Aric Vyhmeister, Executive Music Editor
Dr. John Seesholtz, Co-Author, Currator, Music Editor, IPA & Text editor, Web Designer
Dr. Steven Groth, Co-Author & Currator
The Twenty-Four Italian Songs and Arias are a staple for modern voice teachers as some of the most recognizable pieces in Italian Art Song Literature. What they possess in familiarity, however, they lack in organization, according to the skills needed to master the art of singing. Dr. Seesholtz and Dr. Groth, in the article, "Rethinking the Italian Twenty-Four Songs and Arias: Exploring Classical Vocal Literature Selection Through the Lens of bel canto Technique,” Journal of Singing Vol. 81 n. 5 (May/June, 2025), reorder the original baroque pieces to fit the pedagogic progression advised by the Bel Canto teachers of the 18th and 19th centuries, and have currated a new anthology, “The Bel Canto Twenty-Four Songs and Arias: A Pedagogic Collection.”
These critical editions of the pieces are available here on the Canciones Project Website below.
By providing music in appropriate keys for a wide variety of voices, pedagogical research, performance annotations, translations, phonetic transcriptions, and native speakers - Italian linguistic specialists who demonstrate the diction - these pieces can be approachable to teachers and students alike.
Their article explains that Baroque instrumental idioms are often found in the original collection. These idioms are advanced and do not realistically allow beginning students to sing most efficiently and healthily according to Bel Canto traditions. Dr. Seesholtz and Dr. Groth suggest a better way to serve young students through evidence-based repertoire selection. By scaffolding skills in ascending difficulty through repertoire, teachers can address the fundamentals of bel canto singing more effectively. In this manner, students will spend the vast majority of their time performing music that allows them to be successful and stylistically accurate in the vocal idiom rather than in the instrumental idioms required to perform Baroque music correctly.
Dr. Seesholtz and Dr. Groth, in cooperation with the Canciones Project, have made these works readily accessible and available to voice teachers and voice students below. The authors, therefore, suggest that in the twenty-first century, when repertoire and knowledge are instantly available and at our fingertips, the creation and usage of anthologies of these Bel Canto pieces within collegiate studios will significantly impact the efficiency and magnitude of student learning.
We hope to release our first collection of Mexican songs this summer, using the same system to help you and your students thrive!
OUR FULL ITALIAN COLLECTION, INCLUDING FREE SCORES AND RESOURCES, IS BELOW!
In alphabetical order below:
