Home » Discussion Forums » Blog Post Discussion » Una Voce Poco Squeak
| |
| Re: Una Voce Poco Squeak [message #44793 is a reply to message #44791 ] |
Sun, 11 September 2011 21:22   |
 Catlady
Messages: 230
Registered: December 2008
Location: Aurora, Colorado |
Senior Member |
|
|
Judith: When I’m in groups of people who are just singing for fun I find myself automatically finding a harmonic line and singing it instead of the melody because it’s just so much more interesting.
Me, too. Has anyone out there read Angelica by Sharon Shinn? (Speaking of Women Who Do Things.) Everyone in the book sings, and they're all extremely talented, but the main character, Susannah, can write harmony to anything. She can write and sing harmony so well that it enhances the voice and song of whoever's singing the melody, but she never, ever sings a solo, and it's that fact that makes her so remarkable. That's sort of my talent as well (hence the not-being-able-to-pick-out-my-baritone). I'm singing lots and lots of solos these days because I am leading a synagogue (both liturgically and musically), but I can't help but long for the days when making the song as a whole sound good was my job.
I will agree that the alto line is often boring, though. And the second alto line of an all-female choir is doubly boring because so often it's just tonic down an octave. But you add it to the melody and suddenly it's magic.
|
|
|
| Re: Una Voce Poco Squeak [message #44795 is a reply to message #44791 ] |
Mon, 12 September 2011 00:07 |
 |
glanalaw
Messages: 88
Registered: August 2010
Location: Tennessee |
Member |
|
|
(I just took my music history placement examination for the master of music degree and it left me feeling rather inadequate – I can’t wait until the theory one next week. *sarcasm*)
WELL I AM VERY IMPRESSED. You’ve aced your theory by now, right? What does a master of music do with her degree?
Well.... theory is tomorrow afternoon. Wish me luck, because I am sure I'll need it! Theory was always my weakest musical subject, and I've forgotten most of it in the two years since I last took a class in it. (Frenzied cramming over the last couple weeks has not helped as much as I hoped.) Also, I sincerely hope I passed the history exam, since I just found out I'm slated to be the history/lit professor's assistant!
I believe most masters of music go on and become doctors of music, and then teach. I, not being the teacher type, am using the time to get in two more years of private study with a really excellent teacher, and two more years of guaranteed roles in the school operas - and then I'm going to audition anyplace that will have me, and sing opera. Master of music not strictly required for the singing of opera, of course, but since the school is paying me to get a further two years of education I thought I wouldn't argue too much 
Meanwhile, I think you’re selling sopranos short: not every soprano is light. And for that matter not every alto is rich and deep. At which point I will pause to animadvert in the general direction of Fach again . . .
Thank you for this! I am one of those not (very) light sopranos, and it bothers me that people assume I'm a mezzo because I have a well-developed low range and a fairly low speaking voice. And then there are people like Cecilia Bartoli who is technically classified as a mezzo, but sings soprano roles incredibly well... or those like Renée Fleming, who if I'd heard her voice before I'd heard she was a soprano, I would've assumed to be a mezzo - because of the way she uses the voice. (Speaking of Bartoli - have you seen her "Una voce poco fa"? There are several versions floating around cyberspace but I particularly love this performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9Q74FLVIE8. )
|
|
|
| Re: Una Voce Poco Squeak [message #44798 is a reply to message #44791 ] |
Mon, 12 September 2011 01:33 |
EMoon
Messages: 664
Registered: March 2009 |
Senior Member |
|
|
When I first joined the choir I'm with now, the solo soprano was a young woman from India, Gitanjali Mathur (no longer with our choir, but still in the area) who has what I call a 'crystal' voice: absolutely pure and limpid. Not thin, not weak, but the fullness is still crystalline. (The only video I could find of her singing online was an outdoor singing of the Indian and then the American national anthems--not a good recording.)
We've had other soprano soloists since who have what I call golden voices...beautiful, but a different beauty.
Somewhere I have a CD of a PBS performance by Jessye Norman and Kathleen Battle. To me, Gitanjali's voice is reminiscent of Battle's--that same crystalline quality--while Norman's is "filled out" with more colors.
Altos certainly do differ. Elizabeth Petillot (who was in our choir overlapping with Gitanjali--and they were incredible in duets) has "lighter" voice than our current alto soloist--whose tonality is very dark (not lower, darker.)
E
|
|
| | |
| Re: Una Voce Poco Squeak [message #44801 is a reply to message #44791 ] |
Mon, 12 September 2011 07:39 |
judith
Messages: 246
Registered: October 2008
Location: United States |
Senior Member |
|
|
| Quote: |
The thing I’ve been thinking about, since there clearly are a lot of genuinely low-voiced women out there, is, why isn’t there a complementary groundswell of bass and baritone women to balance the huge burst of enthusiasm for countertenors and male sopranos?
|
When I was in school and in some of the symphonic choirs, the choir directors wouldn't let the women sing tenor because the general belief is that those women don't REALLY have tenor voices, but just aren't using their voices correctly; they're "lazy mezzos". On the other hand, a symphonic group in which I used to sing got a new director a few years ago, and he told one of the women, "If you are most comfortable singing tenor, hang up your skirt and blouse, get a suit and tie, and sing tenor." She did and is happy as a clam.
| Quote: |
I suppose it’s also how you define ‘pure’.
|
Listen to Maurice Durufle's "Quatre Motets Sur Des Themes Gregoriens, Op. 10, No. 2: Tota Pulchra es". One of my favorite examples of an all-women's piece. For an all-men's piece, any Russian male choir will do, or the bit in the Vaughan Willliams Sea Symphony, fourth movement, where the men sing about Adam and Eve "wandering, yearning, with restless explorations, with never happy hearts". Single-sex pieces have a purity to them that just can't be matched by a mixed group.
| Quote: |
Part of the reason I’m clinging to soprano with both hands at the moment is because the tune is easier to learn, and holding my own line while everyone around me may or may not be holding theirs is still pretty exciting, like going over Niagara in a barrel is exciting.
|
Oh, yeah. That's absolutely true. When you get more of a handle on it, which with your background on piano I'm willing to bet won't take long at all (hint: visualize a keyboard and many notes will sound in your head when you're reading music), you may want more of a challenge. My senior year in college, the choir director challenged us by not having us stand in sections, but all mixed up by parts. So I, an alto, could be standing surrounded by a soprano, a tenor, and a base. I loved it. Especially when he had us singing atonal music. You'll be there in a year or so.
| Quote: |
But you and I are clearly talking across a gigantic chasm of knowledge, skill and experience.
|
Actually, I don't think so. I can't play the piano well at all despite my desire to do so (I'm paralyzed by the huge gap between what my hands can do and what my ears want to hear), and I certainly cannot compose music to save my life.
| Quote: |
Meanwhile, I think you’re selling sopranos short: not every soprano is light.
|
As individuals, no, of course not. I'm speaking collectively. If you happen to hear a choir singing the same note, it's fascinating to listen to the different sections all singing the same note, because then you can pick out the different timbres. I've had this chance because of having bee
|
|
|
| Re: Una Voce Poco Squeak [message #44803 is a reply to message #44791 ] |
Mon, 12 September 2011 08:41 |
 |
Stardancer
Messages: 182
Registered: April 2011
Location: Florida, USA |
Senior Member |
|
|
My high school director was a woman who told us once that she's technically a lyric soprano, but when she put her resume out for performances, she billed herself as a mezzo. She could do this because--though I rarely heard her use what was probably a beautiful top range--she was also one of those women who could actually demonstrate the boys' parts for them in the correct octave. She said that she, personally, shouldn't have for purposes of vocal health, but she had that ability. It never occurred to me to wonder how many other women could do something similar.
EDIT: Also, I'm another lover of classics like the Messiah, despite the fact that it's done all the time. I think it should be I say this because I have just discovered that there is actually a local Messiah Choral Society--dedicated to that one single work. While I don't know if I could sing nothing but the Messiah, I love the idea.
[Updated on: Mon, 12 September 2011 08:54]
|
|
| | |
| Re: Una Voce Poco Squeak [message #44820 is a reply to message #44791 ] |
Mon, 12 September 2011 20:41 |
 |
Black Bear
Messages: 3216
Registered: September 2008
Location: Indianapolis, IN USA |
Senior Member
[Moderator] |
|
|
The thing I’ve been thinking about, since there clearly are a lot of genuinely low-voiced women out there, is, why isn’t there a complementary groundswell of bass and baritone women to balance the huge burst of enthusiasm for countertenors and male sopranos? Anyone else want to sing the Conte di Luna?
It occurred to me, as I was mulling this over the other day, that women with deep voices are often favored in pop music over sopranos. I'm thinking of the real knockout women rock vocalists like Annie Lennox, Chrissie Hynde, Christine McVie, Debbie Harry, plus more current folks like K.T Tunstall. And then there are all the great women jazz and blues vocalists... I wonder if perhaps we self-sort a bit into the types of music where we feel we get the "good parts." So while there's always been a Thing for male sopranos--all those castrati parts need someone to sing them!--the deep voiced women among us may feel more drawn to rock, jazz, and pop. I always have been, I admit. Maybe it's just me.
And all this talk of different types of soprano voices put me in mind of the lines at the end of this clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP67l7ZkbE4
(I know not everyone's a Julie Andrews fan... but I do love this film.)
"The time is always right to do what's right."--MLK Jr.
|
|
| |
| Re: Una Voce Poco Squeak [message #44831 is a reply to message #44820 ] |
Tue, 13 September 2011 01:46 |
 |
Diane in MN
Messages: 2731
Registered: October 2008
Location: Twin Cities, MN, USA |
Senior Member |
|
|
I love that film too. Good clip, thanks!
"The point of books is to have way too many but to always feel you never have enough . . . " Louise Erdrich
|
|
|
| |
  |
Goto Forum:
Current Time: Thu May 23 07:29:19 EDT 2013
Total time taken to generate the page: 0.03339 seconds |
Members
Search
Help
Register
Login
Home
