"Mirko Ruckels" <mirkoruckels@o...> wrote:
"Mirko Ruckels" <mirkoruckels@o...> wrote:
> Actually, what is with mozart's tenor writing??? I find it
> extraordinarily hard. Harder than Verdi, or any of the
> Romantics. (I'm going to be flamed for what I'm about to say,
> but i'll say it anyway). I don't think Mozart totally understood
> the voice, especially the tenor voice.
I'm not gonna flame ya :-) To defend Mozart, though, my guess is
that he wrote for a different kind of tenor than the modern tenor.
(he was probably writing for specific singers, too) I think the upper
range had a lot of lightness to it. Now *I'm* gonna get flamed, but I
believe tenors sang everything above G4 in what everyone seems to
call "falsetto" (I call it light head voice, but whatever. In order
to make that blend with the rest of the chest tones, tenors probably
lightened things up starting as early as Eb4 so the switch to
"falsetto" wouldn't be noticeable.
The modern tenor isn't allowed to sing this way. He's called a
cheater if he uses any "falsetto", even for ppp effects. When I try
singing Mozart tenor stuff with this "cheater" technique, it's
unbelievably easy. It feels like he wrote specifically for this
lighter strategy.
Tako Oda (closet tenor ;-)
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