willy the shake wrote:
>>>>>still confused about how someone i.e. Joni is still a
soprano. <much like being a blonde or a brunette>. Yeh but people end up
with different hair colour from when they were born. >>>>>>>.
and then deb added:
>>>>>But if age changes our anatomies (it did mine!) then can't the
"anatomical
fact" of one's voice change also?
I used to be a brunette, but now I'm a grayette. Both are anatomical
facts!>>>>>>
so i panicked and thought i had acquired joni's knack for false analogies.
but no, mes petits! that's exactly my point! you begin your life a blonde
and you don't become a brunette as you grow old [without chemical
enhancement, that is]. you just become a blonde in decline [oh god, how
deliciously insulting!]. your hair simply loses its natural color, you don't
change ''hair categories''. even grey-haired, a former brunette retains
certain characteristics [hair thickness, complexion, etc..] that would
identify her as a brunette who has turned grey. our anatomies change for the
worse, i'm afraid. the analogy still holds.
as to whether joni might improve her voice by giving up smoking ... well,
whatever happened, she would be a very cranky joni. anyway, in my arrogant
opinion, i don't think so. high notes are very much a matter of muscular
control, especially one's diaphragm [the muscle, not the rubber thingy]. one
case in point [and will he ever stop showing off his opera queen's
background?] is that of australian soprano marjorie lawrence. she was struck
by polio when she was singing in mexico in 1941. although she could never
walk again, she started rehearsing as soon as she was able to sit at a
piano. according to her autobiography [and there's the hollywood movie
too!!!], she tried to sing annie laurie , you know, the folk song, the fifth
note of which is pretty high, and she couldn't do it. she tried time after
time, and whenever she reached that fifth syllable her voice broke into a
hideous croak. her husband and her housekeeper were there and they were
terrified. they were thinking that she'd lost it, you know, the woman that
had sung brunnhilde and isolde at the MET was now a total vocal wreck. but
lawrence was elated: she still had a voice!!! when they objected that, yes,
she had a voice, but how about being unable to sing, wouldn't that be an
obstacle of sorts? she replied, ''oh that's just muscles, you know? a little
practice and all the highs will be back.'' and indeed they were! on december
27 [my birthday, incidentally] 1942 [18 years before i was born] she was
back at the MET!!!
i think that joni might extend her range [not that she needs to] and
''clean'' her timbre [should she want to do so] if she started working on
her breathing and her muscular control. this doesn't mean that i think she
should do any of this or that she should kill herself or that she should do
felt-tip pen drawings again or that i don't love joni mitchell, for god's
sake. but you asked.
wallyk
