At 11:17 PM -0400 7/19/05, Darcy James Argue wrote:
Off-topic, of course, and submitted without comment, but some may find this LA Times editorial interesting:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-soprano11jul11,0,369179.story
Off-topic, yes. But it's gotten plenty of attention and
commentary on both the ChoralTalk List and the EarlyMusic List.
Apparently the original "problem" in Texas was girls wanting
to audition for Honors Choir as tenors. I put "problem"
in quotes because, in fact, some girls' natural and healthy voice
range is the range we usually think of as "tenor." So
along comes Mike, and he gets caught up in the restrictive gender
definitions the TMEA has adopted. (And bear in mind that half
the officers of the TMEA are instrumentalists, who have been swayed by
traditionalist voice teachers' opinions.)
Here's what a respected collegue wrote about Mike's countertenor
voice, having met and heard him at a conference:
"Mike is fantastic! He has a
bright, laser-beam sound when he wants, but can also blend well.
He did some lightning-fast ornamentation in a Monteverdi piece that
was worthy of a full professional. And he's a sweet
kid."
Most countertenors are male altos, and most use a developed
falsetto (which fell into disfavor as 19th century opera got louder
and louder), while a few really do sing healthily in soprano range.
In fact, if you happen to see the King's College Cambridge Chapel
Choir on TV (the choir where the Kings Singers got their early
training), you'll notice that all the boys are singing treble
(soprano), while 3 or 4 young men are singing alto, the traditional
Anglican voicing, rather than the German practice of having boys sing
both soprano and alto. Our older son is a professional
countertenor whose head voice lies naturally in a mezzo-soprano range,
but he sang soprano with Chanticleer for four years (including three
Grammy nominations and one Grammy Award), and is now exploring the
operatic and oratorio literature suitable for his voice in the masters
program at Yale. I've put Mike and his mother in contact with
our son, at least once he returns from singing in Italy this summer.
Mike has great potential for a professional career, no thanks to the
TMEA! But even if he won't have the Texas Honors Choir on his
resume to attract scholarship money, the flap the Texans have caused
have actually given him better publicity by far.
Consider the bell-curve that describes the distribution of any
and every human attribute. Some men really are sopranos, and
some are contrabasses. They may be hanging out there a couple of
standard deviations from the mean, but they're there. And some
women really are baritones (e.g. Carole Channing!) while others can
emulate Mariah Carrey, again way out there from the mean. But
the folks in Texas can't seem to deal with deviations of any kind,
standard or otherwise!
John
--
John & Susie Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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