O.k. guys, gals, who like to sing or read about singing,
this post is for you,
and it will all begin with what I call the paradox box: the voice
which seems to begin with the vowel and end with the breath.
Only more complex: the way the vowel manifests itself in the breath depends on
which vowels you're talking about and whether the musical line
is ascending or descending:
The round vowels, it would seem
tend to compress on the way up
and expand on the way down
while the bright vowels
operate in reversal:
therein lies the paradox.
In the ideal scenario compressions are lateral
this seems to be imperative in the tenor voice
though I've talked to sopranos, whose breath connection is less intense
sensing it vertically.
For ya'll singers out there:
does this description "resonate" with you?
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4 comments:
The voice works the same way essentially across the entire compass of range, I find, independent of gender.
Interestingly, what you describe would be exactly what I would expect. Even though it's higher in *your* register, it occupies the same place on the staff as the middle of the soprano voice. We "gather" our resonance when we descend. Likewise, when _you_ guys are approaching the same sonic area (as an ascent), it requires a "focus".
After we arrive above E natural (space 4 on the G-clef) we open up and can soar.
Yes, Greg, that is what I'm now discovering:
while vowels may have the tendency to differentiate themselves along upper and lower parts of the breath, ultimately they can be equalzed along the breath; and then the patterns of singing, whether ascending or descending, become far more elegant.
Miller likes to talk about the extra breath pressure associated with tenorial resonance, and the truncated range with a pinnacle at high C. He also likes to talk about the shift at F#.
Then again, Cornelius Reid would seem to support your point of view.
well, Richard Miller is a nice enough man. If you can make it through his books, you're a better man than I.
I think his scientific approach is Terrible, with a big T.
However, he does seem to be a good singer. And his ideas about the breath seem to be on target.
I'd like to find someone other than Cornelius Reid or Miller. Those are the two I've read.
Reid's triarchical theory of voice, focused on vowel, intensity (volume), and pitch does seem to be quite elegant.
My teacher seems to agree with Miller on one key point: tenors really do have a tougher game to play, in terms of riding on a relatively narrow larynx which increase breath pressure.
Who knows. I've heard many kinds of countertenors. Many kinds of tenors.--I suppose everyone has his/her idiosyncracies.
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