thomas mark montgomery <thomas8@t...> wrote: > Having studied with one and been friends with the other, both of these > artists considered themselves baritones.
That is very interesting to know. You're right - it's tricky how low voiced men are billed, especially with early music singers, because the composers did not distinguish voice types as precisely as modern composers do today. These self-identified baritones end up singing a lot of so-called "bass" repertoire, and start being perceived as some kind of a hybrid by music directors and the public.
> Someone earlier mentioned Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as a bass- baritone: I > have never seen him billed as such either.
He recorded the Michelangelo songs by Shostakovich, which are for bass voice, and Russian composers know what they mean when they call for a bass! :-) In a way, he can't complain about being mis-billed if he routinely chooses rep that explicitly calls for voice types other than baritone. Not that I think there's anything wrong with that practice! Didn't he sing the evangelist (lyric tenor) in the St. John's Passion once? (just noticing that piece is getting a lot of mention these days...)
Tako
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