sort of warning: I try to answer Leo's question, digress, and go off on
what will probably seem like a total ego trip to non-singers and even some
singers!
Leo, and list,
I'm a little embarrassed. I went off half-cocked yesterday due to giving
my e-mail somewhat divided attention. Although I am a baritone, I *do*
still sing bass, and second tenor, if given the chance, as well as
baritone. Both solo and chorally (I've actually sung first tenor and second
bass in different choirs!). Sounds very grandiose and ambitious, except
that I'm not active in a large population centre with lots of competition.
Not surprisingly, I try to hear what I like in other singers and to find
out how they do it, and my tastes can get quite old fashioned: to me Caruso
is Domingo and Pavarotti rolled into one, so when I heard him on the radio
the other day I listened closely and then did 'La donna e mobile" but was
not immediately able to emulate his wonderfully agile little cadenza at the
end. Since the whole thing maxes out at a B and is rather well-written, I
was able to do it.
I've only heard Kipnis sing with piano accompaniment, and he is probably
my exemplar in the lower department - not a 'black bass' but rather a
smooth, subtle and dignified sound - darker heavier basses are more popular
nowadays and I am not one of those, so I may never be asked to sing
Sarastro, even here, but I still think I could do it much as Mozart would
have wanted.
However my latest vocal crisis (to air more of my personal linen) is
within the baritone area: working on Winterreise (in the now almost
standard Fischer-Dieskau transpositions) I'm finding that a lighter sound
with head tone predominating seems to work better in this music, and it is
here, listening to tapes of myself that I'm moved to make the Bjoerling
comparison. I really like this sound, but it involves only minimally the
"heavier mechanism": the sound is lighter, almost tenorish, with a slightly
quicker vibrato, though it's still big enough to hurt my ears in a small
room and to make the score vibrate in my hands. I thought I *was* heavier,
more dramatic...
Now anyone who has got this far must wonder: who does he think he is? Not
to mention: does he know his own true voice at all? Or even: that's not
what Leo asked! And: what does he sound like? We only have his word!
To which I must apologetically reply: yet another singer, but with a voice
that people, including me, seem to like. I think that (perhaps controversy
here) the real difference between the various tenors, basses and baritones
is style, as much as it is range, so I can be all of these things and still
be 'true'. Sorry, Leo, that my data is probably more intriguing and maybe a
bit self-serving than actually useful. It is only a matter of time before I
will be able to make MP3 samples available for download so fellow
vocalisters can hear and go: 'wow!' or 'interesting' or 'is that all it
is?' At the moment though I haven't heard recordings of myself from my last
dozen or so performances, though everyone else in this town seems to have!
At 12:58 AM 7/4/00 +0200, you wrote:
>Leo wrote :
>
><< Dear Alain and John Alex. B., you both mention that you are bass'es
>it would be easier for me to imagine your singing voices when you talk
>about arias you have/are singing if you could compare yourself to
>some well known bass---Pinza---Berry---Christoff etc>>
...
John Blyth
Baritono robusto e lirico
Brandon, Manitoba, Canada
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