<blue444xx@y...> wrote: >I am a college soprano, and I'm going to use the Brahms "Sapphic Ode" for an audition- The lowest note in this piece of lieder is just a middle C. I am strong and fine in head voice down there and my teacher is more impressed with sopranos using head over chest voice on lower notes, but I really do like the sound of the chest voice better on the C's in this. What do you think? Would it be better to just use the head voice all the way through?
I'm not familiar with this song, though I've sung a lot of Brahms. In answering the question about head vs. chest on this particular note, I'd look for two things. First, if you are not singing in the original key, would the note in that part of the song in the original key have falled into "chest voice" for the singer? Second, what is the text on the low note. Is it text that you think the composer by his setting wanted to stick out differently from the texture of the musical line? If so, it might be appropriate to switch into text voice.
However, if the answer to either of those questions is "no", then as a general rule, for Brahms, legato and the musical line is paramount. It is likely that switching into chest voice for a single note would interrupt the musical line. So you shouldn't do it, and any adjudicator would think it odd, and might conclude that you're doing it because you have a problem in blending your registers. If you want to show off your great chest voice, pick repertoire that demands it - for example, when a French composer like Debussy composes a song with notes in the normal female chest register range, he does so purposely, to exploit that sound, and you'll generally find in the text a reason for the composer to have made this choice.
As for whether to use that song for an audition, that depends on the auditions. If it is an opera or oratorio audition, you should be singing an aria - but I think you know that. If it's a grad school audition, presumably you're using it to demonstrate your ability to sing art song. So if you do it really well, I don't see why it would be inappropriate (unless you think the text is inappropriate for a female to sing).
Peggy
Margaret Harrison, Alexandria, Virginia, USA.
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