lloyd and david,
first, my apologies for misrepresenting titze's view on the raised larynx. a brief article by titze can be found at http://www.ncvs.org/singers/raisedve.pdf as david pointed out in an earlier post.
in the first paragraph titze states he is biased in neither direction, explaining later his preference is for the larynx to begin in a neutral position. however, he goes on to suggest that he is open to the idea of the singer exploring the possibilties of using a move in either direction to overcome various shortcomings.
in the fourth and fifth paragraphs, after explaining why, in the previous paragraphs, titze suggests that a lowered larynx may fascilitate singing with power as, the vocal folds are set up to be thicker in a lowered larynx. he also suggests that the raised larynx fascilitates access to higher pitches as, the raising of the larynx tends to thin the folds, i assume because the crico-thyroid muscles are involved more. he also points out that there is a distinct timbre difference between the two positions (it might be better to say directions) due to a lengthening or shortening of the vocal tract. he says that vocal ring is unaffected by either. while some might be surprised to hear him say that vocal ring is unaffected by a raised larynx, i am not.
i may be wrong but, it seems to me that he is suggesting a neutral position for most singing but, in the case of a singer who struggles with the high range, it is advisable to raise the larynx and, in the case of the singer who struggles with power, it is advisable to lower the larynx. this seems to me to be a departure from the practice that has been common over the last 50 years. from the interviews in hines' 'great singers on great singing', which includes commentary from quite a few of the best known singers over the past 50 years, it is my impression that nearly all of them prescribe a neutral or lowered larynx. it is my opinion that there has been a general move towards a lower larynx over the past 50 years, particularly in women, at least women singing the standard italian repertoire.
if i am right in my thinking in the above paragraph, it is likely most voice teachers, training their students with an operatic career in mind, would see an elevated larynx as incorrect. while there are plenty of rock, pop, broadway, world, etc. singers who exhibit the use of an elevated larynx, it is hard to find operatic singers who make a practice of it. ivan kozlovsky comes to mind as the most obvious example and he is a rather old example. still, a number of the russian singers in the 50's through 80's, mazurok, vishnevskaya and even lemeshev, seem very uninterested in keeping their larynx low for the higher range. while hrorostovsky does seem to make more of an effort to use a lowered larynx, vladimir chernov does not. (could it be that the advent of much larger opera houses in the west has brought about a neccesity to use a lowered larynx to survive?)
mike
mike
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