Greypins@a... wrote:
>
> michael,
>
> in the old italian textbook my wife has ('prego' published by random
> house-sorry, couldn't find my dictionary), squillare is defined as 'to ring'.
> squillo, in the glossary to jerome hines 'great singers on great singing'
> is defined as 'a trumpet-like quality to a voice'. in richard miller's
> 'training tenor voices', in spectral analyses of corelli, pavarotti, domingo
> and bjoerling, it appears that there is more activity above 3300hz. in the
> voices of corelli and pavarotti than there is in the other two. it is my
> impression that the voices of the former are considered to have more
> 'squillo' than the voices of the latter, the latter two often being
> considered more baritonal and therefore, darker in sound.
Mike - meaning no disrespect - but this still does not satisfactorily define
"Squillo" for
me. Michael C said it has no relation to the "singer's formant", but isn't
that where
"ping" or "ring" comes from? (Don't you love those technical terms? I refuse
to touch
"twang" with a ten-foot pole, unless we're talking about old-fashioned American
country
singing!)
The old-timers on the opera list love to talk of lack of "squillo" from current
singers,
and mention those who have it (I think people like Tucker or Bergonzi, but I
could be
wrong), but again, not with enough precision that this fairly knowledgeable
opera-goer can
get a handle on it. Is it the "sobbing" quality some of the Italian tenors
have? Some say
"yes", and some say "no, that's not it". Is it that bright ringing quality
that Pavarotti
exemplifies? Again, some say "yes" and others "no, that's not it". I suspect
it's a term
some of these guys use to describe a quality in Italianate tenor voices they
like (it
almost exclusively seems to refer to tenors and to Italian singing), but when
you pin them
down I can never get a good definition. And I've asked. It seems totally
subjective to
me ("I know it when I hear it."). "Squillo" is a term that's colorful, and has
a great
sound to it, and I'd love to be able to use it when I write about singing - but
it's
against my principals to use a word I can't define, and it seems to be
undefinable.
But, please prove me wrong, this inquiring mind REALLY wants to know exactly
what
"squillo" is!
Peggy
--
Margaret Harrison, Alexandria, Virginia, USA
"Music for a While Shall All Your Cares Beguile"
mailto:peggyh@i...
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