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From:  "Kubiak, Laurence L SSI-SMMS" <Laurence.l.Kubiak@I...>
Date:  Wed Jul 19, 2000  11:02 am
Subject:  RE: [vocalist-temporary] Height/Range (was pitch differences, bac h and basses)


Alain wrote

>but in a "mixed voice" or "voix mixte" that will be
>considered "cheating" by listeners accustomed to the heavy registration of
>the 20th century (rather than the late 19th century, since recordings of
>Battistini still show the use of a light registration going into "voix
>mixte", very different from the heavy registration of Caruso, for
instance).

I would caution against citing Battistini as an example of 'normal'
nineteenth century voice production. A little listening among his baritone
contemporaries shows that he was the exception, not the norm.

First of all Battistini was, by his own admission, a 'baritono sbagliato', a
baritone by mistake. He had a tenor voice, but chose to sing as a baritone.
Georges Cunelli relates a conversation with Battistini in which he confirms
this, but adds that, had he chosen to sing as a tenor he 'would not be the
great Mattia Battistini, the glory ot Italy'. I'm not sure I agree with
Battistini's own assessment here. I wonder whether he might not have been
that rarest of birds, a singer whose voice really did sit in the cracks
between baritone and tenor, but this does not invlidate the basic point,
which is that the refinement for which Battistini was famous, the
subtleties and nuances he deployed throughout his range, were in a large
degree possible because he was working a lot lower in this range than other
baritones.

This approach was not without its problems. Because he worked so low in his
voice so much of the time he worked very hard, and largely successfully, at
the prjection of his voice. Evidence from Novicova and Cunelli agrees that
the chief elements in this projection were a lot of support from the ribs,
and placement involving very intense sound in the cheekbones. Even so a
steady decline in the quality of Battistini's lower octave was observed
fairly early in his career, a decline supported by the recorded evidence, in
which the grey and hollow timbre of the lower octave is often noticeable,
and sometimes disturbing. But he never lost the top, it was there, fresh,
ringing, impressive, solid as a rock and capable of infinite gradation of
timbre to the very last. This achievement looks less impressive when one
reflects that this is in fact the upper-middle (i.e. home ground) of a tenor
voice, whereas the upper middle of Battistini's baritone range was more worn
and often less interesting than that of his contemporaries.

Among Battistini's baritone contemporaries it is hard to find much support
for the type of registration Alain describes. A singer like Pasquale Amato
might be a possibility, but, like Battistini, Amato's voice lay awfully
high. Otherwise, the approach to the top of the baritone voice one finds
among DeLuca, Sammarco, Magini-Coletti and Kaschmann sounds very like the
approach adopted a generation later by Granforte and Bellantoni, which
sounds rather like the one adopted a generation later by Herlea and
Bastianini.

I think a 'light registration' is often confused with a light voice. Taking
the case of Battistini, if it is true that he employed some variety of
falsetto-mix for his high notes is it not curious that he never sung above
A? This, from possibly the only baritone in recorded history to have
transposed arias upwards because they were uncomfortable (it's generally
accepted that Battistini's 'Non piu andrai' is in Db). Actually, I don't
think he ever recorded above Ab, but I might be wrong. This is far short of
the extra octave above the second passaggio Alain describes.

Happy Singing,


Regards / vriendelijke groeten

Laurie Kubiak
Commercial Analyst - Europe & Africa SMMS
Sales and Contract Support, Shell Services International
Shell Centre, London SE1 7NA
Telephone: +44 171 934 3853; Fax: +44 171 934 6674
Mobile: 07771 971 921: E.mail: Laurence.l.Kubiak@i...
Office: LON-SC 631



  Replies Name/Email Yahoo! ID Date Size
3082 Re: Height/Range (was pitch differences, bac h an Alain Zürcher   Fri  7/21/2000   3 KB

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