Dear Michelle and List:
Michelle - you expressed yourself well, and without hostility, and
you expressed a point of view that probably many share. I came to an
appreciation of the countertenor voice from its natural role in all-
male vocal ensembles. While attending grad school out here at
Stanford, it was natural for me to go to the recitals of then fellow
student Randy Wong and hear groups like the King's Singers,
Chanticleer, and the Hilliard Ensemble live.
You are welcome to maintain a dislike of the countertenor sound
(heck, I personally dislike woofy lower voices - a good mezzo is a
treat, but a woofy one is more common - see we all have our biases).
But on a personal level, I would hope that if you read of the history
of someone like David Daniels, who apparently really wanted to be a
tenor and struggled as a grad student before finally accepting that
his "true" voice was as a countertenor, you might feel at least
sympathetic towards the people behind the voices.
You wrote,
"I am beginning to get the idea though, that what you in the
Northern hemishpere call countertenors may be what I have always
known as simply a very high or lighter-in-timbre tenor."
I'm not sure about that, but there seems to be an "American"
countertenor that is quite distinct from the hooty breed (not to
slight very fine countertenors from other countries!).
As has been discussed on this list, in part due to the contributions
of Tako Oda, both the high light tenor and the "countertenor" use the
same vocal registration in the highest parts of their range, the
differences lie in range of roughly middle C to the C above, where
some sing more "tenorish" and some more "mezzo-ish".
Some years ago I read a book by Peter Giles titled something
like "The Countertenor" - if you are interested, you might get a copy
through inter-library loan. Giles explains that there really is a
whole diverse family of higher male voices that are related and fit
under the umbrella of the "countertenor" category, including the
Irish tenor, the barbershop tenor, the French haute-contre, the
cathedral alto, the solo countertenor, etc.
Since you are a teacher, I hope you keep an open mind should a
talented potential countertenor become your student!
Enough out of me...
Cheers,
Michael Gordon
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