Uncovering the Voice

Valborg Werbeck-Svärdström

"This book is pure gold for the singer and singing therapist of today" - Mary Thienes Schunemann, founder, naturally you can sing! productions.

"The life work of this Swedish artist is not so much the introduction of a new 'method' ... rather, this is the first adequate description in all music history of the western art of singing in terms of the human being's true nature." - Jürgen Schriefer, musicologist.

Through experiential exercises and careful reasoning, Uncovering the Voice provides a new spiritually-enlivened interpretation of the processes involved in singing. It develops a knowledge of the essential nature of song, and summons us to work for the purity and preservation of true singing.

First published in Germany in 1938, Uncovering the Voice disappeared under the weight of political events and the Second World War and was not republished until the 1970s. The new edition of this classic work has been re-edited and re-designed, and includes a biographical account of the author by Jürgen Schriefer as well as previously unpublished photographs.

Valborg Werbeck-Svärdström was an accomplished and talented opera singer. In 1924 she was encouraged by Rudolf Steiner, with whom she had collaborated for over twelve years, to represent the Schule der Stimmenthullung ("School for Uncovering the Voice"), the first anthroposophical singing school. But rather than following the singing traditions of her time, she sought to work from a new perspective which allowed for a profound spiritual understanding of the human voice. This was a pioneering task, and she carried it out energetically and faithfully until her death in 1972 at the age of 92.

Afterword Dr E. Kolisko

May 2008; Trans. P. Luborsky; RSP; 256pp; 21.5 x 13.5 cm; pb;