whether fischer-dieskau is a baritone or a tenor can probably be
answered by listening to his students. andreas schmidt sings almost exactly
like his mentor. yes, his voice is richer, but, the way his voice changes
timbre constantly, from low to high, being dark and rich in the low end and
trimmer (nice way of saying thin) and more tenorish in the high end, is
exactly what dfd does. (this is also the way most pop singers use their
voices.)
i believe that using ones vocal folds in a lighter guage produces a
'headier' sound. this lighter guage makes it easier to sing higher (this
would explain why so many rock singing males can sin so high so much more
easily than the classical singer). most drammatic tenor rep. is of a lower
tessitura than the lyric and leggiero reps. it is quite common for
drammatic tenors to have a more 'baritonal' timbre than their lighter voice
brethren.
we are capable of varying the guage of our folds on any pitch (within
limits). it is far easier to sing in a high tessitura if we lighten the
guage of our folds . because there is a tendency for tenor music to be
written in a relatively higher tessitura than music for other male voices, it
is easier for the tenor to use a lighter guage for this higher tessitura.
in using a lighter guage, the tenor sounds 'headier'. anyone using a
lighter guage for the high range, as a practice, is going to sound 'headier'.
where the standard practice of most operatic baritones and basses is to
sound as if they are singing chest voice 'beautifully' throughout their
range, any baritone choosing to lighten up on top is going to sound like a
tenor because of that practice.
of baritones usually accused of being tenors, i think it is more likely
that hermann prey was a tenor. compare prey's high notes to dfd's and
you'll notice they are fuller than dfd's yet, just as 'heady' sounding. and
what of bernd weikl? should he have sung sigmund afterall, as karajan once
urged? (is sigmund a high baritone role afterall?)
and speaking of hermann prey, does anyone else think scott walker sounds
exactly like him (whoa! we might have to start a seperate list for this one)?
mike
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