At 5:46 AM -0400 5/18/11, Christopher Smith wrote:
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.
I notice that the wording of some comments suggests that the SINGERS are making these choices. Of course that isn't true. It's the composer or arranger who makes these choices, and makes them on the same basis that's used when scoring for any other instrumental section: how will this SOUND when it's sung!
And there's also the question of voicing. In a closed position 4-part chord, the tenor will be on a harmony note that's higher in their range than the soprano's melody note. Think about it for a minute! In open-position voicing, of course, the relationships change. So it isn't the range of the voices as a section or as individuals, but the needs of the harmonization that control both the range and the tessitura.
My wife sang for a jingle session quite a few years ago, and the arranger was obviously a pianist. Every time the lead note jumped up or down, all the other harmony parts also jumped up or down with it, just as if he had kept it all under his right hand! VERY difficult to sing, and very choppy sounding. If it had been me, I would have alternated tight and open voicings to make the voice leading smoother, but I didn't get that gig!
John -- John R. Howell, Assoc. Prof. of Music Virginia Tech Department of Music College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences 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 "We never play anything the same way once." Shelly Manne's definition of jazz musicians. _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
