And another problem surfaced in time in my work with Lief. Again picking up on an aspect of Armin’s practice, he was taken with the prospects of using the buildup of compression therapeutically, as a means of combating residues of catarrh (in the aftermath of an infection, or of longer standing from bronchial illnesses or asthma) in the vocal tract or even in the lungs. “Staue dich gesund!” (“Stow yourself healthy!”), Armin had urged, to which the rejoinder soon came in the journal edited by his nemesis, the Viennese teacher Otto Iro: “Staue dich krank!” (“Stow yourself sick!”), referring to the presumed condition of the pupil/patient’s voice. Lief once showed me a short newspaper article that cited a testimonial from a Viennese hospital, to the effect that either Armin or Kurzer himself—I wasn’t clear on that—had succeeded in removing a spot from a patient’s lung that medical efforts had failed to access. And I knew one female pupil of Kurzer’s who said that a cupful of vile-smelling, partially crystallized old stuff had been brought up via heavy-duty stowing, and that her breathing had felt much clearer and easier since. So I’m not dismissive of the possible relevance of compression for clearing away some accumulations, although I’d think we have easier methods at hand. For me, though, in my early twenties and with no history of such difficulties, I didn’t really welcome the periodic announcements of “A Schleimkrise!” and the subsequent half-hour of strenuous stowing and grinding that left the voice feeling ragged, and this preoccupation, along with the limitations described above, led to my re-directing my search for practical vocal wisdom.

As you may have guessed, I stayed well away from the Stauprinzip for many years in work with my own voice and then in my teaching. In the past few years, though, I have reconsidered how it might be judiciously applied in certain cases. In a time when we have had, first, the aforementioned drift into the darker/plumper/looser realm, and second, the plunge in vibrato rates traceable (in my opinion) to lower-energy innervations, and a noticeable weakening of “chest” in voices of both sexes, a strengthening of the resistance to airflow in search of respiratory balance, when coupled with an accurate understanding of how the respiratory cycle works to begin with, may not always be a bad idea. In particular, I have found it useful when applied at soft volume levels where lighter functions need strengthening, as for example in the segment just above the passaggio in soprano voices, or as a step toward in bringing a true mezza-voce out of the falsetto in a tenor or baritone upper range (the same segment, as it happens). The benefit derives, I believe, from the ability to control subglottal compression without having to enlist heavier adjustments of the “cords.” Further testing excursions may turn up other positive results, all in search of efficient engagement of the respiratory leg of our Triune Balance.

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References. To previous posts, a few among many with specific technical discussion: