Bellow me not!

I recently attended a rehearsal for a performance of Mozart's Requiem  in which one of my students was singing the soprano solo role. The other three singers in the quartet were as different from one another as could possibly be.

The mezzo had what sounded like it could be a good, authentic mezzo voice, but began every phrase with a straight tone and was often off pitch.

The tenor, a true tenor voice, sang with a pinched tone much of the time, and joined the mezzo in off-pitch singing; mostly sharp.

The basso had an enormous voice that could be really impressive but bellowed most of the time.

My student, the soprano, sang beautifully, but constantly had to battle the various sounds coming from the other three members of the quartet.

How, I asked myself, did these four people happen to be chosen to sing this work?

All of the voices showed great promise if you considered them simply as voices without the pitch and volume problems. But how, I asked myself, did they turn out this way?

Problems of pitch are usually either an inability to hear a pitch accurately or the result of some kind of tension. Sometimes tension will push a voice sharp; sometimes it will make it sing flat. The ability to sing in the center of the pitch must be a quality that any good singer possesses. If the problem is the ear, this may never happen, If it is the result of tension, it can be resolved.

'There is beauty in the bellow of the blast' sang Gilbert and Sullivan in The Mikado. Well, not always, it turns out. The tendency to sing everything at one volume: LOUD, is not an especially musical approach to singing.

I work with the principle of messa di voce  with all of my students. This merely means using the entire scope of dynamics possible in the voice when singing. Each phrase should have an element of this technique. It should follow an arc; starting softer, crescendoing, and then tapering off. This gives the voice the chance to offer emotion, musicality, and vocal line by incorporating this technique. It's a package deal. The voice heads for the end of the phrase, not in a one-volume shout, but in a beautiful arched line. The exercise of messa di voce  should be a part of every singer's repertoire. Without it, singing is one dimensional.

It is tough to sing against this sort of competition. Often the singer just gives in and joins the general noise. Don't fall for this! Hold your ground.

When Lorraine was singing the role of Didon in Les Troyens at the Met, she had to sing a duet with a Russian mezzo who sang at one dynamic level and had a wide vibrato. Lorraine said she just had to turn away and not listen to this for fear she would sympathetically get sucked into this unmusical way of singing. I heard her performance a number of times; she always held her own and sang musically and artistically.

Be yourself when all around you is collapsing. Don't go along with the herd. Lemmings do this and wind up in the sea!