Hi, Deborah!
Counter-Tenor IS full voice to a Counter-Tenor! There seem to be several
schools of thought among singers of this vocal classification. As I've
observed:
English Cathedral Counter-Tenors employ the "hoot" ("Let's All Hoot Like The
Owlies Hoot!") and sing in what can best be described as a falsetto voice.
The High Tenor School would include Russell Oberlin, who personally stated this
about his singing voice in a conversation we had many years ago. Many consider
David Daniels to be a very high tenor. He has a truly beautiful voice in my
opinion and some consider him in this category. His voice sounds to many to be
like a "modal voice". One of my dearest colleagues describes his as one of the
lovliest voices out there but a really small voice.
The Male Contralto sounds like a blended voice in my opinion. Sound is like a
lyric (female) contralto and very androgynous. Colleagues who heard Onegin,
Ferrier, Homer and Schumann-Heink in person have described their voices as
androgynous but large and even huge! The Counter-Tenor voice isn't very large
at all. They aren't likely to sing as beautifully in large, accoustically dead
concert halls with great success. Quite a number of my colleagues consider
David Daniels to be a male contralto. This term was also used for castrati,
but doesn't apply here, so there will be some confusion in use of it.
I once thought Scholl to be the greatest Counter-Tenor until I started
collecting the recordings of David Daniels. Daniels leaves Scholl high and dry
in my opinion. I hear Scholl's tone as more of the "hooty" school. There is
an amusing "Three Counter-Tenors" cd out there. We have to remember that what
we hear on the cd isn't necessarily what we'll hear in a live performance with
any singer. The major thing to ponder with the Counter-Tenor is that the size
of the voice can appear much larger on the cds.
Ed
---------------------------------
|
