To: "Vocalist" <vocalist>
Subject: Re: Arias Transposed
Date sent: Sat, 5 Feb 2000 20:00:18 -0500
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

Fiona wrote:

>>!
Art songs are different - they are (usually) single pieces
that in the
case of the most mainstream composers, ARE available in more than
one key,
in some cases 3 or 4 different keys.
>>

Sure they are but that doesn't mean that it sound right to the
ears. As much as I would like to sing Der Hirt auf dem Felsen
with my daughter on the clarinett, it won't work. I don't think
Dichterliebe works with anything other than a tenor voice.
Schumann intentionally made some of the songs quite low so that
the tenor would have to suck up and deal with the low notes. it
fits in with the context of the song.

>> To me, transposing an aria to a key in which it is hardly
heard
performed, will change the nature of the aria, and change the
sound and
colour. This does not mean arias shouldn't be tranposed - but
since they
are not often heard in other keys, it gives a little "shock" to
people like
me who are um, a little more pitch sensitive.....
>>

History is replete with operatic transpositions when the singer
can't negotiate the notes.

Alan