lloyd,
gillyanne kayes, apparently with the blessings of jo estill (and
somewhat under the guidance of meribeth bunch, according to the introduction)
in her book 'singing and the actor', describes the following differences
between operatic singing and belting: operatic singing exhibits a low
larynx, belting a high larynx, operatic uses a tilted thyroid, belting a
tilted cricoid (both tilted downward according to the text yet, the
illustrations appear to tilt the thyroid down for opera and up for belting),
low breath for opera and a clavicular breath for belting.
she states that it is the 'twanger' that produces the singer's formant,
the 'twanger' being the constriction by the ary-epiglottic muscle of the
epiglottis into a tube. that tube, being narrower than the rest of the
vocal tract, creates an exponential increase of resonance, according to ms.
kayes (for some reason i pictured the canon robert bolt designed for iraq
when i read that. he was later assasinated, supposedly by the israeli
secret police). she also states that the ear canal, because of its shape,
is particulary sensitive to the singer's formant and that is why ithe
singer's formant is important in being heard in a large theater. she says
the 'twanger' is engaged during belting but, i can' t remember if she listed
it for opera or not (my copy is at school. i'll check tomorrow, if i
remember).
ms. kayes identifies six qualities of sound and it is the purpose of her
book to identify a method for achieving those sounds. she does not identify
any of these qualities as having inherent connections to particular emotions.
to suggest that belting and opera are merely for the purpose of excessive
displays of semaphored emotions is probably unfair to both and an
oversimplification, despite the best efforts of a good number of
practitioners of both to prove otherwise.
mike
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