Randy wrote:
>Most descriptions in classical pedagogy books use the terms crass, > crude, and masculine to describe the female chest voice. These are >not terms relating to function but values.
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Dear Randy, Lloyd and listers,
I must assume that you are referring to more contemporary books on singing. If you look at the historical pedagogy literature, like Garcia, Mancini, and the more recent writings of Stanley and Reid, you'll notice that the use of a vital, firm, pure chest-mechamism- timbre was the norm for females singers in the lower register. I feel that CURRENT pedagogies have done away with the original intentions of the great masters by imposing a breathy/mixed-register tone in the female voice below F4. This current trend has been widely embraced by current pedagogies which is why we rarely hear a female voice, especially a high soprano, who can execute a chesty low G for example.
Lloyd mentioned Leontyne...dead on! She is a perfect example. I would also mention, IMHO, one of the greatest mezzo voices of all time- Giulietta Simionato. I haven't heard a chest-register like that since Giulietta...with the only exceptions going to Doloras Zachek (sorry for the spelling) and early Marilyn Horne.
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Randy also wrote:
> The female chest voice is much longer than these pedagogies suggest >(up to a4); this is where the mix begins.
Randy, clearly you are using a contemporary view of registers here...not the classical model proposed by Garcia. Garcia defines the transition in register for MEN and WOMEN at F4...men enter into their upper-register by increased CT participation, and women enter into.. what I like to term "middle-register," and this too is marked by increased CT partcipation and decresed TA participation.
If the extension of female chest voice was A4, as you suggest, the classical model of registration, which without question produced the greatest singers in history, would be entirely disregarded.
My wife Laura is a fine mezzo at 23 (yes, I'm partial)! She recently sang the part of Oberon in Britten's Midsummer. The role has many leaps into the low voice and many notes below middle C. She used a pure-chest-tone for all the lower register notes both in rehearsal and in the three performances she sang. Her tones were not at all "crass," "crude," or masculine....they were in a word- RIGHT! The audience loved it, and many people came up to her and commented on the fact that they so rarely hear a female low-voice with that kind of power and vitality. Needless to say, so got the role because no other female in the school can touch her low voice. My wife is of the opinion: "what was good enough for Giulietta...is good enough for her."
I feel that many teachers disregard the chest-register in females and label it as bad, ugly. I've even heard famous teachers say, "I don't teach my females to sing in the chest voice." From what I have learned about voice science and pedagogy...if you DON'T teach the female chest-voice, you're missing a valuable part to the puzzle.
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Randy also wrote:
>(and in that area of > the voice TA is not only considered a regulator of pitch but also an adductor > muscle).
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Randy, you may want to check out the Hirano, Vennard, O'Hala study from the 70's. I personally have never seen it written anywhere that the TA is a regulator of pitch. Quite the opposite, (and taught by Vennard, Titze, Austin and others) the TA is always called the "register muscle" while the CT is always called the "pitch-muscle." I noticed that you did write "in that area." Perhaps you could write more on what I quoted.
Love to write more...but Laura is on her way back from a trip and I've got much housework to do before she arrives!
Take care all,
Taylor L. Ferranti Certificate of Vocology DMA Candidate in Voice Science/Voice Performance Louisiana State University
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