On 22 Jul 2005 at 18:53, Mark D Lew wrote: > As for the male singing soprano, both Darcy and David F made a similar > point by claiming that the Texas countertenor is singing in his > "normal" range. I think semantics is getting in the way of > information here. I don't want to tangle with the words "normal" or > "natural" because it carries a value judgment when you deny that an > activity is natural or normal. But allowing the claim to stand is > misleading. If Gary sings tenor and Bob sings bass, the two men are > using pretty much the same vocal technique in their singing. If > Andrew sings countertenor, he is not using the same vocal technique. > He is using his voice in a different way. All men have either > register available to them, but one is choosing to develop the higher > register while the others are not. If the lower register is defined > as "normal", then both bass and tenor are normal in a way that > countertenor is not.
You're making the same mistake as the Texas rulemakers. You're looking at "normal" for the population of men. We're looking at "normal" for individuals. The countertenor who sang with the NYU Collegium (and a countertenor who sang with the choir I was in back in Cleveland) had far more agility and control in the countertenor range than he had in the baritone range. And this was despite the fact that he'd been singing countertenor regularly for less than a year when he sang the Buxtehude Jubilate in concert. You can criticize his actual performance however much you like, but he was a far better musician, far more usable in performance, in the countertenor range than he was in the baritone range. You may say it's "abnormal" but it wasn't for *him* -- it was the range where he was best able to make music. That should be what the Texas music educators should be concerned with, it seems to me. -- David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton David Fenton Associates http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
