15 Easy Folksong Arrangements for the Progressing Singer

American Music Teacher, April-May, 2005 by Patrick K. Freer

15 Easy Folksong Arrangements for the Progressing Singer (High Voice), edited by Richard Waiters. Hal Leonard Corporation (7777 W. Bluemound Rd., P.O. Box 13819, Milwaukee, WI 53213), 2004. 64 pp. and CD. $16.95. Beginning to intermediate.

15 Easy Folksong Arrangements presents melodies familiar to voice teachers, with accompaniments that are supportive, challenging and delightfully surprising. The accompaniments are designed to begin by doubling the melody line of the singer and then gradually withdrawing that support in subsequent verses. The songs presented in this volume are American/European in origin, and the texts are in English. A low-voice edition is available, and the two editions make this volume accessible to teachers of beginning to intermediate students, from high school through college to adulthood.

This volume includes a CD containing both the full performance and accompaniment-only recordings of each selection. There are a couple concerns with the CD. (Only the "high voice" edition was considered for this review.) First, the performances are by mature singers who possess rich vibratos and occasionally use stylistic techniques not indicated in the music. This is most apparent in the recording of "The Streets of Laredo," in which the singer frequently employs portamento. These performance characteristics may not be the models teachers will want to present to young singers. The second concern is that the full performances are almost always longer than the accompaniment-only versions. As an example, the recordings of "The Ash Grove" differ by nineteen seconds, and most of this can be attributed to the lack of rubato employed in the accompaniment-only versions. One result is the accompaniment-only recordings often do not allow significant time for breaths to occur.

I would not hesitate to use this volume in my studio, but I would use the CD with care. Reviewed by Patrick K. Freer, Atlanta, Georgia.