In a message dated 02/02/01 06:18:33 GMT Standard Time, emmashapplinrules@h... writes:
<< I hear many singers tell me they have 4 or 5 octaves voices. Do most singers have that many octaves or are they counting wrong? >>
Hmm. Well, I'm sort of a lyric tenor with some "oomph", much nearer lyric than spinto, and first thing in the morning, or when suffering from acute laryngitis, I can growl/grumble/vocalise down to about a low B-flat - a full octave below my real range. I can also squeak/vocalise, given sufficient testicular constriction, up to about a high B-flat (a full tone below a soprano's top C). By my reckoning, this is around 3 full octaves.
However.
I wouldn't *dream* of inflicting much more than two octaves of this on my public, or even on my cats. Or my wife!
I don't really see me ever singing anything in public that requires more from me than the b-flat below middle c at the lower end, or the d-flat above high C (e.g. in the Cujus Animam from Rossini's Stabat Mater) at the top end. What's that? Two and a quarter octaves? Plenty for me!
And no, I wouldn't be surprised to find that there are female singers who possess at least a full octave more than I have. Two full octaves more? Maybe. Unless they want to sing freak shows, I can't see that there's any point to it.
Thinking about it, my singing teacher, who was in her day a world-class Dramatic Mezzo, seems able to sing down as low as I do, and can doubtless still vocalise at least half an octave higher than I can (even though her day was 20+ years ago) - so maybe the conclusion of my rambling, incoherent thesis herein is that women have a much greater theoretical range than men? Who knows.
Returning you now to your regular, more lucid contributors.......
Cheers,
Nicktenor
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