From: "scharker <scharker@c...
Date: Sat Jan 25, 2003 2:36 pm
Subject: Re: [vocalist] messa di voce
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--- In vocalist-temporary@yahoogroups.com, John Link <johnlink@n...> wrote:
> Is there an English term for "messa di voce"?
I haven't heard one.
> What is the literal translation?
The literal translation is "placement of the voice" ('messa' from the Italian
verb 'mettere').
A Google on the phrase leads to discussions of messa di voce that seem to fall
into two groups - as a training exercise or as an expressive device. In both
cases what the singer does is to go from soft to loud and back to soft on the
same sustained note.
The National Center for Voice Science link that Michael Gordon posted here a
while ago has a couple of articles on the physiology of this process which gave
me some idea of why it's so difficult and why it's a superb exercise (
http://www.ncvs.org/singers/colmenu.html ). I don't know how or if they fit into
the falsetto chest head discussion - them 15-syllable muscle names get all jumpy
when I try to think about them ;-) The exercise has been valued for a few
centuries so I can live with uncertainty about exactly what it's doing.
Sandra
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