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From:  "Lloyd W. Hanson" <lloyd.hanson@n...>
Date:  Sun Jun 23, 2002  9:43 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] Classical/non-classical singing

Dear Mike, Caio, John and Vocalisters:

John Wrote:
When I last heard Christpher Parkening at
Lincoln Center he played EVERYTHING with his right hand close to
bridge so that he could be heard. (He doesn't do that on his records,
at least not on the several that I own.) Too bad that I didn't like
what I heard and would have much preferred that he used a good pickup
and amplifier so that he could have sounded more like how he would
have if playing in my living room with all the nuance I've come to
expect from his records.

COMMENT: Your likes in this statement reflect a lot about present
day audiences which expect the performing artist to "come to them" as
in a recording rather than the listener being active in the sense of
"going to the artist". I once hear Segovia do a recital in a rather
noisy venue. A late come creaked into her balcony place. Segovia
stopped in the middle of a Bach piece, waited until she was seated,
stood and bowed to her, them began again. He then "owned" the
audience. We had to "come to him" and it was exciting to observe the
the growth of the audience appreciation for his work.

Caio wrote:
"It seemsto me that male classical singers go as far as their "mix register",
shortening their cords without thinning them up ( or much ), so as to keep
producing overtones and project their voice above the orchestra while still
portraying a typical male timbre."

COMMENT: The vocal folds produce the complete overtone series in any
form of phonation short of being partially opened. Projection of the
male voice above the orchestra is possible only when there is a peak
in the vocal spectrum at around 2800-3200 Hrz (the Singers Formant)
and the production of this peak is little dependent on the presence
of all of the fundament's overtones. It is more a matter of
emphasizing particular overtones.

Later you wrote:
Asit's not distorted, experts wouldn't say they belt, but if you take into
consideration that there's more effort involved than that necessary to
produce the pop singing sound you yourself equaled to classical singing,
even if that extra effort is completely managable by and not harmful to the
cords, and only under that point of view, they're COMPARATIVELY belting.

The extra effort of which you speak in regard to the male high voice
is, in terms of actual energy, only slightly greater than the singing
in other parts of the range. This is so because the classically
trained voice emphasizes as efficient a production as possible. It
is the efficiency of the voice that makes it sound classical, not the
attempt to match a given quality or color. This is the elusive,
almost intangible quality of classical singing that so often eludes
the listener as well as the singer.

Mike wrote:
i think it is very possible for someone to learn to sing in the
crooning style by using what
they already posses, their use of their voices in speaking.
crooning, after all, is sustained speech.

COMMENT: I cannot think of any singing as a form of sustained pitch,
including the almost non-singing of Henry Higgins in "My Fair Lady".
If you wish to see the arguments refuting the concept of singing as
sustained speech please check the topic in Doscher's book "The
Functional Unity of the Singing Voice."

Later you wrote:
there is a big difference between an amplified guitar and an electric
guitar. while i don't argue that many pop singers use the engineer to
basically turn them into singers, many do not.

COMMENT: Indeed, many or some do not. But many do. Rock concerts
commonly use electronic alterations to the vocal quality to achieve
effects that cannot be reproduced by the voice alone, even in an
intimate situation. I applaud this creativity but, as a voice
teacher, I do not feel a responsibility to help singers reproduce
this quality sans equal electronic gear.

Finally, I must add that I have never thought of opera as an intimate
art form. It exists on a grand scale rather far from the nearest
audience member. It requires actors who can "paint with a broad
brush" in gesture, persona and voice. Amplifying opera is a
contradiction in terms.

--
Lloyd W. Hanson





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