his epic Eighth Symphony and his unbelievably deep Third Symphony (just released on YouTube, with the Basque National Orchestra conducted by Robert Trevi\u00f1o). Every time it\u2019s a transformative and – I\u2019ll come back to this word later – \u201ccleansing\u201d experience.<\/p>
Which is the best Mahler symphony?<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul>
Mahler loved the mezzo voice, and he gives us so many opportunities as singers. But to really better understand how to sing Mahler\u2019s incredible music, I\u2019ve developed five \u2018golden rules\u2019 that really help me as a mezzo-soprano to dive deeply into his world, and maybe these might also give some insights into not only how we sing Mahler – what he demands \u00a0that we give of ourselves – but how we can all experience his music.\u00a0<\/p>
Five rules for singing Mahler<\/h2>
Rule 1: an unusual preparation<\/h3>
Mahler creates so many effects that rely on tempo<\/a><\/strong> – sudden contrasts, or giving a lot of space in the tempo, or the opposite, suddenly going very fast indeed. This means that you have to know what you\u2019re going to do at all times and be very clear on that side of things. <\/p>
So when I prepare Mahler, I always first prepare at the piano. Piano is quite a percussive instrument, so it clearly marks the tempo for you. Whereas if you rely on the orchestra alone, things can get a bit fuzzy and you can lose your discipline. So: start with the piano.<\/p>
But whereas a singer would usually use a piano score when singing with the piano, which only shows you the singer\u2019s notes and the piano\u2019s notes, when it\u2019s Mahler I need to always have the orchestra in my mind. And that means using a full orchestra score. Because you have to have a sense of how the voice is going to merge with all of those wonderful orchestral effects, and the full scale of the moment, be it massive or hushed. <\/p>
<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Justina Gringyte sings Mahler’s Symphony No 3 with the Basque National Orchestra<\/figcaption><\/figure><p>Sometimes it’s even like singing chamber music, with just a handful of instrumentalists, rather than the whole massive orchestra, playing alongside you. So – sing with the piano, but work with the full score! Which is actually a kind of Mahlerian contrast in itself!<\/p><h3 id=\"h-rule-2-become-the-colour\">Rule 2: Become the colour<\/h3><p>Practising at home is important, but it\u2019s only when you hear the orchestra that you actually sing Mahler. It\u2019s not just that your ears hear it, but your body also internalises the remarkable colours that emerge on stage, and it understands at a very deep level that your own voice is not separate to that, it must emerge from within it. <\/p><p>With Mahler there is a certain sound, and you have to meld together with it, become one with it. You\u2019re not a soloist being accompanied, and your vocal colour must be dictated by the colours of the orchestra. It must never be about you, about your vocal line. It\u2019s about everyone and everything resonating on the highest level possible.<\/p><h3 id=\"h-rule-number-3-the-vocal-part-is-often-the-heart\">Rule number 3: The vocal part is often the heart<\/h3><p>Mahler often introduces the mezzo voice at the heart of the symphony. I mean that in both senses, that it can be structurally in the centre (as with the Third Symphony) and everything is constructed around that moment, and also that it\u2019s the heart in the sense that the voice gets to the deepest message, to what he wanted to convey and what he was feeling in the piece.<\/p><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/artists\/20-greatest-sopranos-all-time\"><strong>The greatest sopranos of all time<\/strong><\/a><\/li><\/ul><p>So you carry Mahler’s most precious and meaningful ideas, about the universe, life, loss, love, death, eternity itself; It feels like everything when you sing it. To get to that place as a performer one must always be very aware of what comes before and (if there is an afterwards!) what comes afterwards. The heart is intrinsically connected to the rest, and defined by it, and it all exists together.<\/p><p>Mahler often quietens everything down before the entrance of the voice, and this can come after even after a whole hour of waiting for your cue! It’s a dramatic moment, visually (as you rise to stand and sing) and vocally, because Mahler makes it dramatically obvious just before you come in, that something very different is about to happen. <\/p><p>And yet, amazingly, the singer’s entrance is usually not a hard attack, but something that emerges softly almost imperceptibly, as if out of a mist. It’s very mysterious and very solemn, soft and contemplative like the shining of a candle in a dark space. That is a huge moment, and a huge responsibility for a singer to take on, but we must also take it on, move everything further to a very deep place. And we must do it without any vocal ‘special effects’, just by being vulnerable and honest and ourselves.<\/p><h3 id=\"h-rule-4-the-text-is-more-than-the-text\">Rule 4: The text is more than the text<\/h3><p>The text is the text, but I believe Mahler wants us to understand what\u2019s behind the text, or more, what is the point of the text. <\/p><p>I’ve noticed that great Mahler conductors are always very profound and often well-read people. And that\u2019s not surprising, because Mahler needs us to understand the philosophy, the subtext, social and religious context, a whole view of the world, even of the universe, that lie behind the words. <\/p><p>So as a performer you need to try to know about as much of this as you can, to try to awaken your inner philosopher! Because if you don\u2019t deeply understand the text, how can you convey it to the audience.<\/p><h3 id=\"h-rule-5-it-s-not-about-you-but-it-is\">Rule 5: It’s not about you (but it is)<\/h3><p>Singing Mahler is all about being exposed. Exposing yourself to the tremendous sense of awe that he can create with just a few notes, to the way he holds the sound with no frames, the way he creates an orchestration of softness, depth, profundity. You have to connect with his sound-world and in the end there\u2019s only one way to do that – you must bring yourself, your own life experiences and even your soul – but in a way that is without ego.<\/p><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/five-essential-works-mahler\"><strong>Five essential Mahler works<\/strong><\/a><\/li><\/ul><p>Having said that, it\u2019s not a therapy session! Although it is therapeutic, and somehow cleansing. But it’s really about offering all of those things and releasing them into the core of the music, with expectation of getting anything back. There’s no room for shallowness, no room for showing off. It’s the deepest of depths, it’s all-encompassing.<\/p><p>So much for the ‘golden rules’! They prepare you, they get you a certain way along, but then there are those unforgettable moments where Mahler transcends them all. In the Third Symphony for instance, to take one single word, I sing, \u201cOh Mensch!\u201d (\u201coh man\u201d), and Mahler writes for those words to be repeated several times. <\/p><p>What must it mean to me as a singer to sing \u201cOh Mensch\u201d?\u00a0When I find myself standing before an audience of thousands, with the orchestra behind me, and I say these naked and strong words? Am I calling out to all of humanity – to mankind? And how must it change every time I sing them? There\u2019s so much in these words. Must we all be thinking of our children, our grandparents, our friends, someone who is being born in that moment, or those who have passed? \u201cMensch\u201d.<\/p><p>All of that demands all of you, in the moment, exposed in front of those thousands of people. And when we as performers can offer that, then we might be able to achieve the sense of meditation, the concentration, the energy, to let the sounds – \u00a0and the great natural resonance that Mahler requires – emerge.\u00a0 That Mahlerian resonance, somehow, is our true nature, and what else is Mahler about, for artist and audience, if not life, at its most natural and true?<\/p><ul><li><em>Justina Gringyte is a former International Opera Awards ‘Young Singer Of The Year’, was most recently seen in the UK as Carmen with Scottish Opera, and is currently singing the role of Amneris in Verdi’s Aida with Lithuanian National Opera<\/em><\/li><\/ul> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Justina Gringyte Published: Tuesday, 07 November 2023 at 11:26 AM Mezzo-soprano Justina Gringyte reflects exclusively for BBC Music Magazine on the joys and challenges of singing Mahler. ‘Mahler is unlike any other composer’ Mahler is unlike any other composer. 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