I have noticed the OPPOSITE with untrained voices, though you are
certainly right about trained classical voices. I suspect that Mark
has the fortune to be working with better-trained choirs than the
national median.
Generally, the tenors stay up in their upper tessitura (choral Gs are
very common) while sopranos save it for special occasions (generally
staying under F until the climax), and there are way more amateur
altos that still sound full down to F than your garden-variety basses
(usually baritones) who are losing ground on the G.
In pop, of course, where women routinely stay out of the second
register, these differences are exaggerated. I often have to move
keys a 3rd or 4th when changing a pop song from male to female voice,
or vice versa. There are, of course, happy exceptions! Natalie Cole,
for example, when singing her father's repertoire, often keeps his
keys! He was a low male voice, though, and she has an exceptional
upper range in chest.
Christopher
On 18-May-11, at 18-May-11 5:00 AM, Raymond Horton wrote:
I have noticed this in opera, where the tenor's full-voiced high C is
a more rare commodity than is the soprano's. I think Mark's estimate
of a ninth difference is about right, on average.
Raymond Horton
Bass Trombonist, Louisville Orchestra
Minister of Music, Edwardsville (IN) UMC
Composer, Arranger
VISIT US AT rayhortonmusic.com
On Wed, May 18, 2011 at 4:07 AM, Mark D Lew
<[email protected]> wrote:
On May 16, 2011, at 10:42 AM, John Howell wrote:
Classical singers, voice teachers, and musicians in general take
it as an article of faith that men's and women's voices are an
octave apart, and in a lot of situations that works just fine.
Another thought: Although I never really formulated it as such, I
guess I think of the distance between men's voices and women's
voice more like a ninth rather than an octave.
For example:
- chorus altos on low G is like chorus basses on low F
- chorus tenors on high G is like chorus sopranos on high A
- baritone soloist's high F is like mezzosoprano soloist's high G
etc
mdl
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