aeismail

475 reputation

bio	website	mst.rwth-aachen.de
	location	Aachen, Germany
	age
visits	member for	1 year, 5 months
	seen	Jun 9 at 17:16
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	475 reputation	bio	website	mst.rwth-aachen.de	visits	member for	1 year, 5 months
16 badges		location	Aachen, Germany		seen	Jun 9 at 17:16

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24 Comments

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Mar 9	comment	Orchestration and painting evenly over the spectrum It sounds like you're referring more to the clarity of the sound than the "fullness" of it. Could you suggest a musical example of the contrast you're interested in exploring?
Jan 22	comment	How do I develop a bass voice? OK. That's much more believable. On the other hand, you really don't need to go down to A1—there's only a handful of works that call for it! Practically, it sounds like you're a baritone. You shouldn't really need to get much lower than the Eb2—and even then, it's more a "bonus" than a necessity.
Jan 21	comment	How do I develop a bass voice? That's actually quite a high range—more or less a tenor range. But the bottom note is quite a lot higher than the bottom note for "typical male voices."
Jan 20	comment	How do I develop a bass voice? A bunch of questions here: Are you sure you have your ranges notated correctly? An adult male who can't comfortably sing below A3 (the A directly below middle C) can't really sing any of the standard male voice parts (at least not as they're normally written). What is your top note? Might you really be a tenor or countertenor instead?
Jan 14	comment	What is a baritenor? Seems to be. Every conductor seems to have his or her own opinion of where I should sing. (I've been asked to sing everything from bass II to tenor I in the last decade.)
Jan 14	comment	What is a baritenor? It's changed since those days, but in chest and head voice it's from F2 to Ab4, plus a falsetto range that goes from roughly F3 to F#5. My tessitura, though, is roughly Eb3 to F4.
Jan 9	comment	Is that a hemiola or what? It could be three bars of 6/8 followed by a 3/4 bar.
Jan 9	comment	How do I determine my vocal range? I think that range and tessitura are often confused. The tessitura is not given by the extremes, but by the interval where the singer should spend most of his or her time. A good singer can finesse a few low or high notes if needed, but a part whose tessitura doesn't match the singer's will be extremely tough to sing, even if the range is within the singer's compass.
Jan 9	comment	Placement of vocal soloists with orchestra Thanks for the answer. However, a few points: (1) My middle-school choir did four-part music--quite often, in fact! (2) I think you have the soloist disposition in the War Requiem backwards (remembering the photos I've seen). (3) I've noticed this phenomenon with certain works, and not others, in the same venue with the same forces. For instance, I've seen the BSO do the Verdi and Mozart Requiems and place the soloists out front, but not for the Missa Solemnis!
Nov 10	comment	Voice - Trouble with high notes What voice type are you, and what range is causing problems? Is it the "normal" upper end of your range, or is it "above" the normal range?
May 8	comment	Will I ever be able to sing higher? No, I mean "develops," with changes at both ends possible. My own range expanded by a fourth upward and a third downward during that time span. Other professional singers have talked about their range expanding over time as well, on both ends.
Apr 29	comment	Will I ever be able to sing higher? Good question. I don't think I'd expect a tenor voice to emerge, but from my own experience—going from a chest voice upper limit of E♭4 to nearly A4 during my 20s, I think a solid baritone range could be possible. But, as I said, he could just as easily be a power bass that can't really have the upper range. It depends a lot on how old JJS is, what kind of sound profile he has, and how important it is for him to extend his range upward.
Apr 28	comment	Will I ever be able to sing higher? @WheatWilliams: Voices develop over time. A bass might not be able to sing tenor right now, but that doesn't mean he will never be able to sing tenor. (I've moved up from high baritone to first tenor in the last few years, so I know it's possible!)
Apr 28	comment	Will I ever be able to sing higher? You haven't mentioned how old you are. For men, their voices keep maturing across a long period of time—well into their late 20's or early 30's. Moreover, just because you don't know how to sing high doesn't mean you can't. It may be a matter of training, or it just might mean you're really a "power bass."
Apr 28	comment	Will I ever be able to sing higher? "Professional singers . . . sing with what nature gave them." This is a factually misleading statement: some of the most famous singers of our time, including Placido Domingo, "built" their voice. (Domingo, for instance, was originally a baritone!) Nature may have given people a lot more talent than they know.
Apr 19	comment	Accepted ranges for SATB choral works? I don't think the tenor ranges are that extreme—and an occasional B flat in the tenor I part could be quite thrilling in practice. Also, I've known quite a few sopranos at the collegiate level who had the requisite notes to sing a high D flat. So it's not impossible—and the original poster mentioned it was an optional note.
Apr 19	comment	Accepted ranges for SATB choral works? I think you mean E♭4 for the soprano II's, right?
Mar 29	comment	Is there a formal name for this type of composition? @filzilla: The British concept of "fantasy" is quite different from those used in other countries. There was an old Baroque form of music called a "fantasy" (or "phantasy") featuring contrasting slow and fast sections, and predominantly scored for strings. Modern British works (such as those by Vaughan Williams or Britten) with "Fantasy" in the title harken back to this tradition.
Mar 1	comment	Placement of vocal soloists with orchestra Thanks for the answer, but I think this misses the mark somewhat. I was curious about placement of soloists when there's an orchestra involved. The "couple of metros" argument doesn't normally apply in those circumstances, because the typical stage is packed full of choristers and instrumentalists in such circumstances. My question is then: why do they place soloists with the chorus for some orchestral works, but at the front of the platform for others? Is it a historical tradition for those works, or is something else at work?
Feb 28	comment	Placement of vocal soloists with orchestra Yes, I did. Thanks for the catch.