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From:  "Caio Rossi" <caiorossi@t...>
"Caio Rossi" <caiorossi@t...>
Date:  Thu Apr 12, 2001  3:09 am
Subject:  THE AH VOWEL AND OPERATIC SINGING


Hi,

I got caught in this discussion with a completely different topic in mind. Let
me summarize what I have posted in order to put my point across:

1. Romance-language speakers perceive basically 5 vowels and put any vowels
into those pre-conceived categories;

2. As an example, Romance-language speakers tend to perceive words like 'live'
and 'leave' as homophones due to those 5 vowel categories cited above;

3. English speakers, on the other hand, have a wider range of vowel categories;

4. As a consequence, two vowel sounds may be perceived as being different by
English speakers but as a single vowel sound by Romance-language speakers;

5. Italian, as a Romance language, shares those 5 vowel categories;

6. Italian opera was created to entertain or enlighten an Italian-speaking
audience. As such, that audience perceives only those 5 vowel categories;

7. Italian opera has taken advantage of those categories in order to adapt
vowel resonance and create harmonics necessary to project the voice above the
orchestra. That's what an evolutionary sociologist, using a jargon adapted from
evolutionary biologists, might call a cultural pre-adaptation, a.k.a. a big
favorable coincidence! hehe

8. English opera singers have taken advantage of the development of Italian
opera and applied their background in singing to both their Italian opera
performances and their English-speaking opera;

9. Most English speakers don't speak Italian, so vowel modifications in Italian
operas are meaningless to them. Obviously, the same can't be said of operas in
English;

10. If opera has perfection as its esthetic goal, as Lloyd put it some time ago
and was openly supported by many Vocalisters, anything perceived as not perfect
and accepted as such mars that goal and is therefore not related to opera;

11. As English speakers notice when a vowel in an English word is modified,
vowel modifications are perceived as an imperfection to that audience.
Therefore, vowel modifications must be avoided in English-speaking operas;

12. THE ONLY WAY TO PREVENT THAT IS BY PERFORMING THOSE OPERAS IN SMALLER
THEATERS, TO A SMALLER AUDIENCE AND WITH A SMALLER ORCHESTRA SO AS TO AVOID THE
NECESSITY OF SUCH MODIFICATIONS.

13. Not persecuting 12 as the way to reach the operatic esthetic ideal in 10 is
not opera, as can be said of the usage of microphones on stage, etc, etc.

I think I got you, baby! hehe

Bye,

Caio Rossi
Sao Paulo, Brazil







  Replies Name/Email Yahoo! ID Date Size
11081 Re: THE AH VOWEL AND OPERATIC SINGING Lloyd W. Hanson   Thu  4/12/2001   9 KB
11086 Re: THE AH VOWEL AND OPERATIC SINGING Caio Rossi   Thu  4/12/2001   10 KB
11087 Re: THE AH VOWEL AND OPERATIC SINGING Lloyd W. Hanson   Fri  4/13/2001   7 KB
11092 bel canto into a mic WAS: THE AH VOWEL AND OPERAT Tako Oda   Fri  4/13/2001   3 KB
11088 Re: THE AH VOWEL AND OPERATIC SINGING gwyee@r...   Fri  4/13/2001   2 KB
11089 Re: THE AH VOWEL AND OPERATIC SINGING Caio Rossi   Fri  4/13/2001   3 KB
11090 Re: THE AH VOWEL AND OPERATIC SINGING Caio Rossi   Fri  4/13/2001   4 KB
11093 Re: THE AH VOWEL AND OPERATIC SINGING Pablo   Fri  4/13/2001   4 KB
11097 Re: THE AH VOWEL AND OPERATIC SINGING Caio Rossi   Fri  4/13/2001   6 KB

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