Dear Mike, Caio, John and Vocalisters:
John Wrote: When I last heard Christpher Parkening at Lincoln Center he played EVERYTHING with his right hand close to bridge so that he could be heard. (He doesn't do that on his records, at least not on the several that I own.) Too bad that I didn't like what I heard and would have much preferred that he used a good pickup and amplifier so that he could have sounded more like how he would have if playing in my living room with all the nuance I've come to expect from his records.
COMMENT: Your likes in this statement reflect a lot about present day audiences which expect the performing artist to "come to them" as in a recording rather than the listener being active in the sense of "going to the artist". I once hear Segovia do a recital in a rather noisy venue. A late come creaked into her balcony place. Segovia stopped in the middle of a Bach piece, waited until she was seated, stood and bowed to her, them began again. He then "owned" the audience. We had to "come to him" and it was exciting to observe the the growth of the audience appreciation for his work.
Caio wrote: "It seemsto me that male classical singers go as far as their "mix register", shortening their cords without thinning them up ( or much ), so as to keep producing overtones and project their voice above the orchestra while still portraying a typical male timbre."
COMMENT: The vocal folds produce the complete overtone series in any form of phonation short of being partially opened. Projection of the male voice above the orchestra is possible only when there is a peak in the vocal spectrum at around 2800-3200 Hrz (the Singers Formant) and the production of this peak is little dependent on the presence of all of the fundament's overtones. It is more a matter of emphasizing particular overtones.
Later you wrote: Asit's not distorted, experts wouldn't say they belt, but if you take into consideration that there's more effort involved than that necessary to produce the pop singing sound you yourself equaled to classical singing, even if that extra effort is completely managable by and not harmful to the cords, and only under that point of view, they're COMPARATIVELY belting.
The extra effort of which you speak in regard to the male high voice is, in terms of actual energy, only slightly greater than the singing in other parts of the range. This is so because the classically trained voice emphasizes as efficient a production as possible. It is the efficiency of the voice that makes it sound classical, not the attempt to match a given quality or color. This is the elusive, almost intangible quality of classical singing that so often eludes the listener as well as the singer.
Mike wrote: i think it is very possible for someone to learn to sing in the crooning style by using what they already posses, their use of their voices in speaking. crooning, after all, is sustained speech.
COMMENT: I cannot think of any singing as a form of sustained pitch, including the almost non-singing of Henry Higgins in "My Fair Lady". If you wish to see the arguments refuting the concept of singing as sustained speech please check the topic in Doscher's book "The Functional Unity of the Singing Voice."
Later you wrote: there is a big difference between an amplified guitar and an electric guitar. while i don't argue that many pop singers use the engineer to basically turn them into singers, many do not.
COMMENT: Indeed, many or some do not. But many do. Rock concerts commonly use electronic alterations to the vocal quality to achieve effects that cannot be reproduced by the voice alone, even in an intimate situation. I applaud this creativity but, as a voice teacher, I do not feel a responsibility to help singers reproduce this quality sans equal electronic gear.
Finally, I must add that I have never thought of opera as an intimate art form. It exists on a grand scale rather far from the nearest audience member. It requires actors who can "paint with a broad brush" in gesture, persona and voice. Amplifying opera is a contradiction in terms.
-- Lloyd W. Hanson
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