“The complete singing school” by Alexander Varlamov: French archetype and Italian influence

Abstract

The article defines the historical place of the first vocal treatise “The Complete School of Singing” by Alexander Varlamov, which was published in 1840, in the optics of two dimensions: namely in the circle of pan-European trends of the 19th century; among the tasks of the formation of Russian national composing and performing schools. A contemporary of “The Complete School of Singing” (Méthode complè te de chant, 1840) by Luigi Lablache and “The Complete Treatise on the Art of Singing” (Trattato completo dell’arte del canto, 1840) by Manuel Garcia-son, A. Varlamov’s work fell into the vanguard of the rapidly developing knowledge of the basics of working with voice in the 19th century. The impetus for this development was given by “The Method of Singing” of the Paris Conservatoire in 1804, estimated today in the category of archetype. At the very beginning of the century, the Paris Treatise proposed to educational practice a structure that could easily accommodate in its content the optimal forms of updating knowledge, depending on the needs and tasks of the time. The curator of the commission for the creation of “The Method of Singing” of the Paris Conservatory, the Italian Bernardo Mengozi, contributed to the introduction of the teachings of Italian masters into the French method. The algorithm of assimilation of the Italian experience tested in Paris with assimilation of the fundamental elements of vocalization