> 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!)
I can explain this in a non scientific manner.
Squillo is what makes your ear drums go thump - thump - thump when you
are in the same vicinity as somebody who has it! It is a narrow,
focused sound with lots of bite.
It's what makes me not be able to warm up my voice in the car when I
have other people with me... it hurts the ears. I *feel* the sound in
the front of my face but it is *not* nasal - at least it does not have
the undesirable twangy nasality of the open nasal port, and there is no
difference in the tone when the nose is pinched while sustaining the
note. It is most definitely felt in the front of the face and very
contained, compact, condensed, efficient, narrow.
It's like a laser beam.
Twang is that mellow nasality that singers like Randy Travis has. Ring
means hearing the high overtones in the sound... if you sing a pitch and
can hear the octave above it, it's ringing. Ping and squillo are the
same thing, but ping is a milder term for this phenomenon of a
bitey-sound. It implies a small but focused sound.
> 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?
No. No relation whatsoever! The sobbing is for expressive purposes.
People like to lament the past, don't they. Too bad the big houses
won't open the doors to new talent as freely as they used to. I agree
with that somewhat, though. The trend almost seems to be to get the
voice pretty up close in a small room and then it doesn't always carry.
> 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.
Birgit Nilsson is a singer who has lots of squillo. Listen to her
Turandot. I consider Leontine Price a singer who has it. Monserrat
Caballe had it as well as her disembodied floaty sound. Callas. Most
women who have squillo also really have roundness in the tone or
darkness, plus they have to be feminine so the singing is less (pardon
me) balls-to-the-wall.
Squillo is best appreciated *live* and not on recordings. It doesn't
transfer well to recordings. If you still can't define these terms, you
could call me and I could demonstrate twang and squillo.
Gina
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