dear karen and the rest of you grumpy vocalisters,
one could legitimately criticize my knowledge of physiology as being incomplete, inarticulate and, at times, even scatter-brained. so, i shall quote richard miller on the subject of vocal agility.
in his book 'training tenor voices' on page 88 in the chapter 'developing agility', mr. miller says:
"it is clear that the tenore di grazia (tenore leggiero) requires facility in negotiating rapid running passages. not so widely recognized is the need for agility from all catagories of tenors who sing roles from the romantic and even verismo lteratures of the nineteenth century and early decades of the twentieth century. passages such as rodolfo's opening lines from the first act of la boheme must be agile, supple, and flexible.
the ability to be flexible is a requirement not only of running-note passages, however. unless a tenor of any vocal weight or catagory can move his instrument with ease, he will lack freedom in singing sostenuto." one would assume this applies to all other voices as well.
not only does miller suggest that all voices are physiologically capable of agility, he insists that it is required. the examples in the chapter are 'il mio tesoro', 'ev'ry valley' and 'ecco ridente'. so he is talking about the same type of coloratura we have been bickering about.
it seems logical that any voice capable of giggling or chuckling would also be capable of coloratura. miller says one of the things that happens to tenors who are mistaken for baritones is they have difficulty with agility as they have been attempting to artificially darken their voices. it is not unusual to find singers calling themselves a voice of a lower fach when they have difficulty with their tops. in order to validate their claim, they often find themselves artificially weighting or darkening their voices.
i am not one who would say if you can't do it for real, don't do it. my motto is 'do what you can and fake the rest' but, know the difference.
still praying for world peace, mike
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