Reality is always frustrating. In singing we are doubly frustrated because
our exemplars are most likely to be heard by means of expert recording
processes which offer only hints of carrying power and heft in a voice.
I'm intrigued, but also a little cautious about the idea of 'climax notes'
- it seems to me that in an attempt of a young or inexperienced singer to
identify with a particular repertoire he might try to force just those
notes (bad), or give up before he's found a way to do them well (bad too).
Isn't there a general agreement that power tends to lessen in a voice as
it descends in pitch? Do you assert that there is a resurgence of power at
a certain low pitch, or perhaps just that it didn't fade as much as voices
usually do?
I think of the Walkuere Wotan, who has a very occasional low f f# or g,
but mostly sits quite a bit higher. I suppose the idea singer for a role
like that would be someone who can still do anything that's audible at all,
after his voice has been on the go for an evening and after the audience
have adjusted their hearing for ho jo to ho etc. My voice, big by local
standards is probably several sizes too small for such a thing, but the
thing is: I covet it, and covet Sarastro and other things which, in the
real world would be swept into the background by all of the the things that
really do suit my voice type and size. Lovely Verdi and Puccini who write
all that nice high-lying baritone stuff and only stick in the occasional
low notes to keep primo uomo tenors away from the roles! I think I'm
kidding...?
We have in these parts (an doubtless everywhere else too) the idea of
'money notes' which for tenors and sopranos tend to be high, for basses,
low. Baritones tend to be valued for things like tonal beauty, as are
mezzos. Hein?
'fin'ch han dal vino' is an annoying thing to sing, not just because of
the choppy rhythmic quality, but because of its inhabiting the passagio
area, which for untrained or lazy baritones is the stratosphere.
Well, that's enough, isn't it? john
At 03:42 AM 5/19/01 -0400, you wrote:
>john,
>
> i detected a bit of frustration in the tone of your print over the
>catagorization of us lower voice types. when i studied with richard
>cassilly, he was convinced that i was a bass-baritone trying to get away
with
>singing baritone (who knows why). his argument to me was that, for one, my
>low range was far to solid to be a baritone's (and he was singing with weikl
>and hagegard at the time, saying that Bb was as low as either of them ever
>wanted to sing) but, more importantly, was the location of what he used to
>call my 'climax notes'.
>
> in looking at bass arias, there are a few; sarastro's two, fiesco's,
>osmin's, etc. that have low Fs or F#s in them, and there are certainly roles
>like sarastro, hagen, pogner, etc. that call for a basso profondo, at least
>according to the traditions of casting those roles, but most of them don't
go
>out of the range of A-E. the 'climax notes' are usually D, Eb or E,
>sometimes F and very rarely, F# (the Gb in 'boris is the only one i can
think
>of. i don't count the basilio's F# , as that is usually done a whole step
>lower. baritone arias, on the other hand, 'climax' so frequently on F# and
>G and occasionally, Ab (although, i don't remember any of those being in the
>original score) and not all that often on F.
>
> the idea of using 'climax notes' as an indication of voice type
('climax
>notes' being those you can really take the paint off the walls with) is not
>one that gets much print. in the book 'divo', weikl discusses the problems
>he has with singing don giovanni's 'fin'ch han dal vino'. he said if had
>been written a third higher, he would have been much happier. he compared
>it to 'largo al factotum', being much happier singing the latter.
comparing
>the tessitura of most bass arias to most baritone arias, even without the
>'climax notes, reveals them to be very different creatures, even if they
>cover the same range.
>
>mike
>
>
>Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>
John Blyth
Baritono robusto e lirico
Brandon, Manitoba, Canada
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