Dear List and Weijie:
Wiejie stated and then asked, "Frankly speaking, baritones are the
most common among the male voice...just wondering if bass-baritones
are considered rare among the different types of baritone voice."
Short answer: I don't really know, but I would guess that the lower
baritone and bass voices are more rare than the medium ones. The
label "bass-baritone" means different things to different people, and
some have argued that there is no such thing - that "bass-baritone"
is (like "bari-tenor") a voice that doesn't have the low notes of one
category and lacks the higher notes of another, and therefore means a
voice that is not properly used/developed.
I think there is no reason
to believe our voices all neatly fit into one category or another -
the physical determinants of voice do not have "quantum" dimensions
that would lead to being either type a or type b. I further believe
that physical characteristics like the length, thickness etc. of the
vocal folds follows a normal distribution, meaning that most people
have "medium" voices,
and lower and higher voices are rarer. Similarly, "medium" weight
voices and "medium" color are most common. The question, though, is
what does "medium" really mean? It is possible for a mis-match
between the "medium" of a population and the "medium" of music. To
keep this short, "medium" for men might be baritone, or it might be
somewhat higher, more like "bari-tenor". I don't have statistical
data - it seems to me that "true" tenors are not so common, but
also "true" lower voices.
It is too bad that I don't know how to refer you to the archives of
the original Vocalist out of Finland. At one point, Ron Land gave a
lengthy and seemingly authoritative set of posts describing all the
various opera vocal categories and roles etc.
There are many labels put on voices, so here is one link
that discusses the bass-baritone:
http://www.su.edu/conservatory/opera/auditioning/MUPP425/Documents/Per
formances/Fach/Bass.htm. For what it's worth, when I think of bass-
baritone I think of a voice like Bryn Terfal.
I'm guessing, perhaps incorrectly, that you are a young man trying to
figure out your own voice type. If you are a serious opera voice
student, I suppose the issue of proper classification is important,
and you will work this out over time by exploring different
repertoire and seeing what works best for your voice. If you are say
21, your voice is probably not mature and it would be hard to give
a "true" opera classification. In general, men have a tendancy to
think their voices are larger and deeper than they are.
Hope this helps somewhat.
Cheers,
Michael
|
