In a message dated 6/22/2002 7:22:16 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
lloyd.hanson@n... writes:
> Not too difficult. Almost any popular singer from 1920's to 1950's
> But premier examples would be Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Tony
> Bennett, Eddie Fisher, etc. etc. etc. Women would include Ella
> Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Doris Day, Jo Stafford, so many I cannot
> remember them all. Truly, they all represent an embarrassment of
> riches.
>
lloyd,
by the criteria caio suggested, i would agree with your list and add
many more names. however, none of the singers you have listed exhibit the
vocalism that is peculiar to the classical singer with the possible exception
of eddie fischer. the opera singer has taken an acoustical problem (singing
over an orchestra without aid) and has turned it into an artform. at its
best (boheme, turandot, meistersinger, werther), it is a unique achievment
that even someone who has lost his faith in that artform, is amazed at. as
you have stated, the singers you cite, sang at a time when amplification was
in its early stages. just as stage and film are different, so too is
unamplified singing and amplified singing. in unamplified singing, the need
to be heard is the foremost consideration. when that need to be heard is
dealt with, a whole host of possiblities is opened.
where intimacy can only be implied, in the unamplified condition, in
the amplified condition, true intimacy can be achieved. why? because true
intimacy is that - intimate. while i admit that intimacy is a conformity of
human experience, it is we humans who would be making such a judgment. (i
do give credit to opera when it can imply intimacy.)
with regard to the use of legato, in the opera singer, legato is
ubiquitous (and, i'm not sure that is such a great idea, even by operatic
criteria). in the style of the crooner (all those listed above by lloyd),
the legato line is often only implied (this is particulary true of late
sinatra and bennett). in classical singing, the voice is treated as an
instrument, in crooning, the voice remains conversational (just look at the
range crooners sing in, at the very least).
i have to wonder, at this point, if there if there ever were a
distinction between classical opera singers and classical parlor singers.
i'm guessing that if such a distinction once existed, it has been totally
obliterated by economic considerations.
mike
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