10/06/2017
The Essential ‘Imposto’ - what is it? Why do we need it?
Article by Cathy Pope
www.cathypope.com
The imposto is that which stretches the palate forward and lifts and helps to widen it using the muscles either side and under the nostril. it is essential for that ‘ng’ ring which supplies what is sometimes called the ‘fila da voce’ or silver thread between the notes and is essential ingredient to supply the upper formants in the sound of the singer. Without it Belcanto and Verismo singing will not have the correct style or ease. It is only possible for the classical singer to find a satisfactory flexing open throat from the imposto.
A voice cannot get to the ring without an open throat. The throat is much more likely to open if the imposto is applied correctly. This is because an open throat is a forward throat and the pull forward of the nostril with the tongue forward and wider under it in the imposto, helps achieve that.
Actually to be exact the ‘ng’ ring is not the English ‘ng’ but rather to be more precise the Italian ‘gn’ as in the Italian word ‘ bisogno’ which is the tongue tip under the top teeth, just about visible from the front, and then say ‘n’ with the tongue edges wide across sticking out either side of the teeth. The tongue should be sticking out either side towards the inside of the inner cheek. Use only this front portion of tongue to pronounce the ‘n’. All the tongue behind that must start sloping to go down the throat, wide. The tongue tip must be used with the width of the tongue.
The tongue in the mouth is called the Tongue Body it goes back to join the Tongue Root which goes under the tongue body to the front of the chin. Where the two meet forms the front of the throat under the back teeth. This meeting place of the body and root must be stimulated to flex forward and wide. I use the word flex because I am hoping to imply that it is not stuck position. To flex there must be a little release. Learning to sing is all about flex and release and using opposing muscles. It is never about being stuck
If a singer can learn an economy of movement with the tongue near the ‘gn’ they will find that the tongue hardly needs to leave this place to pronounce anything. The words will be clear and the throat will never shut on the consonants. The voice will be exquisitely produced and the meaning of the music will come alive because the singer will not be covering up the fact that the throat space is changing every second, by over emoting etc and stopping the breath in the process.
It is possible to describe the muscles of the imposto reasonably accurately in writing I guess but, when singers are in the room, everything must be adapted individually, It is an ongoing learning curve. Once they see what it is and how they can play with it, they can make it their own. I need to show them, for instance, what voce chiusa is, to help them open with the back teeth by the jaw joint instead of blowing out the front of the mouth all the time.
With the following explanation, I am trying to give a taste of it. Whether anyone can understand this from me writing this article I do not know, seeing as nearly every young singer and most professional singers arrive in my studio having never heard of this fundamental principle, and even if they have there is uncertainty how to use it.
So I would like to suggest, going through the following stages to get some kind of feel for what the imposto is.
1 the palette lifted by the top lip going straight forward away from the top lip. That is forward and not down and not up. The forward push of the lip must come from in front of and by your ears and it will squeeze the flesh between you open teeth under your cheekbones, in-between your teeth inside your mouth. The apples of the cheeks should not be lifted from under the eyes as that always lifts the larynx. (The apples of the cheeks only look lifted because they are pushed up from underneath). The back of the neck needs to be completely relaxed and the head balanced freely. The lower jaw must not be pushed back but rather let it be slightly open. I I say this because if the jaw is deliberately back, the singer has no option but to lift the apples of the cheeks to get lift. This will always tighten the tongue. The opposite is jaw thrust forward, also not helpful. Jaw thrust needs the back of the neck to tense and squeeze, to help it thrust forward. Not a good idea at all. So, the neck must release to allow the lower jaw to find its easy place under the upper jaw. So, having said what it is and what it isn’t! If you can send your top lip forward perhaps you can sense a lift in your palate and a pulling forward in the roof of your mouth! Try flexing and releasing this. Using the body in singing is all about flexing in a coordination, it is not about holding.
2 The above is all good but too much lift pulls the sides of the throat in. So, we need some width. Put your finger on the top of where a wide moustache would be. With your lips still pulled forward, and pull the moustache reflex wide. This area will go up slightly as well when you do this. This flexion helps to stimulate width in the palate and tongue and throat. Keep the flesh in-between your teeth under the cheek bone though. That is essential. You will feel like that is opposing this movement. This is good! Try flexing and releasing this. Singing is all about flexing and releasing in a coordination. It is not about holding. You never need to put the sound there or push the sound through the bone. If the throat is open it will get there. Rather I could describe it in this way. The sound constantly reflects from the top of the front teeth and hard palate back into the mouth.
3 keeping the voice forward. Having experimented with the above movements put your index and middle finger in the little raised bit at the bottom of each nostril, with the instructions of 1 ad 2 in place, pull the this forward. You will feel as if the top of your mouth inside moves forward and even the hard palate will feel forward and wide at the same time. It will take over a bit from the lip pulled forward. Try flexing and releasing this. you might realise that even your hard palate feels pulled forward. Using the body in singing is all about flexing and releasing in a coordination. It is not about holding. Because the soft palate is reflexive you can control it directly satisfactorily. Sometimes I say to a singer experiment with feeling what is going on in the heard palate instead. Feel the stretch forward and lift and widening there.
The lower jaw must feel wide underneath and must not feel bunched. There is tongue underneath right there. if you are not sure what I mean, look at some anatomy about the body and root of tongue look at some anatomy pictures on line. If the tongue underneath is bunched and narrow you will not be able to use the tongue wide in the mouth. Look at some anatomy if you do understand this statement. If the tongue is towards the Italian ‘GN’ then the back of the tongue body will release down and curl around into the tongue root forward. If the tongue pulls back or bunches the throat is shut. It does not have to held there. you can go back and forth to it as you see Siepe do in the clip below.
There is much misunderstanding about how to open the jaw. The muscles at the sides must be responsible for the opening of the jaw because the jaw joint is at the side, obviously. Some singers pull their jaw back with the root of the tongue. This will always produce some restriction in the sound. The muscles at the side of the jaw also help to keep the tongue floating wide as well as control the jaw. You cannot control the tongue efficiently buy just controlling the tongue directly because the ‘crying’ muscles need to be used! You cannot ‘keep’ anything with singing. The jaw needs to flex open and release the other way in a flexion. I could liken all these things to a claissical ballet dancer’s arms. They look soft and beautiful but it is not completely released or floppy or tight either. This in just the same way applies to all the muscles of the face and body while singing.
For a correct understanding of Voce Chiusa, the jaw needs to flex open at the joint where the back teeth are so that the teeth open inside even though from the front the lips are not very open. The tongue to be able to go towards the imposto whenever it needs to. In this way we can hum in a way that allows a very small amount of air. This air strangely feels as though it comes out at the bottom of the nostril. The nostril is pulled forward off the bone there, which makes a resonance in the bone. This is the silver thread that goes between the notes and must not be interrupted by the consonants. I do not recommend a singer to look for resonant in a nasal way in the bridge of the nose or forehead. Once you start putting the voice in these places deliberately, the throat will close in some unhelpful way. I never teach that the sound should come out the top of your head. Voce Chiusa is singing inside. A singer should never push sound out forward of the mouth or anywhere outside.
If the throat is forward and wide in the middle of the voice, the top will go easily so long as the head goes very slightly a little forward and up above the upper passaggio (the very high break at top C in coloraturas and high tenors - I am not talking about that here). The imposto I have described is what happens when we cry or has that satisfying yawn that allows the breath to go right down. It puts the squillo on top of the voice with all the depth under it.
There is nothing natural about singing classical music as it requires a heightened sensibility and a very open throat, especially for the English, who speak with a very shut throat and pulled back tongue. A lot of great young British voices never manage to sort themselves out because they do not understand how to get the movements they need with the tongue and jaw. The English language is very stuck and pulled tight up into the jaw joint, the tongue gets pulled back too. The French and Spanish are tight too usually. Of course, anyone with a forward language has an advantage. Look at the Russian Language, it is very forward. Therefore, their throats are more open because they are much more likely to do things the right way around for classical singing although they are find it more difficult to keep the breath go through for some reason as the voice matures. The right way around is to control the tongue from underneath and control the jaw from the side, around the joint. It is the first essential for the top-class Verdi singer. There are hardly any of these singers today. It is essential for great belcanto/verssimo singing. Look at some clips below
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3nO8LrZjRU Tezier you can see and hear that ‘gn’ over the notes and allow the width in the tongue and without bunching his jaw back unduly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zezMbmgbmmM
You can see how Siepe uses the imposto and flexes his tongue forward. You can see it there floating forward when he feels he needs to send it out of the way perfectly clearly. He does not need to keep the tongue anywhere but rather to send it forward out of the way from time to time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zc5exCTscg Callas was trained voce chiusa and on the imposto, you can see it well here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn8DHzbPgVU look at Scotto on this clip. Look at 7.23 you can clearly see her use of the jaw to gently nestle the voce chiusa inside to release the tongue wide. You can see the flexion of the imposto.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ0OZMGiFJo even at this late stage of her career how Scotto could still put an audience under the spell of this silver thread of the imposto. 9.16 minutes in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_1AqPVqH80 the great Jussi Bjorling you can see and hear it
Imposto Part 2
Balancing the registration in vowels and exercises.
(I do not think it will help to read Part 2 of this article unless you have read part 1)
Different vowels pull us different ways when we sing. We can use the imposto muscles to encourage a balanced sound and an open throat. The imposto is always at the bottom of the nose and on the lip and hard palate. Nasality is not helpful. Nasality and the imposto must not be confused.
Using the 3 descriptions in the 1st part of this article I can illustrate what I mean
The vowel ‘i’ as in the English word ‘eat’ pulls the mouth and palate we can balance with number 2.
‘u’ as in the English word hoot and ‘o’ as in the English word ‘hot’ make the mouth and tongue narrow we can also balance with number 2. It is in fact like a French ‘in’ feeling.
‘e’ as in the English word ‘met’ pulls the mouth and tongue back and up, so we need 1 and 3 to predominate.
‘a’ as in the word ‘cart’ pulls the palate down wide a flat and back. So we need lots of 1 and 3.
When the singer is in head the voice does not come away from the imposto but the sound appears to feel like it is shifting in different places in the head for the soprano b Flat is on the hair line and C out the top of the head for instance. But you do not have to put it there. It just goes. Ruth Packer my teacher at the Royal College taught me that, also Gwyneth Jones.
Some suggestions for exercises
The imposto over the voiced L. That is leaving the tongue on the hard palate or you can try it touching just under the front teeth. The tongue must be wide. This allows the tongue to release down the throat and not pull up and back into the throat. Some people when they do this will pull the jaw back too far. Rather experiment with the lower jaw under the upper jaw with a very open feeling between the back teeth and a more shut feeling at the front(voce chiusa). Spread the tongue wide, also spread the tongue root wide in the lower jaw. James King, the great helden tenor, explained to me that the root of the tongue must not be bunched but must be open. The muscles between the teeth under the cheek bone should be very switched on pushing in between the teeth by the eye predominately. Everybody is a little different. Perhaps there is some opposing element between this pull in and the pull forward of the imposto and the width across from left to right. If you feel this it is fine. just so long as it is a flexing and not a holding feeling. See if it helps anyway. The tongue must learn to work across work, to flip up at the tip without the back teeth closing or the tongue bunching and pulling backwards into the throat. Some singers, more commonly heavier baritones, find it easier to sing their notes above the upper passaggio with the tongue towards the voiced L on the hard palate. You can see it for instance in Dimitri Hvorostovsky when he was young. Domingo as well. This exercise also helps tongue and lower jaw separation.
Oo-wah is a common way to help a singer start from the imposto. One of my student told me that he heard from a teacher in Berlin that Del Monaco was trained on the loo-wah. It was apparently the only warming up exercise he used. The vowels must be modified as described above. The ‘oo’ will need allot of 2. The ‘ah’ a lot of pull forward as in 2 and 3. The ‘L’ is on the hard palate just behind the teeth.
Lamperti trained on the ‘gn ‘ and the hum endlessly. From the gn the tongue releases only slowly and very slightly to reveal the vowel so that the throat remains the same. Come to think of it you can do it off the voiced ‘L’ as well. This exercise also helps tongue and lower jaw separation.
There is an Italian tradition that trained on the ‘i’ vowel. If the ‘I’ vowel is back as an English person might say it, it is no use at all. it must be trained under the nose in the imposto. Nasality is not helpful. Nasality and the imposto must not be confused. Even a hint of nasality or pushing the sound in the forehead creates squeeze and pressure in aspects of vocalizing even if it works for a time. A really talented voice can take on all sorts of mismanaged concepts till it all comes to grief later. Mismanaged technique does not make a longevity in a career or a magnificent artist no matter how wonderful the raw talent. Some really magnificent voices never even would get off the ground because they needed training to blossom. We have Flagstad ‘s Wagner career because of her teacher Dr Bratt. She had been singing in opera and operettas for 18 years before she made her debut as Isolde because she found Dr Bratt who developed her voice. He trained her using the imposto. Callas teacher was Elvira De Hidalgo who also taught her this concept.
Cathy Pope Singing and Voice Teacher
