h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: BAROQUE VOCAL ORNAMENTATION - The Elaborate Pearls of the Voice - A689187
Author: Almirena - U189406

This is a discussion of some of the issues affecting modern performances of early music. Almirena is a professional opera singer, a qualified teacher of singing and music theory, and specialises in early music.

I like this entry. I find it somewhat long, without any titles to give it form. Perhaps you could put in some headings such as "Boy-soprano Voice", "The Baroque Revival" and so on.

Two typos:

the prevails --> that prevails
exemplifed --> exemplified

I must say that I like the entry and that I think it should be put into the edited guide!
I also agree with Gnomon, the text could do with a bit of GuideML. Maybe try

The Baroque Revival

or so in the entry.

One othing I'm somewhat interested in (I have to admit that I know nothing about music apart from how to listen to it):
How close to "real" baroque music is modern classic music? I'm thinking of Lisa Gerrard (Ex- Dead Can Dance) singing Händel's Largo or some of the modern-classic Goth-ish bands like Dead Can Dance, Stoa (http://www.stoa.de/sites/history.html - with special reference to Händel) or Milar Mar (the singer's voice spans four octaves)...

Tube

Hi, Almirena!

I found your entry really interesting. I see that you have put in plain text headings - a Sub-Editor will put those into GuideML if the entry is accepted, so that point is sorted out.

There are a few Edited entries it would be worth linking to (the sub-Editor should put the links in for you as well):

My entry on Castrati in Opera A590348
Kes' entry on Baroque Music A420724
Handel A412444

Good Luck!
Azara

Yes, that looks a lot better with those titles! Well done. I'm sure this one will be picked fairly shortly.

Dead right Gnomon!

Yes, Almirena, your entry will shortly be joining the hallowed ranks of the edited guide!

Nice work indeed - keep it up!

for Almirena!

Azara

Thank you all for your lovely comments and helpful suggestions. I hope the article provides some interesting ideas about early vocal music - particularly negating the idea that it must bore the leggings off any listener...

I have never, ever failed to see delight on the faces of my audience members when performing Monteverdi madrigals, for instance - whether they're solo madrigals, or two- or three- or four-part madrigals requiring other singers. Long may the music of the baroque live again in the vocal folds of modern singers!

- Almirena

Congratulations!

Could you tell me what you as a singer think of the likes of Stoa (see posting #3 above)?

Thanks!
Tube

I must admit, first of all, that I don't know Anke Hachfeld's voice through personal listening AT ALL, and so all I can say about the purported four-octave range is this: Quite a few singers have been said to have a so-many octave voice, but the only way to be sure of that is to hear them live, without a microphone, without any synthesised effects or fancy editing.
With rock singers, it's almost a given that there's going to be some editing (quite apart from the necessary editing to present the best possible recording). Kate Bush, for instance, has dubs and over-dubs to achieve the various effects she wants. It's a different matter entirely to have a real four-octave range.
Most trained opera singers have between 2 and 2 and a half octaves, and that's pretty darned good. Some have a wider range that includes notes which (ahem... let's be honest) should NEVER be heard outside of a shower cubicle!
The singers who are generally acknowledged to have the widest vocal range generally between 2 and a half octaves to 3 octaves, and they're usually soprano coloraturas (like Edita Gruberova) or extraordinary mezzos (like Cecilia Bartoli). Men's ranges are usually shorter. I'm talking about vocal pitches which are fit to be heard by other people... not just a squeaky sound at the top of the range, or a disgusting rumble that sounds like a distressed cow in deep pain at the bottom of the range.
So... on the subject of the four-octave voice, I reserve judgement, not having had the opportunity to hear this singer either in recordings (with edited extensions possible), or live without any sound effects (which would be the only way to REALLY judge such a thing).
Lisa Gerrard's singing style is absolutely appropriate to the type of music she sang Goth-style, but... don't get me wrong... I really feel singers should not try to approach classical music in the same way as they approach modern music. They are performed in different styles. For the same reason, if I sing jazz, I do things I would never EVER do in opera, and ditto when I sing opera. It's an entirely different technique - but I get away with using things in jazz that I couldn't get away with as an opera singer, or in singing German Lieder by Wolf, Schumann, Schubert, Strauss, etc... or singing French melódies by Faurè, Massenet, etc... and so on and so on.
The study of vocal music (classical) covers an enormous amount of ground - we're talking about something like FOUR HUNDRED YEARS of different styles! When it comes to modern stuff, well... it's been around since... what... the sixties? There just isn't anywhere NEAR the same amount to learn as a singer of modern music. It's a heck of a lot freer in style, for one thing - you can be much more experimental, less careful about pitch, less careful about maintaining good breath control (you can even use bad technique - à la Bob Dillon - to convey a song), and so on. It has its own difficulties - and it can be ENORMOUSLY painful to hear a classical singer sing something modern. They are faced with two extremes: singing it like an operatic aria (hear the hilarious - and deliberate - version of "I've got a ticket to ride" as performed by Cathy Babarian), or being deliberately sloppy in a rather weird attempt to sound casual.
Modern classic movement? How do you define it? If you mean modern Goth music, it can be incredibly effective stuff... but it really has no resemblance to appropriately performed baroque music. They're two completely different styles.
On a personal note, I really do NOT want to hear a rock singer killing Handel's "Ombra mai fù". Let me tell you why: 1. it's performed over-much anyway. 2. It comes from an opera - and my view is that if you physically or technically cannot sing the entire role, then you're insulting the composer by amputating the aria. 3. It was written for a mezzo soprano voice of a particular type of timbre (I acknowlege there's a significant leeway in this - Handel had no qualms about transposing things up or down for various different singers, but he still transposed for the CLASSICAL STYLE). 4. It's usually performed with "modern" instrumentation - and I don't believe that is respectful to the composer, who had particular instrumental timbres in mind.
I'd much rather hear Lisa Gerrard sing something in her usual style, than singing Handel - and I'd rather hear Anne Sofie von Otter sing Handel than something jazzy.

Re: Anke Hachfeld: All I know is that she was described as having such a vocal range in all the stuff I read about her. I've seen Mila Mar live three times. And I must say that her charisma and her voice was just ... *wow*.

I mean it had just about everybody transfixed... I was standing in the second row centre with her leaning into the audience (no security gap, it was just a small place). She did that with a song called "Follow me (Vision 2000 + 1)" where she goes from a child-like to a rather deep voice. The version which is featured on there album "Elfensex" (Indigo Records 9528-2) has some kind of filter put over it but the live aperaance was way better. ...

Anyway. I lack the ablity to discern two octaves from five of them so I'm not the one to argue with you.

If you'd really like to judge her voice I could provide some samples.

Most certainly I will not start to say anything about any mass-comercialised music.

As for Lisa Gerrard, again, I'm in no position to doubt what you say. Nevertheless she had classical training for all I know. Nevertheless I understand what you say about the difference of singing jazz and opera and that these things don't mix.

"... but it really has no resemblance to appropriately performed baroque music. They're two completely different styles."
Thanks! That what I wanted to know!

Thanks for the input on something I don't really have an insight in!