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From:  bjjocelyn <bjjocelyn@p...>
Date:  Fri Nov 15, 2002  8:01 am
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] amplification

Since the Afro-American spark caught her eye, Music in our Western World has
grown to be not only chiefly about pitch, but also about timing. Perhaps
what many, for want of a better name, praise as "speech-like singing",
simply accounts for and pays tribute to a 60-years-long effort to no longer
lame dancing feet for vocal rendition's sake. Too bad for sluggish pipes
with their belated formant hatching, gotta hit it bright and crisp right on
time, neck or nothing (unlike allowing balls to bounce again when practising
with a tennis sparring partner). Yeah. History. But, what the heck, for the
nonce, let the lenient modernist grant nostalgic souls their claim that some
artistic expression got lost on the way! :)
Admittedly, early Ella Fidgerald and Frank Sinatra, if not countless obscure
others, would pioneer the time-locked vocal technique, which later
aesthetically established itself as "mainstream swing singing" or "crooner
style" for decades, conditioning as such every airplay-exposed person's
subconscious from the 1940's onwards.
Hence Mike's not so sensational observation that most contemporary young
voice students, aside from (arguably) being comfortable with pitch, also
tend to show a (relatively improved) sense of timing.
Talking of which, for the asking, what's wrong with wishing and being able
to sing both rubato-like belcanto and groovy pop songs?

BJJA








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