Masterclass - Approche de la pratique du chant corse

Discover Corsican singing in all its forms!

Hosted by Jérôme Casalonga, this 1st Scolab masterclass paves the way for a series of immersive training courses, with this first module focusing on the voice. The practice and learning of monodic and polyphonic vocal techniques, improvisation and ornamentation, the handling of a versified text and the mastery of prosody call on a variety of skills that need to be developed in as parallel a way as possible:

- Mastery and knowledge of the voice, in a context that is not linked to a read written source; the aim here is to develop the immediacy of the relationship between the sound the note to be emitted, and the place of the voice, by calling on the acuity of the inner ear, and proceeding by imitation and mimicry.

- Mastering the practice of polyphonic singing as a reminiscence of the practice of the Greek heart in tragedy or great epic tales. Learning individual vocal development surrounded by other voices, and vocal placement with Corsican polyphonic chant as a source, both secular and sacred.

- Study and understanding of the relationship between written source (scores) and sound translation; the aim is to reverse the vocal performance process of the "classical" singer, whose interpretation is conditioned or even confined to the written source.

- Principle of imitation: once these initial technical hurdles have been overcome, the singer's ability to imitate the sound of his or her interlocutor is decisive for the notion of improvisation in the "imaginary discourse", whether melodic, rhythmic, harmonic or timbral. This ability to imitate leads (paradoxically for the beginner) to a gradual acquisition of instrumental, discursive, expressive and emotional freedom.