Saturday, November 14, 2009

Changing Fach

I recently received the following request for advice through my website, from a singer contemplating a fach change. Because I couldn’t reach them by e mail, I am posting my response here. I hope you find it interesting.

Hello Joel,

After reading your blog posts, and invitation to answer questions, I have some questions to ask which might require more space or effort than you’d like to give, but I’m hoping you’ll have some input for me.

I’m a 30 year old baritone with a B.Mus in voice. I have been singing middle-sized roles professionally, and tend to be given vocal parts that demand a certain amount of metal in the voice. This has been very comfortable for me, and I have no trouble singing these roles. In my lessons and coaching sessions, I have been working on light to middle-weight Verdi (Rodrigo, Conte di Luna, Pere Germont), and have also been comfortable here. I have not tried to tackle anything heavier for fear of ruining my voice.

My teacher has offered me three points of interest:

1) My voice is young, and as such still has a brighter timbre than might usually been identified with these roles. Still, it is far too dark in timbre for lyric roles.

As an aside, I can tell you that of the Mozart roles, only Don G and The Count from Figaro have ever felt right, every other baritone part I’ve sung sits too low and wears me out quickly... :(

2) My top can be extremely bright at times, and gets brighter the further away from the passagio I get (G will be bright than F#, G# brighter than G...), enough so that he believes I might be a tenor.

3) My voice is “huge” (his word, not mine). Despite being reassured of this on a number of occasions by many people (teachers, coaches, directors, conductors), I do feel sometimes like I’m not being heard... It’s very difficult for me to believe sometimes that my piano singing is in-fact communicating.

My questions are these:

With respect to point 1, without wanting to over-cover/over-darken my voice, should I just give my voice time to find it’s own darkness, or should that weight have appeared by now, given that I am 30?

With respect to point 2, I am very nervous to attempt training as a tenor, but am still open to the idea. Will it damage my voice to try training as a tenor with a professional?

My top - on good days - will go strongly to a B natural, and does not feel strained at all, but those days are VERY few and far between (the last time I even though to try B natural was 6 months ago... it felt good, but I didn’t push it). Anything above that has never sounded good to me, and I never attempt it.

I feel most comfortable with my voice singing between D below middle C to F above middle C, with the occasional higher notes thrown in.

I have never felt like a tenor, but my lower voice stops being audible at A natural below C below middle C.

I am frustrated and feel like my voice is too high to be a real baritone, and too low to be a tenor, and too heavy and big to be a lyric baritone... to be honest, on bad days I feel like an unteachable freak because I can’t find anyone who really understands what to do with this voice I’ve got.

Realizing that I’ve just written you an essay, feel free to respond or not respond as you see fit. I wouldn’t hold it against you if you didn’t care to respond.

With much thanks,

Anonymous

Dear Anonymous:

The darkness of the voice is a function of the supported expansion of the pharynx. With the pharynx expanded comfortably, the palate high, and the larynx released, the body must be free to respond to the voice with greater activity in the abdominal system (remember that the abdominals extend all the way up to the nipple line) and in the muscles of the chest wall as you ascend the scale. When all this is achieved, the singer must still feel that the function of singing is as light as speaking, but the emerging sound will have a balanced colour, that is, not be weighted toward the dark or the bright overtones. It should have a full harmonic spectrum that includes the brilliant ring in the voice (the fourth formant) and a lowered frequency spectrum for all the vowels. This must not be achieved by “darkening” the voice, which is something done by ear, not by method.

My answer to your question, then is “If you sing really well, your voice will have a balanced colour, even at age thirty: but you must not, on any account , darken the voice.”

Be very very careful if you attempt to train as a tenor. Make sure that you understand breathing and support, and then figure out how to “turn” the voice in the passagio area. Do not just try to sing higher rep, because you will hurt yourself. Having said that, there are pieces that may assist you in making the transition. For instance: try “o del mio dolce ardor” in the high key. Do not attempt the helden tenor repertoire until you have worked out your issues.

Vocal quality is not conclusive evidence regarding fach. Example: a young fellow came to me last year, sounding like a tenor, although he only sang up to an F#, and was insecure about his top. He was singing with a high larynx, and no support. Actually, he is a baritone. You, on the other hand are already singing professionally, so I assume that your vocal position is pretty good, and that you are not singing with a tight throat. To be sure about that, I would have to hear you. In any case, if you want to try the transition to tenor, you need to learn how a tenor sings in the passagio, and how to support.

Vocal range is also not always a reliable determinant of fach. A voice that stops at an A natural in the second octave below middle C could still be a big baritone. My teacher, Louis Quilico, had a huge Verdi voice, and not much bottom.

The most interesting voices are always the ones who don’t seem to fit. A young dramatic voice, for instance, never fits the lyric mould. This is not so well understood in North America; in Europe, they have more experience with these kinds of voices.

Best,

Joel

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