Vocalist.org archive


<
From:  tidwellc@e...
Date:  Sat Dec 1, 2001  3:59 am
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] Stupid Question... Tenors or Baritones?

--- In vocalist-temporary@y..., Greypins@a... wrote:
> they are not entirely different species so, there is overlap.
there are
> some tenors who are tenors without any doubt (schipa, lemeshev,
gedda,
> pavarotti, etc.) and baritones who will never be anything else
(merrill,
> macneil, lisitsian, hampson, allen, etc.). then there are those
who could
> or, did go either way (vinay, domingo, prey, king, svanholm, etc.).
> ultimately, it boils down to whether or not you can sing the
role and
> sound sensible doing so and, the catagories only matter in pieces
where the
> music is fixed (opera, for example, as opposed to song literature
which is
> often transposable). unfortunately, there is a culture that says
a singer
> must identify himself/herself as one thing or another, an arbitrary
and
> capricious practice.
>
> mike

I've always been told that voice categorization has less to do with
range than with the timbre and/or weight of the voice. I, for
instance, though a soprano (lyric or coloratura), have a wide range,
including a lower range than most other sopranos I know, but I am
definitely no alto or mezzo. My voice is too light to sustain that
or sound sensible doing so for a long period of time.

Christy




emusic.com