Date sent: Tue, 8 Feb 2000 00:38:52 EST
Subject: Re: Speaking/Singing Voice (ranting about countertenors :)
To: vocalist
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

lloyd,
after reading your response, allow me to amend my earlier statement.
first let me say that singing and the study of how the voice works is an
ongoing and sometimes, baffling, endeavor for me. for those of us who work
with students in a wide variety of styles, it may be more baffling than to
those who work with one general approach dictated by the style one is working
in.
i understand the goal of 'chiaroscuro' for all opera/classical singers.
i do not however, agree that 'chiaroscuro' and being heard unamplified go
automatically together. i would also suggest that most singers of the
operatic style (i almost said 'persuasion') either err on the side of dark or
light. in general, i think it is the higher voices that err on the side of
light and the lower voices that err on the side of dark (there are exceptions
that are obvious, ludwig suthaus for one).
when i speak of breaks, i guess i should point out that i don't mean the
high school chorus 'lookin' over the fence for the high notes' breaks. i am
talking about the kind of breaks that you would find in listening to someone
like simionato singing in her lowest range, where, all of a sudden, it sounds
like her brother is singing, or the recently, much discussed sherril milnes
hook. in the case of these singers, they seem to delay any kind of color
change until they absolutely have to switch, and when they finally do, it is
a radical change.
in contrast, take dietrich fischer-dieskau. until his students, andreas
schmidt and matthias goerne, came along there were very few singers who had
such a wide spectrum of dark to light going from bottom to top (you could say
herrman prey had a similarly wide spectrum minus the frankie fontaine cover).
in all four of the singers mentioned in this paragraph, there is a tremendous
ease with the top at all dynamic levels except really loud.
on a guitar, when playing the twelvth fret on the low E string, one
would be playing the same E as the open, high E string. the open high E
string is a thinner sound that one could call 'light'. the fretted low E
string has a fuller sound that sounds dull unless it is struck harder. i
would be so bold as to suggest that the fischer-dieskau approach would be
like playing higher notes on thinner strings and the other would be like the
single string approach. the problem with the one string approach is
eventually, you will run out of string making moving over to the next string
more noticable than if you had been changing strings all along. this is what
i think would be analagous to a register change.
to try to keep the same timbre through out one's range rather than
constantly varying it as the guage of the vocal folds change will either
bring about greater limitation of range or create more obvious changes in
registration (a soft break?).
i can't decide where to take this discussion next so perhaps it would
be better to get feedback (if any) first.

mike