{"id":4155,"date":"2016-12-21T09:20:41","date_gmt":"2016-12-21T13:20:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rockwellblake.com\/blog\/?p=4155"},"modified":"2016-12-22T06:36:19","modified_gmt":"2016-12-22T10:36:19","slug":"functional-fun-and-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/2016\/12\/21\/functional-fun-and-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Functional Fun and Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

To tell a student to stay away from Falsetto is to turn him away from about half of the possible vocal effects that an artist should bring to his interpretation.\u00a0 In ages past, music was written with an expectation that an artist would use every tool he or she had developed over the course of their studies and experience to bring forth the best possible interpretation of the best efforts of composers and librettists. Falsetto<\/a> is one of the foundational and indispensable essentials that an artist cannot ignore.\u00a0 Garcia embeds discussion of this Vocal Function into forty four pages of his first book<\/a>. Gigli was a master manipulator of Vocal Function and put Falsetto to great use in his rendition of \u201cDalla sua pace\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/a>

Gigli’s Way<\/p><\/div>\n

A complete analysis of Gigli\u2019s rendition of \u201cDalla sua pace\u201d might be fun to do, but a blog is no place to wedge such a project which deserves a book length treatment. Besides, it would be way too much information for my \u201cTwilight Zone\u201d tenor to have to process. I think it would be a good thing to just mark the score where Gigli and Pavarotti sing in Falsetto and where they sing in Chest Voice so that everyone can see marked in the music what I hear in their singing. That would be concerning, Chest Voice and Falsetto use specifically, and we can compare how these artists used of these precious tools.<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Beniamino-Gigli-Wolfgang-Amadeus-Mozart-Dalla-sua-pace-London-1939-YouTube.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/a>

Pavarotti’s Way<\/p><\/div>\n

I think it\u2019s a great way to start a discussion about the audible effects that result from the use of these tools. I am beginning to wonder just how many of us know what Chest Voice sounds like, and what Falsetto sounds like, not to mention the differences between them. Talking or writing about them is really useless if we cannot agree on what we are hearing when we are listening to the same thing.\u00a0 Saying, \u201cI hear Falsetto\u201d when Chest Voice is being sung is like saying \u201cI hear ducks\u201d when there are only chickens singing in the barn yard. You may love ducks. I love them roasted, but, if they are not making noise, you can\u2019t hear them\u2026.<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Luciano-Pavarotti-Dalla-sua-Pace-Don-Giovanni-YouTube-enhansed.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

Well, we could accept that some Post Modern<\/a> tenors might believe that they are hearing ducks, but,,, well,,,, we could end up with the question: \u201cWhat is a duck, anyway?\u201d and that is a subject for a different blog.<\/p>\n

When I hear Chest Voice, I think of Red.\u00a0 When I hear Falsetto I think of Blue. So I marked the Pavarotti and Gigli piano\/vocal scores attached to this blog with bars of Red and Blue to show you where I hear chickens and where I hear ducks\u2026.. Sorry\u2026..\u00a0 You get the picture.<\/p>\n

Please print out my red and blue lined piano vocal scores of \u201cDalla sua pace\u201d so you can follow along while I hope you will listen to these great Dead White<\/a> guys yet again.<\/p>\n

I want my \u201cTwilight Zone\u201d tenor, and anyone else interested, to hear just how differently this aria can be sung with admirable results.\u00a0 I have to admit that singers, or opera fans for that matter, can be partisans so radicalized that they would be unable to appreciate these artists\u2019 singing beyond making the statement: \u201cI hate Gigli and love Pavarotti!!\u201d or \u201cI hate Pavarotti and love Gigli!\u201d with the possible added epithet: \u201cWho cares about Mozart anyway? Let\u2019s listen to these guys sing some real music!!\u201d\u00a0 Oh!!!\u00a0I almost\u00a0forgot to include: \u201cGigli and Pavarotti are dead. Like so yesterday. I mean, like, you know, can\u2019t we just forget about all that old stuff, and Mozart! Wow, what a dinosaur.\u201d I hope no one takes offence. I might have to create a \u201cSafe Space\u201d on my blog.<\/p>\n

Getting back to what I want to talk about. Gigli used Chest Voice sparingly but Pavarotti used Chest Voice almost exclusively. Which is the better interpretation? I like both. As a partisan, myself, I rate the gifts that God gave these artists differently.\u00a0 Luciano had the greater vocal gift, but Gigli was gifted with greater imagination and courage. Luciano accepted the inevitability of Falsetto when he decided to approach soft singing.\u00a0 Gigli made his singing live in Falsetto until he decided to express himself with louder singing. \u00a0Most of Luciano\u2019s interpretation was in mezzo forte to forte, so Chest Voice was his best friend. Gigli made mezzo piano to pianissimo his favored area of expression and Falsetto was his even more useful friend. I don\u2019t expect everyone to agree with me, and hope, before you leave, you will add your opinion in the first comment space (not \u201cSafe Space\u201d) I have offered on these blogs.\u00a0 I hope you will comment on this subject, Falsetto\/Chest Voice, as well as the artists represented here. It is a free country that we live in, and free will is one of my favorite God given gifts. So you can opine any way you want, on any subject you want and this benevolent dictator, me, will let every sane person participate.<\/p>\n

I feel the need to provide a discussion area now, because getting Garcia\u2019s book into your hands<\/a> is a commercial exchange. Just ask the tax man<\/a>. This three way conversation inspires me to cut him out as best I can, and the exchange of ideas has yet to be taxed in America. So let\u2019s tell each other what we think and let the tax man take a hike. Merry Christmas to us all and let the tax man be happy with his day off.<\/p>\n

Next time I\u2019ll talk about Falsetto being no place to hide vocal difficulty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To tell a student to stay away from Falsetto is to turn him away from about half of the possible vocal effects that an artist should bring to his interpretation.\u00a0 In ages past, music was written with an expectation that an artist would use every tool he or she had developed over the course of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,4,53,85,51,50],"tags":[80,220,309,319,318,56,72,63],"class_list":["post-4155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-featured","category-garcia","category-opera","category-singing","category-teaching","tag-be-a-singer","tag-chest-voice","tag-garcia","tag-gigli","tag-pavarotti","tag-singing-song-voice","tag-tenor","tag-voice"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Rocky-and-Car.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2kj1l-151","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4155"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4185,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4155\/revisions\/4185"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}