Ze Bromances

The most important piece I think you noted in this blog was, “the ease of technique” which has is an aspect you’ve hinted at in class. Good singing technique involves proper language approach as well. Sometimes the way in which you sing a oo vowel can brighten the pitch or darken it depending on how forward you’re speaking it. As it relates to the language, the technique of the vowel can be bad enough to flatten or sharpen with your pitch in context to the entire phrase you are singing.

More than I notice the language of Mr. Wunderlich in Dies Bildnis, more obvious is how musical he is with the language. He has a very measured and calm way of singing that knows exactly its size but doesn’t spend too much time on any one note or consonant. His consonants [ç] and [x] are incredibly soft, but vibrates through every voiced and unvoiced consonant. “ich fühl' es”;”Doch fühl' ichs” His line is impeccable. Throughout his singing he definitely keeps a consistent ring, no matter what dynamic. And hey, if I sounded like that I’d probably tilt my head back as much as he does as well. 

In the 1st Schubert Song, there is an incredible change in the color of his voice from the more operatic works. He was more breathy with his tone, especially on the descending passages “Röslein auf der Heiden.” he puts the breaks in the words in such a way that you still know what they are. I also loved the t’s at the end of the high “rot” every time. It wasn’t a separate event, nor did it take away from the phrase itself. In two spots before this, however, he didn’t voice very well the “n” in “doch kein Weh” or “es eben leiden.” But it sure did sound good. In this situation I’d probably sacrifice the ’n’ just a little bit if it meant having a good as line as Mr. Wunderlich.

Having heard Die Forelle so many times in class, it is refreshing to hear such a clear interpretation by this man. He isn’t too text-y in that he (like as in all the other songs) keeps singing more about the phrase than the words. He doesn’t clip “rute” like some people do, and in addition, he doesn’t spent as much time on his “s” initial consonants, instead he focuses more on the vowels.

OK, I hate this guy. Really, in that last song his voice sounds so honest and pure, with a fine tenor ‘ping’ to it. Having never heard this song, it trumps and sounds better than my favorite Tom Jones song… Delilah. It is crazy to think that this song isn’t in it’s original language. It’s as if it is possible to make anything inherently German. His voice seems in a way, immortalized. I would have loved to hear what he sounded like 4-10 years with him not enduring a freak drunken stair accident. 

Ich habe genug, tonight before intermission.

Listening to Quasthoff I notice that the tempo seems way too fast. It almost seems that the text in some places are clipped some of his r’s aren’t rolled very much. Also, lots of the long phrases are straight-toned. In other places, the word stress is better, as in the second full entrance to the erblickt part. Even though the piece is much faster, he does a good job of executing some the text. Some of his vowels, especially “aa” seem awfully bright to my ear. After listening to it a second time, the tempo didn’t seem AS quick— some of his ‘der’ words sounded more like open eh's to me. In contrast to a lot of singers, Quashoff seems to really take delight in adding in making pronounced ending consonants. Not to say they are wrong, but it sounds probably 25%-40% more than most german singing I have heard thus far while doing these blogs. Strangely enough, some of the ending [t] like in the word “heiland” are VERY soft, and almost don’t seem to have a [t] at all.

Of course I listened to papa Dieskau second, because he truly is a master of interpretation and it was easy to find comparisons after listening to two distinctly different singers. The tempo to my ears immediately seems more reverent to the topic of the music, the Virgin Mary. In the very first few phrase Diskau does not make a big deal out of the ending consonants in “genug”. He does however, in the word “heiland” pronounce the [t] but very expertly, there is even space between heiland and der frommen without breathing. Diction wise, I also hear the double mm in frommen vibrated. In the same way some of the ’n’ ending consonants are vibrated as well with contrast to Quasthoff who does not. Also, he really uses the ‘f’ in hoffen dramatically, which I enjoy. His ending consonants to the word blickt are very constant, one can hear the [k] and the [t] separately .

“Ich habe genug” has definitely progressed my musical understanding, at least of baroque music anyway. Though I have had some opportunity to work on music with an orchestras, chamber music in some ways foreign to me and it has been a treat to work on this piece with Dr. Marshall and Sarah Keadle. It is so important with a long piece like this get the word stress and phrasing in the right place otherwise it sounds blocky. I feel really lucky to have the resources to do this piece with such an expert on baroque music.

3 Brahms Vergebliches Ständchen

Of course Rothenberger being the “strangest” voice, I had to start with her first. Her ending consonants are very pronounced compared to the other two. The pattern I have noticed with German diction ending consonants is how important and yet simultaneously unimportant they are. Some of her oo vowels seem more much more oo than the other two. Another strange vowel I notice is the öffne mir” which almost sounds like a schwa vowel instead of an umlaut sound.

Schawrzkopf:

The original link was dead, so I listened to this recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Bp9OqKX108 finding a video for this woman singing this song was extremely easy, and after listening it’s very easy to understand why. Her interpretation is extremely musical. Though I’m sure that her mouth isn’t making gigantic words and diction, though I can almost imagine her singing this song with a coyness and a litheness similar to that of a ballet dancer. Beyond her just being a fantastic singer, what I hear is her using the ending consonants lightly, instead of really spending time on them. Sometimes her ending d’s [t] are softer than other times.

Christa Ludwig 

She is really theatrical in this performance, especially  on the “Öffne mir” parts, she really digs into the darkness of the ö sound. Even though she seems to scoop a little on some of the pitches, it does seem very intentional. In general, her voice sounds a lot darker. Her vowels especially seem dark compared to the lightness of Schwarzkopf. 

It’s interesting that you mentioned turning pages for this woman. The two times I’ve turned pages in my life have been for Dr. Peter Marshall, the very first time was for none other than Jamie Barton.

On Olaf Bär

The first thing I notice about this particularly fantastic singer is the way each of the words fit together in a cohesive phrase. There’s no question about the umlauts when he uses them, the are very pure and seem almost dark. The way in which he puts on the [x] at the last moment really accents the word and doesn’t take too much time away from what he is singing. The [ҫ] are particularly soft in it pronunciation. You can tell from the inflection of the text that he really understands the push and pull of the texts. He does a fantastic job of changing dynamics and color. After listening a few times, it doesn’t seem like he rolls his r that much, and when he does it’s a very soft and slight roll. The second video in particular I had to listen to quite a few times, it is really hard to hear the video because of how quietly he sings. In particular, it sounds like his German is pretty standard, he sounds like a very sweet and soft singer, but one with a lot of power that can be made equally with his diction and his dynamic.

"Them Boys Can sing"

The last time I sang this arrangement of Ständchen was for Graham Johnson in 2013 at Songfest. His response was… “interesting.” However, the diction of these children is more than just interesting, their diction is spot on and very clean, everything sound very forward with excellent diction.

After listening to the german interview one gets a very good sense of the ends of words. For example wichtig has a very unique sh at the end that gives one an idea on how to sing the same consonant. Also, from listening to native germans speak you can get an idea of word stress, and also how quickly they speak. Despite the speed, you still get a sense of inflection. It is more soft than people make it out to be stereotypically. The ends of words with an en ending or schwa sounds is almost un pronounced. 

German Impressions

The impression that Hitler gave was one of force, which he exemplified with his use of consonants, the strong rolled r's and brightness. Quasthoff speaking was darker, a little smoother, and all-over softer. 

On Jerry's Tails

Jerry Hadly is so articulate in this video, and makes me realize what a bubble that we live in— we as students at GSU DO listen to the great singers. How many times have I been able to talk about the great Baritones, Bryn Terfel, or Thomas Allen, or Simon Keenlyside. Not to say they have the best technique, but Wunderlich is frequently a conversation topic. We all know about Jessye Norman or Leontyne Price. I’m not sure that this is the case elsewhere, which, with youtube, blows my mind that this does not exist today.

I completely agree that a lot of people remove themselves from the stage and the original intention. People don’t give themselves permission to attempt to explore the other aspects of Opera, Dance, Set Design, the tradition itself. How many people watch the constant flow of interviews from the Royal London opera house, the incredible resource of Masterclasses done by Joyce DiDonato or Renee, or just to hear what are the other singers my age doing?  

Why are classical singers are so arrogant? Because the art form that we pursue is an elite art form that people often think that because they know it at all then they are an authority. In a way, I think being an artist is about believing your in yourself— but when you aren’t constantly exploring that which has existed and that which exists in your reality and realm, breaking yourself down, listening to yourself and knowing that you always have room for improvement. I know I’m not, nor will I ever perfect. There is a huge line between believing what you do and just being careless with your learning.

Inappropriate choices of casting. I’m not sure if I always agree with this in the case of the newest Cardiff singer of the world, the antithesis of an opera singer that is thin— Jamie Barton is an incredible Mezzo who stands on stage and delivers. No one feels cold after her performances. However, in general the flashiness of opera with sets and modernity and sexy bodies, that removes the audience from any semblance of the original intention with no string of truth back to the composers intention. A lot of Baritones today are BEAUTIFUL men, but they aren’t the best singers. I’d like to see better singers, but you do have to be sexy these days. We are competing with Television, and all sorts of flashiness— at the heart of opera lies the heart of the thing itself which is to JUST SING, but the aspects of Theatre MUST come together on stage in order for it all to be convincing.