Early Music on Record Review

[Nick Armstrong]

OK. To try and answer a few queries about the terms 'head' and 'chest' voice and about male altos versus countertenors....

Read that twice, ardcarp - many thanks! Answers a few questions.

The Esswoods were local friends of my parents when I was growing up, and Paul's recordings often filled our house: that's the first such voice I was exposed to.

I've certainly always preferred the 'cleaner' voice than the more florid (dare one say, fruity) type of countertenor, although I agree Bowman is such a consummate musician that he confounds categorisation.

One thing your post makes me think about is the tradition south of the Channel - I'm almost more familiar with French baroque music than with English, and the French "haute-contre" is I think another thing again... Not a "counter-tenor" (as the 'counter' - 'contre' connection might suggest), but a tenor with a very high top end - but never 'falsetto'.... Jean-Paul Fouchécourt being the great exponent recently (our Paul Agnew has a great career in French baroque music too, but I've never enjoyed his voice as much).

[Pegleg]

ardcarp,

Ramble all you like, you've got my attention! Thanks for a most informative piece. There are some comic costume clips of Russell Oberlin on youtube, I had thought he had claimed he was a true alto. What of Paul Esswood? How would you characterise his voice?

PS Sorry Caliban I missed your last post re: the Esswwods. Another point of departure, I rather Like Paul Agnew's singing.

[french frank]

My grasp of German is only gleaned through singing a lot of it, mainly Bach, but I'm always intrigued by the 'ch' sound, e.g. 'nicht' or 'nisht'. I've been asked to do it both ways. Damien tended towards the 'nisht'

I think - but there are Germanists about - that what you hear as a 'sh' sound comes after an 'i' (and an 'e'? Not sure.). You would write write my pronunciation of 'ich' as 'ish'. It's a high sound, rather than the low guttural 'c' as in 'Bach ou Buch.

Or is it dialect?

[ardcarp]

Ah yes, Calibs, Paul Esswood. He was a consummate artist, performing widely in Europe, and appearing on countless Leonhardt and Harnoncourt Bach recordings. IMO he sang like a contralto, and I was both surprised and intrigued to hear him singing Schumann's Dichterliebe. I think he falls into a category all of his own!
I'm afraid my ramblings were necessarily 'potted' and there is much I missed, and no doubt much I am ignorant of. Yes indeed there was the French 'haute contre' tradition. One might widen out the discussion (though hardly Early Music) to the top tenors in Welsh male voice choirs, or to ditto in Barber-Shop/US close-harmony groups. I've done a bit of 1st from the Yale Song Book...just for fun...but it don't arf make yer eyes water after an hour or so. As far as the Bach solo tenor repertory is concerned, thank the Lord for A415.

Dovers, if Wiki is to be believed, Tippett did describe Deller as a countertenor (I don't remember it personally) but maybe others will know if the term was in general usage in the UK pre-1950.

[doversoul1]

ardcarp

This is not to say that all 'modern' falsettists sound the same. Some sound very pure, exhibiting a traditional boy-treble-like purity. One could call this the Deller school, which Damien Guillon seems to embrace to great effect. Others introduce more 'character' into their voices

So, head voice is an effect rather than a mechanism (?) of voice production? In other words, all countertenors sing in falsetto but not all of them in head voice, as Fagioli & Co. are obviously not seeking to create boy-treble effect?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Ah yes, Calibs, Paul Esswood. He was a consummate artist

IMO he sang like a contralto

My "O", too: I hear a Ferrier-like intensity in his voice that I adore - 'tho' Cali tooth enamel is probably falling off at the very suggestion!

[ardcarp]

So, head voice is an effect rather than a mechanism (?) of voice production? In other words, all countertenors sing in falsetto but not all of them in head voice, as Fagioli & Co. are obviously not seeking to create boy-treble effect?

Pass!

[jean]

From the OED:

1502 tr. Ordynarye of Crysten Men (de Worde) v. iv. sig. qq.iiv, I understonde by..ye counter tenoure [of the gloryous melodye of paradyse] ye ioye & the gladnes of the blessyd men & women of paradyse.

1594 T. Bowes tr. P.de la Primaudaye French Acad. II. 95 They make the voice..small, cleere, and shrill, like to the countertenor.

1631 R. Brathwait Whimzies ii. 13 Now he counterfeits a naturall Base, then a perpetuall Treble, and ends with a Counter-tenure.

1706 A. Bedford Temple Musick ix. 172 This in Musick, signifies the Counter Tenor.

1771 T. Smollett Humphry Clinker I. 108 He has got such a clear counter-tenor.

1814 Scott Waverley II. xix. 298 If you heard her fine counter-tenor admonishing Kate and Matty in the morning.

1856 S. Novello Voice & Vocal Art 4 In England, a fourth class of male voice is recognized, called alto, or counter-tenor.

1879 J. Hullah in Grove Dict. Music I. 58/1 The falsetto counter-tenor..still to be found in cathedral choirs, dates..from the restoration of Charles II.

And, as a noun denoting the singer rather than the voice,

?a1527 in Regulations & Establishm. Househ. Earl of Northumberland (1905) 41 Gentillmen of the Chapell viij Viz. ij Bassys—ij Tenors—and iiij Countertenours.

1623 in E. F. Rimbault Old Cheque-bk. Chapel Royal (1872) 10 John Croker, a conter tenor of Westminster.

1627 in E. F. Rimbault Old Cheque-bk. Chapel Royal (1872) 12 Richard Sandy, a contra tenor of St. Paules.

1711 E. Budgell Spectator No. 116. ⁋3 A most excellent Bass, but..at present he only wanted a Counter-Tenor.

1782 W. Mason Coll. Anthems p. xxxix, There was a very fine contratenor in the Royal Chapel.

1966 Musical Opinion Aug. 661/1 Purcell..is thought to have been a counter-tenor himself.

If the selection is representative, the word does seem to have suddenly reappeared in the mid-twentieth century

[ardcarp]

Jean. Wow.

[ardcarp]

....though I should add that Purcell's countertenorship has been questioned by later scholarship.

[doversoul1]

This is a completely unfounded speculation but I wonder if the modern definition of countertenor has much to do with the revival of Baroque opera, in that the term ‘countertenor’ came to mean more than high male voice but a particular kind of performers, obviously linked with castrati.

I think it was James Bowman who wrote (can’t remember where) that Deller considered himself to be a singer and not an actor. This seems to sort of explain the distinction between ‘the Deller school’ and the ‘other (?)’. Although many of those in ‘other’ category perform other than in opera, these in ‘other’ who can take place of castrati are, I think, still a minority.

Back to Damien Guillon and head voice. His Erbarme dich I posted in#2 of this thread is an excellent example of a countertenor singing in head voice but I have found in the past that this type of voice, or a countertenor who sings in this way is not always suitable for longer works. I have heard more than one performance of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater that made me feel quite sorry for the countertenor. Or I should probably say that there seems to be very few ‘head voice’ countertenors who can sustain a work of substantial length.

As for Fagioli, I think he is tremendous in this over the top, castrati sing kabuki on the stage within a stage production, but I can’t say he is my type of countertenor. I wonder what Deller would have thought about all this?!

I think I’d better send my hobbyhorse back in its stable.

[jean]

...I think it was James Bowman who wrote (can’t remember where) that Deller considered himself to be a singer and not an actor. This seems to sort of explain the distinction between ‘the Deller school’ and the ‘other (?)’...

I don't think so - I think it just means he couldn't act!

I think that was the reason why he never sang Oberon in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, though the part was written for him:

Grayston Burgess...sang in the revived production of Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, taking over from the American High Tenor Russell Oberlin in the part originally written by Britten for Grayston's mentor Deller.

(Interesting that Oberlin is here called a high tenor.)

[AscribeUntoTheLad]

ardcarp


So, head voice is an effect rather than a mechanism (?) of voice production? In other words, all countertenors sing in falsetto but not all of them in head voice, as Fagioli & Co. are obviously not seeking to create boy-treble effect?

I don't think the terms falsetto and head voice can be used interchangeably: I personally use both voices as a male alto (mostly falsetto and a bit of my head-voice if it gets uncomfortably low). I also have a chest voice, which I use when I sing bass occasionally.

[doversoul1]

I don't think the terms falsetto and head voice can be used interchangeably: I personally use both voices as a male alto (mostly falsetto and a bit of my head-voice if it gets uncomfortably low). I also have a chest voice, which I use when I sing bass occasionally.

Ah… (oh bother, I am supposed to have unsaddled my hobbyhorse) Does that mean head voice is not falsetto but a natural broken male voice ? And does that also mean that some countertenors may be singing without using falsetto at all? I thpought, from ardcarp’s explanation that head voice refers to a particularly high and pure/clean/treble like voice, and not lower sound?

[DracoM]

Paul Esswood has been for me the voice that characterised Monteverdi onwards. On the Hans-Martin Schneidt / Regensburg Domspatzen 1610 Vespers, he duets Pulchra Est with Kevin Smith, and while Smith does fantastically valiantly to keep up, Esswood simply floats into unimagined regions with utter purity and seemingly without strain. Desert Island Disc stuff for me.

Mastering the techniques of 'mezza-voce' is, I would suggest, a vital skill for all broken voices in such an ensemble as a cathedral / church choir where textures are necessarily lighter, maybe less full-on at times or more exposed. As a bass, I once had to sing the Byrd Three Part as an alto when sickness struck down both the good boy and one of the altos who usually sang top line. It was an ordeal - wonderful experience, but as ardcarp so, so rightly says. you very quickly have to learn to elide / shuttle from head to chest and back more or less as seamlessly as possible when the line is as exposed as it has to be in a nine voice ensemble.

Fascinating stuff, ardcarp. Many thanks.