Dear Karen, I guess those who are "bassos cantantes" regarding themselves as "bass baritones" find the term much nicer as they are able to sing often the same range of a bass baritone.But I guess that the difference lies in the colors and timbre of the bass cantantes and bass-baritones.Well the confusion part is that both bass cantantes and bass-baritones can actually be trained to sing notes from their lowest and highest range evenly since they are really versatile in their voices.In some way,I don't really agree with u in the fact that the term "bass baritone" is used to accommodate those "tweenie" male singers who aren't quite baritones and aren't quite basses.For bass- baritones,it might also mean baritones having the capability of singing lower notes than baritones. If it's like what u have said,then mezzo-sopranos are not supposed to be young singers.Yet u can see a few "old" singers who are still mezzo-sopranos despite after singing for so many years.Don't worry.Well u don't have to agree with my views.Every one have his/her own views.I believe there is a possiblity of a voice type in the middle category.The problematic part is that even within the middle voice category,there are sub-sections of slighter higher/lower voices within it.That makes it harder to categorize voices.U have a voice of mezzo-contralto??? That's really new and cool to know.Never thought of hearing such a voice.U have any sound clips of your voice???Just curious.I have never heard of any vocalists in the group before.
From baritone Weijie
--- In vocalist-temporary@y..., Karen Mercedes <dalila@R...> wrote: > From what I have observed, purely informally, bass-baritones are actually > a pretty common vocal category; this perception may be inaccurate, > however, due to the fact that I believe a lot of singers who would have > formally called themselves "bassos cantantes" are now calling themselves > "bass baritones". The two are not the same thing, but I suspect it's the > marketability factor at work: a bass is more likely to be stereotyped in > either buffo or older men roles, or be expected to be a Bel Canto/Mozart > specialist, while a bass-BARITONE will still be able to qualify for those > lower-lying Verdi baritone roles, etc. > > As I said, my observations are not based on a systematic statistical > analysis, but rather on casual observation. This said, it would appear > that some of the best "basses" in recent years have, in fact, been - or > called themselves - "bass-baritones" (or even simply "baritones"), though > vocally they appear to be more comparable with the likes of cantante > basses like Pinza, Renaud, etc. than with dramatic baritones like Milnes > and Warren. I'm thinking of singers like Bryn Terfel, Jose van Dam, > Ruggero Raimondi, Thomas Quasthoff, etc. > > The other factor to consider is that voices are not manufactured by > machine. As much as we like to categorise, there are a lot of voices that > "aren't quite" - aren't quite soprano, aren't quite mezzo, aren't quite > contralto, aren't quite tenor, etc. If I were entirely accurate, I'd have > to categorise my own voice as "mezzo contralto" - it's not quite true > contralto, but it lies lower and has more true contralto characteristics > than a "true mezzo". The problem is, there is no acknowledged > "mezzo-contralto" category. "Bass baritone" is, in fact, a fairly recent > invention to accommodate those "tweenie" male singers who aren't quite > baritones and aren't quite basses. Mezzo soprano, prior to that, was > another such "invented" category to accommodate the women who weren't > quite sopranos and not quite mezzos. There's only so many gradations, > however, people seem willing to make to accommodate the "tweenie" voices. > So yesterday's basses are now able to choose to be basses or > bass-baritones, just as yesterday's "low sopranos" and "high altos" are > now able to choose to be mezzo sopranos. > > Karen Mercedes > http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html > ________________________________ > I want to know God's thoughts... > the rest are details. > - Albert Einstein
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