On Tuesday, Aug 29, 2006, at 01:04 America/Los_Angeles, Rob MacKillop wrote:
> I've been around early music singers for so long, I've forgotten what > a BIG > opera voice is like. Deafening! Despite playing as loud as I could, > with a > plectrum (which is the best natural amplifier available), I could have > been > playing 'Yellow Submarine', for all I was heard. Just two singers > screaming > at the top of their voices, and a piano bashing out the orchestral > part, the > noise was incredible. It will increase when the full orchestra kicks > in. > > Now, one is left with the conclusion that either Wagner was a poor > orchestrator, or these guys were singing too loud. Try telling > experienced > Wagner singers that they are too loud...they would not comprehend. I > actually found it quite funny. In fact the whole thing is an utterly > bizarre > experience. > Which leads to the question: what would be an 'authentic' (haven't > seen that > word for a while!) performance context for Wagner's 'laute'? Clearly > he knew > the volume of the instrument, and he is often regarded as being one of > the > greatest orchestrators ever, so one must give him credit: he knew what > he > was doing. At one point the guitar struggles beneath four screaming > singers > and full orchestra. So, is everyone too loud (possibly) or was the use > of > the 'laute' so heavily symbolic, that it didn't matter if it wasn't > heard? Things have changed a lot since the mid-19th century, though the evolution from human sound to superhuman shriek had already started. I remember hearing some famous tenor (Jan Peerce?) say that it was his approach never to have a conductor ask him to sing louder. I suspect that's the case with a lot of singers today: assume that to be audible, you have to sing as loud as you can sing without losing your voice, and let the conductor tell if you need to come down in volume. Audiences and critics who thrill to big voices will love you for it, and anyone who doesn't want to get blasted won't be in the audience anyway. In essays like The Present Condition of the Art of Singing in the Lyric Theatres of France and Italy, Berlioz wrote with some anger about the tendency to move music in general and opera in particular into ever larger spaces (he attributed this to the greed of impresarios), making loudness the be-all and end-all of singing. I can imagine what he would think of the situation now. Wagner is, I suppose, considered the ultimate in turning singing into screetching, but his music doubtless worked well in his own time. Instruments have gotten much louder since Wagner's day. Percussion instruments are now bigger, the bore of the brass instruments is wider, flutes are made of metal (Wagner detested metal flutes, calling them "cannons") and violin strings are metal rather than gut. And the orchestra pit at Bayreuth was built largely under the stage, which somewhat muffles the sound into a lush monaural wave that the singers can ride. I have no idea what he knew about lutes and guitars. Keep in mind that what you hear as you're playing has not much to do with what the folks in the tenth row are hearing. You could be quite audible to them. That's the conductor's business. That's why he gets paid the big bucks. HP -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
