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From:  "Michael <chosdad@y...
Date:  Mon Jan 13, 2003  6:17 pm
Subject:  Miss Piggy, was Re: [vocalist] Did Somebody Mention Counter-Tenors???!!!

Dear Karen and List:

I wrote, "I found a web-clip of David Daniels singing
Beethoven's "Adelaide." I played the clip for my wife, with my son in
the room, and my wife said "Very nice" and my son said "Sounds like
Miss Piggy!".

And Karen replied,
"Can we even remotely hope that by "sounds like Miss Piggy!" your son
meant to be complimentary of Mr. Daniels' singing? If not, I think
you've gotyour work cut out in terms of teaching your son good taste
in singers. :)

Well I realize the smiley means that you are kidding to an extent.
But to take your comment a face value - no Karen, I don't think my
son meant to be complimentary. And I don't think I will have too
much of a challenge in teaching him good taste - he's a bright boy
with a good set of ears, and it's ok if his taste is different than
mine - especially while he's six! Maybe your point of view would
change if you had children - am I correct in guessing you are not a
mother?

I think what is interesting about children is that they have a
different perspective from adults, and sometimes they "see" or "hear"
things with a greater clarity! While the evidence is merely
anecdotal, Christine (on this list) reported that most of her voice
students heard David and thought him a woman, while (some of ?) the
younger students that it was a man.

My point was that in saying "Sounds like Miss Piggy" my son
identified David's voice as that of a man phonating in a higher
register (since Miss Piggy's voice is also the voice of a man).

None of this should be interpreted as a pejorative view of the
countertenor voice - I admire Daniels singing and "voted with my
pocketbook" by purchasing his CD (and I have purchased CDs of several
other countertenors too).

Cheers,

Michael Gordon




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