In a message dated 3/26/2001 1:24:46 AM Eastern Standard Time,
lloyd.hanson@n... writes:
lloyd.hanson@n... writes:
<< Listen to his (Wunderlich's) changes in vowel pronunciations,
particularly in "Die Schöne Müllerin", between when the same word is
sung in his passaggio area and when it is not. The changes are very
obvious. >>
lloyd,
sadly, i only have wunderlich's 'schone mullerin' on record and my
turntable is now a doorstop. but, in listening to 'ach, so fromm' from
'martha', it is clear 'so' becomes 'zoo' almost in the passaggio area.
however, it seems so natural in his singing it is hard to say whether it was
taught to him or if he stumbled upon it instinctively.
there are a number of pop singers who seem to have stumbled onto vowel
modulation (some of them, i am sure, have no conscious clue about what they
are doing); paul mccartney, bono of U2 and jimmy cliff come to mind. in the
case of the first two, one with a liverpool accent and one with a northern
irish accent, they both sing fairly high with relative ease. neither one
betrays a trace of his accent in their upper ranges for 95% of their singing.
having worked with a few british students, it struck me how their accents
seemed to become less thick as they increased in pitch. so, i wonder if
there are certain accents that lend themselves to a more natural tendency to
modulate vowels when increasing in pitch (or, maybe they just break even).
another related thought; i remember an interview with alfredo kraus in
which he said the concept of a passaggio was total nonsense. he said as
long as the placement for the voice was as far forward as possible and the
'position' of the 'i' vowel was the model for the rest of the voice, there
would be no problem with any breaks (i'm sorry i don't remember the specifics
but, i seem to remember being unsure if, by 'i', he meant 'ee' as in beet or
'i' as in bit. the example he gave seemed to be confusing. the word he
gave as an example seemed to be wrong unless, in his accent, that was the way
it was pronounced. and yes, i was reading this interview not listening to
it).
mike
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