Vocalist.org archive


From:  Sandra Charker <scharker@c...>
Date:  Wed Jan 29, 2003  10:26 pm
Subject:  RE: [vocalist] Re: The Language of singing

At 04:16 AM 2003-01-30, Lloyd Hanson wrote:

>Just a point of clarification, I have not made any comments about
>"short-ranged soprano" in church choirs etc.etc. nor did I enter the
>discussion about "damaged" voices. You are evidently confusing me
>with some other terminology and writing about voice.

Lloyd and Edward, my apologies.

The "short-ranged sopranos" expression came from Edward Norton, in a
message on 5 January with subject "Re: Mezzos and contraltos (was: Re:
[vocalist] I Need To Be Enlightened On This...)"

Lloyd, my only excuse is that I read your comments on terminology with
considerable interest and the name must have got into my fingers. Which is
no excuse at all. I'm sorry.

Edward, I can imagine how frustrating these warm body non-mezzos must be to
a choir director who knows what a vibrant, expressive choral sound might
be. I don't know what I'd do in those circumstances - maybe if there are
enough interested people have an auditioned "motet" choir and a general
"symphony choir" or "people's choir" or something??

I run a community choir - which sounds vibrant and expressive but not
always choral ;-) Late last year my singing teacher did a workshop for us,
focussed on breathing and onset. Never mind the sound - the faces were
heart-lifting. Over the year 5 of our members who also sing with church
choirs have told me very quietly that they sing much better and/or much
more easily in the community choir than in their "formal" groups. They
might be wrong about the "better" part, and presumably some of the "more
easily" is the music. But still... most of our singers don't sing with any
other groups, and those 5 are a very high percentage of those who do.

The world of choral music in English-speaking countries seems really sick
to me. Every singers' forum has long discussions about how choir-singing
damages the voice. Classical singing students post desperate pleas for ways
to avoid choral requirements in college courses. Teachers post sad stories
of desperately constricted choir singers whose voices have almost
disappeared. Singing in a choir is the height of classical vocal ambition
for most people who have any classical vocal ambition at all (let's not go
down the road of what "classical" means - I'm sure everyone here knows what
I'm getting at). It's NUTS that the singing experience available to the
majority of people gives so many of them little joy and ever-diminishing
satisfaction.

Sandra (still apologetic, but glad to get that rant off her chest)




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