Dear Karen,
I guess those who are "bassos cantantes" regarding themselves
as "bass baritones" find the term much nicer as they are able to sing
often the same range of a bass baritone.But I guess that the
difference lies in the colors and timbre of the bass cantantes and
bass-baritones.Well the confusion part is that both bass cantantes
and bass-baritones can actually be trained to sing notes from their
lowest and highest range evenly since they are really versatile in
their voices.In some way,I don't really agree with u in the fact that
the term "bass baritone" is used to accommodate those "tweenie" male
singers who aren't quite baritones and aren't quite basses.For bass-
baritones,it might also mean baritones having the capability of
singing lower notes than baritones. If it's like what u have
said,then mezzo-sopranos are not supposed to be young singers.Yet u
can see a few "old" singers who are still mezzo-sopranos despite
after singing for so many years.Don't worry.Well u don't have to
agree with my views.Every one have his/her own views.I believe there
is a possiblity of a voice type in the middle category.The
problematic part is that even within the middle voice category,there
are sub-sections of slighter higher/lower voices within it.That makes
it harder to categorize voices.U have a voice of mezzo-contralto???
That's really new and cool to know.Never thought of hearing such a
voice.U have any sound clips of your voice???Just curious.I have
never heard of any vocalists in the group before.
From baritone Weijie
--- In vocalist-temporary@y..., Karen Mercedes <dalila@R...> wrote:
> From what I have observed, purely informally, bass-baritones are
actually
> a pretty common vocal category; this perception may be inaccurate,
> however, due to the fact that I believe a lot of singers who would
have
> formally called themselves "bassos cantantes" are now calling
themselves
> "bass baritones". The two are not the same thing, but I suspect
it's the
> marketability factor at work: a bass is more likely to be
stereotyped in
> either buffo or older men roles, or be expected to be a Bel
Canto/Mozart
> specialist, while a bass-BARITONE will still be able to qualify for
those
> lower-lying Verdi baritone roles, etc.
>
> As I said, my observations are not based on a systematic statistical
> analysis, but rather on casual observation. This said, it would
appear
> that some of the best "basses" in recent years have, in fact, been -
or
> called themselves - "bass-baritones" (or even simply "baritones"),
though
> vocally they appear to be more comparable with the likes of cantante
> basses like Pinza, Renaud, etc. than with dramatic baritones like
Milnes
> and Warren. I'm thinking of singers like Bryn Terfel, Jose van Dam,
> Ruggero Raimondi, Thomas Quasthoff, etc.
>
> The other factor to consider is that voices are not manufactured by
> machine. As much as we like to categorise, there are a lot of
voices that
> "aren't quite" - aren't quite soprano, aren't quite mezzo, aren't
quite
> contralto, aren't quite tenor, etc. If I were entirely accurate,
I'd have
> to categorise my own voice as "mezzo contralto" - it's not quite
true
> contralto, but it lies lower and has more true contralto
characteristics
> than a "true mezzo". The problem is, there is no acknowledged
> "mezzo-contralto" category. "Bass baritone" is, in fact, a fairly
recent
> invention to accommodate those "tweenie" male singers who aren't
quite
> baritones and aren't quite basses. Mezzo soprano, prior to that, was
> another such "invented" category to accommodate the women who
weren't
> quite sopranos and not quite mezzos. There's only so many
gradations,
> however, people seem willing to make to accommodate the "tweenie"
voices.
> So yesterday's basses are now able to choose to be basses or
> bass-baritones, just as yesterday's "low sopranos" and "high altos"
are
> now able to choose to be mezzo sopranos.
>
> Karen Mercedes
> http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
> ________________________________
> I want to know God's thoughts...
> the rest are details.
> - Albert Einstein
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