The Voice and Singing III
Jean-Baptiste Faure was France's important singer and vocal pedagogue during the late 19th and early 20th century. His 1886 vocal treatise, La Voix e la Chant, was translated into English and presented in serial form in Werner’s Voice Magazine in 1889 by Elsie M. Wilbor. I’ve taken the liberty of offering readers two sections of Wilbor’s translation. The first is published here, while the second will be published subsequently. Find Faure’s original text on the download page and more information on Faure here.
What do I like about Faure’s text? What he has to say about the classification of voices holds. He’s also one of a few writers who nailed my “low baritone” voice, which was remarked upon by Margaret Harshaw when she heard me sing for the first time. It’s a matter of timbre rather than range. This aspect—how to define the timbre of the voice—needs more attention in our time.
MARCH, 1889. WERNER'S VOICE MAGAZINE. THE VOICE AND SINGING BY JEAN BAPTISTE FAURE, THE EMINENT FRENCH BARITONE AND COMPOSER.
Translated and adapted from the French by ELSIE M. WILBOR.
III. Classification of Voices - Tessiture.
Jean-Baptiste Faure (1830-1914)
VOICES should be classified according to timbre rather than be able, without effort, to go beyond the chest G or F; and, again, one that reaches A may be a baritone or a second bass. This applies with equal force to soprani, mezzo-soprani and contralti, whose compass, being uncertain, may be somewhat difficult to classify. In such cases it is best to begin vocal practice in the baritone range for a man, and in the mezzo-soprano or contralto range for young boys and women. Practice in the medium range never injures the vocal organs, no matter to which class the voice may ultimately belong.
The timbre, and especially the tessiture, should be the basis for the classifying of voices. Tessiture is that part of the compass in which the singer can sing most easily: the same expression also applies to those notes a composer uses to indicate his phrasing— notes that form the theme or undercurrent of his work.
Through ignorance or desire, many pupils and even artists think that their voices belong to, and sometimes try to force them into, another class than the one assigned by nature. In learning a piece or a role, they run carelessly over it, and, if it does not require their extreme notes for its interpretation, conclude that it will be easy for them. This is a grave error, for they have decided regardless of the nature of their voices, which may be absolutely unsuitable for such a part.
Others, through ambition or unlimited confidence in their lung- power, recklessly attempt parts which they will be obliged to give up almost as soon as they are mastered. For instance, have we not heard in the "Vestal" the tenor role of Licinius sung by a baritone who, perhaps the day before, had interpreted Marcel in the " Huguenots," a deep bass part? Have not the tenor roles of an extensive repertoire been filled for several years by an artist of indisputable merit, an excellent musician, one able to disguise the true character of his voice to an exceptional extent, but who, being always in conflict with too high a pitch, has often failed to be properly appreciated for the excellence of his vocal work? ( I refer to Marié.)
It is almost impossible to attempt such vocal heights without injury. The continual stretching of the voice tenses the vocal cords unduly, and when the singer returns to a normal use of his voice he finds an unsteady vocal organ. Then appears the disagreeable tremolo, the inevitable consequence of the unnatural efforts he has been making. Young singers especially should bear in mind that exceptional notes should never be forced; they should be used only under the most favorable conditions.
It is also an error to believe that the difficulties arising from too high a pitch can be remedied by transposition. When semitone by semitone, the voice has succeeded in reaching the highest part of a piece, a low part immediately following, in the same scale, frequently becomes almost impossible to render. Teachers are agreed upon one point, at least, namely, that it is easier to swell the tone on high notes than on low ones; indeed, by will power and a certain amount of physical force, one can reach high tones that are generally beyond the natural compass of his voice, while will and energy avail nothing in the production of low tones, which are attained only by calmness and expansion. It does not follow that forcing a high note ten or twenty times puts the pupil in possession of it. Such notes should be acquired almost unconsciously and should be used with the greatest caution. The tessiture of the voice can, by constant and judicious exercise, be raised or lowered a semitone or a tone, but rarely more.
In classifying the voices of men, women and children, I shall omit intermediate voices, which are very numerous, and consider only principal types. It will, however, be necessary to mention a sort of baritone voice for which the Italian masters, and especially Verdi, have written much. Higher than the old baritone, this voice, which
is best suited to expressive singing on account of its relationship to the tenor, fills a large place in modern repertoires. I myself have been asked many times to sing these baritone roles composed by Verdi; but I have always refused, because they are written for a style of baritone entirely different from my voice and outside of my vocal powers, though the temptation to enrich my repertoire by some of these grand parts has been great.
Children's Voices.
Boys have three kinds of voices: Soprano, mezzo-soprano and contralto.
The soprano voice generally extends from middle C below, to G above, the staff, and occasionally to A. The chest-voice is from low C to For G, and the head or falsetto voice is from F or G to G or A above the staff. Soprani, whose chest-voices include the exceptional notes A, B and even C, should not merely avoid the abuse of these notes, but be exceedingly careful in their use. As for those who have no chest-voice, so to speak, it would be imprudent to attempt to develop it.
Contralto voices - which are the rarest - extend in the chest - voice from For G below the staff, to B, and sometimes to C. The falsetto voice is composed of only three or four notes, D, Eb, and, rarely, E natural.
By exercise, children's voices, like those of adults, can be strengthened and extended in compass; but, lest premature effort cause too great fatigue, the teacher should attend principally to tone-emission and to articulation, leaving to nature the work of developing strength and compass. Boys' voices should not be cultivated before their ninth or tenth year; to begin earlier is imprudent and even dangerous. Under no circumstances should girls' voices be trained before they have completed the slight change they undergo at puberty. However, musical studies may begin much earlier, and care should be taken that the compass of the few simple solfeggi permitted during this period is suited to the registers of the voice. The teacher should transpose all lessons for children so as not to exceed the natural limits of their voices. Solfeggi for the use of children have already been transposed or composed by Edward Baptiste.
By the character, pleasing timbre and feminine quality of his voice a boy soprano would, after mutation, seem adapted for a tenor; while the child possessing a contralto voice, by the more masculine nature of his organ, which is often almost guttural, and by the ease with which he uses the chest-voice, would naturally become a bass or a baritone. Experience, however, has shown that, except in rare instances, just the reverse is the case.
In giving the compass of children's voices I said that the chest- register of contralti might extend from low G to B, without depriving them of some head or falsetto notes, as D, E, and sometimes E natural. In these voices mutation acts directly upon the falsetto notes only, suppressing them gradually by taking them out of the upper range. This suppression, little by little, destroys the head- register, and there soon remains to the contralto only his chest - voice, which is less flexible upon the high notes, and a little harsher throughout its whole extent. He possesses now a peculiar register which he can use despite the delicate condition of his organ. But the contralto, to whom has thus far fallen the modest alto parts in duets, trios and concerted pieces, soon yields this role to the soprano, and becomes himself a solo singer, an interpreter of song. His chest-notes, as mutation progresses, acquire strength and breadth, and these same notes that formed the lower register of his child's voice become now the notes of the higher register of the man's voice. The contralto has become a tenor!
Among soprano, especially among those who have but few chest-notes, the evolution is the same as with contralti, with, however, the difference that the hoarseness becomes so great that it is impossible for the child to emit tones without very great effort. Instead of decreasing, the hoarseness increases, and the voice grows deeper than that of the contralto. The lad must henceforth be forbidden to sing, otherwise he may lose his voice altogether, or greatly retard its development. Until the transformation is finished, vocal studies should be only upon the notes of the middle register. They should not be practiced longer than two or three minutes at a time, and should be followed by a rest three or four times as long as the duration of the exercise. Only after some years of comparative silence is the change completed, and the voice, once so feminine, so flexible in its high notes, suddenly reveals itself strong and deep. The soprano has become a bass or a baritone!
Men's Voices.
It seems to me preferable to discard the old and nearly obsolete terms of tenor, countertenor, second treble, counterbass, etc., and to adopt in the classification of men's voices the distinctions established by usage, although it may lead to some confusion.
High Tenor (Exceptional).
What is called high tenor, requiring a large voice, should, in reality, be known as the old tenor serio, the tenore di forza of the Italians, exemplified in Nozzari, Crivelli, Donzelli and Reina, whose vocal compass extended but little beyond A, above the staff. The peculiarly virile character of this sort of voice may be understood from the roles of "Othello, "Polione in" Norma, " the "Bravo," the "Vestal" of Mercadante, and the "Vestal" of Spontini, "Gemma di Vergy, "Max in the " Freischütz " and " Maria Padilla."
The scarcity of high tenor voices may be explained by the demands of the public, which, since the appearance of the great singer Duprez, has come to consider that in order to interpret the dramatic roles of an operatic repertoire, as " William Tell, " " Robert le Diable, " the " Jewess " and the " Huguenots, " a voice must unite to the compass of a high tenor the breadth of a baritone. This is an error, since Nourrit, the celebrated creator of these very roles, had a voice whose timbre was nearer that of a light tenor than of a tenor robusto. The Slumber air in " La Muette, " the roles of " Count Ory " and " Philtre, " all of which Nourrit sang with equal success, require a vocal suppleness and lightness incompatible with the volume of voice demanded of the high tenors of today. This error of the public is all the more to be regretted since, in order for a tenor voice to maintain its volume and power and the medium register to the utmost limit of the chest register, the singer must exhaust himself in efforts largely futile, and, consequently, become liable to complete vocal ruin.
First Tenor.
In compass, there is no difference between the first tenor and the high tenor. By first tenor I mean a voice that aside from its volume, can reach high notes with ease. In addition to this, considering the noble and pathetic roles generally assigned it, the voice of the first tenor should have, to use a professional phrase, the physique of its part. The French public, simply for the satisfaction or pleasure of hearing two or three powerful tones, usually produced with difficulty, deprives itself of that uniform, complete interpretation of tenor roles intended by composers. The Italians, Germans, English and Spanish, who are quite as impressionable and often more taken with mere sonorous effects than we, are yet wiser, for they accept any tenor whose voice possesses the character and compass demanded by the role, regardless of volume of tone.
A peculiar sonority on one or two notes, C and C #, should not be sufficient ground to class among high tenors artists whose voices, aside from these notes, have only the volume of a first tenor. I have, therefore, purposely placed on the same list tenors who, while possessing the most diverse qualities and opposite vocal methods, all belong none the less to the same type. Among these are Nourrit, Mario, Wachtel, Sims Reeves, Giuglini, Tamberlik, Gayarre, Nicolini and many others.
The chest voice of a first tenor, generally weak on the low notes, does not begin to display its brilliant sonorousness until after leaving C. Ascending, it reaches its upper scale about at E, F or F, and there is a change of timbre, the exact note of which it is difficult to determine. This change occurs higher or lower, according to the volume of voice.
The falsetto or head voice of the first tenor may be used beginning at A or A natural as far as C or D. To facilitate the union of the chest and head - registers, the head - voice may be taken at G and even at F, according to the nature of the voice or to the construction of the musical phrase.
[ To be continued. ]
Jean Baptiste Faure, “The Voice and Singing,” Werners Voice Magazine., March 1889, p 51-52.
