Vocalist.org archive


From:  Ian Belsey <Idbelsey@y...>
Ian Belsey <Idbelsey@y...>
Date:  Sun Dec 31, 2000  1:39 am
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] Re: [vocalist-temporary] Open throat technique.



I love this!! Young, young, young. Keep a young sound
in your singing and you will have not only vocally
longevity (thinks here of Melba & Sutherland, Kraus
and de Luca) but beauty and artistry, and all the
gifts a singer needs!!

Try and make a tone that is not yours and you're lost.
That's the problem with singing now more than ever.
Everyone tries for hooooooooge tone!! Look at the
lovely Jane Eaglen. When I first heard her in London,
when she was a young girl at the English National
Opera, when she was just 'singing' then the next time
I heard her, someone had gotten hold of her, told her
her voice was large, and somehow (of course) it had
gotten smaller. Making a 'large' sound that wasn't
hers!! Now, she's very hit and miss and making some
terrible noises, but apparently, it's exciting!!! Hmm,
no comment!

I will say, that, not only do I not consider it wise
to do anything to a voice apart from keep it in check,
I find it positively dangerous!! If, as you get older
you try and darken it rather than what it wants to do
(remember, there's no reason for the voice to darken
as you get older: poppycock in fact. The laryngeal
mechanism is the last to age so no excuse there!!)

As it happens, it was the fact that my voice being
overweighted when young caused it to collapse big
time!! People now remark when they hear me at 39 years
old how youthful I sound. I always, of course, tell
'em that 39 IS young!!

Remember as Isabelle so rightly said. Youthful,
unforced singing gives years and years of service. I
only have to make reference to poor old Callas on that
one! Lots of bottled up tone with lots of
interpretation. Guaranteed to kill you!!

What I really want to say I guess is, that if the
shrill voices you hear are on the gramophone and not
live, you will have absolutely no idea a)what you're
talking about, and b) what they really sound like!!

As Henderson once said about Melba doing Brunnhilde.
"It was lovely, but please don't smash a piece of
Dresden china", and, having said that also said that
no one equalled her for the vocal liberation until
Flagstad!! However, that's it entirely!! Melba could
sling a lively, lovely healthy tone into the
auditorium which was youthful and vibrant: that's how
Brunnhilde probably should sound, unlike the clapped
out old bags who do it now, but she was able to do it
because there was no vocal pretension!!

That, by the way, is what this post is about. Sing
with what you have: do not 'try' for any other sound
than you have naturally. Voices do not darken with
age. It is a fabrication and a terribleexcuse!! Anyone
who suggests otherwise is either a charlatan or idiot!
(I include singing teachers in that bracket, big
time!) People suppose that the voice has darkened and
become wobbly as they age! Poppycock galore!!

Anyway, rambling on here, so that's it for this time!!

A very happy New Year to all of the wonderful people
on this list.


Ian Voice wrecker to the stars!



____________________________________________________________

emusic.com