Building a Beautiful Sound with Young Tenors by Stephen Sieck Why does it seem so diffi cult to to whom they are bringing onto the of low and high male voices. If we build a strong tenor section? Why do team. As strange as this may sound, assume that vocal range follows the we spend so much rehearsal time ad- a signifi cant part of the problem with same population distribution—the dressing their intonation issues? As a most tenor sections is that they are not bell curve—as height or other physi- conductor who also used to wear the staff ed with only tenors. If you popu- cal attributes, then an exceptionally hat of professional tenor, I sympa- late a tenor section with baritones, low male voice and an exceptionally thize with both sides of the podium. tenors, and trebles, you will have a high male voice would occupy the In my experience, I have found that tenor section that struggles. two outer ends of the curve, with the building a strong tenor section has a In our search for the right singers highest proportion of male voices in great deal to do with getting the right for the right section, we need to ac- the middle. This would suggest a few people in the section, teaching them knowledge some important challeng- true basses, a lot of baritones, and how their voices work, and exercising es. First, we will be working against a few tenors, as indeed most of us patience in their learning process. nature if we want even distribution fi nd in our audition results. Hence Who is a tenor? In his exceptional book Good to magine … Sing Where Inspiration Was Born. I singing in the venues Great: Why Some Companies Make the of the great composers, in awe Leap...and Others Don’t, Jim Collins ar- inspiring cathedrals and gues that successful businesses follow charming village churches, for appreciative audiences this important human resources prin- around the world. Let us take you there. ciple: “It is better to fi rst get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats, and then fi gure out where 1 to drive.” Collins suggests that most CULTURALULTURA TOUR CONSULTANTS It Starts With An Idea... businesses, by contrast, fi ll existing (866) 499-3799 |www.CulturalTourConsultants.com | [email protected] | 259 E. Michigan Ave., Kalamazoo MI 49007 vacancies without suffi cient attention CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 56 Number 7 51 our bell-curve distribution looks like orchestra. I often use the analogy of tends to sing Mozart or some Illustration 1. runners: a 100-meter sprinter and an Verdi; But choral repertoire divides male ultra-marathoner share in common voices in half, equal parts low and the sport of running, but they are • Full lyric tenor, e.g. Fritz Wun- high. Thus, in the pursuit of balanced signifi cantly diff erent specializations. derlich: rich, powerful voice that sections we are forced to choose Professional singers distinguish their manages operatic repertoire of between having smaller tenor sec- voice types by using the German Fach Verdi and Puccini especially tions, cutting many good baritones, system, which was designed both to well; or putting baritones into the tenor help singers protect their voices and section. In my experience it is bet- to succeed with appropriate roles. • Dramatic tenor, e.g. Placido Do- ter to have twelve basses and eight Within this system, there are multiple mingo: high notes in moments tenors than ten basses and ten tenors types of tenor: of exceptional dramatic eff ect; (which includes two baritones singing repertoire focuses on Wagner too high). • Leggiero tenor, e.g. Mark Padmore and specifi c roles (Fidelio, I Pa- Moreover, the term tenor can refer or Ian Bostridge: incredibly gliacci, e.g.). to vastly diff erent kinds of voices. light and fl exible, easy with high The tenor who performs the Evan- notes; tends to sing early music It is worth noting right away that gelist for a Bach passion, e.g. Mark and song repertoire; the kind of timbre and fl exibility Padmore, sounds signifi cantly diff er- most choir directors want out of the ent than the tenor who performs the • Tenor di grazia, e.g. Lawrence Brown- tenor section is most compatible title role in Verdi’s Otello, e.g. Placido lee: smooth passaggio, rich upper with the leggiero tenor. I have worked Domingo. True, both can sing a high register; tends to sing Rossini with several young dramatic tenors, B. But Mark Padmore might sing 30 and Carmina Burana; and while they were fully capable of high Bs with exceptional tenderness, singing a high B-fl at, they were less while Placido Domingo might sing • Light lyric tenor, e.g. Frank Lopar- comfortable singing high notes with a three high Bs that fi ll a 3000-seat do: fi nesse with upper register light ‘ensemble-focused’ tone, and felt opera house and soar over a large but more power in lower range; much happier in the baritone section. Before we can effectively hear tenor voices in distinction from other changed male voices, we need to remember that most of these singers will use their voices in a very limited way. Most young men perceive their own vocal instruments in this bimo- dality (Illustration 2). This concept fi ts their untrained usage—they open their mouths and sing higher and higher until it breaks, and then they have a small and brittle falsetto range. [Listen: a tenor with a typical “break” in the Bb3-Bb4 major scale: http://acda.org/fi les/ choral_journals/Soundfi le_1_Bfl at_ Illustration 1. Male voice bell-curve distribution. Octave_(untrained).mp3] What they 52 CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 56 Number 7 Modal (chest) voice Falsetto Illustration 2. Untrained tenor voice bimodality. Fry Resister Modal(chest) register Mixed registerr H Head register Falsetto Illustration 3. Trained tenor voice with continuous and multifaceted range. cannot imagine on their own is the A young tenor will usually stop sing- [a] becoming 20% more [æ]. But the kind of voice that we are seeking for ing clearly around a B-fl at2 (plus or A-fl at 4 /A4 barrier is where every them to develop, which looks more minus a step), will feel his transition to untrained tenor meets his natural like Illustration 3. mixed register around E-fl at4, and his limit, at which point he will fl ip into In this continuous and multifac- second and more defi nitive transition falsetto (or scream like Robert Plant eted range, our tenors develop the after A-fl at4. In an eff ort to expand from Led Zeppelin) (Figure 1). capacity to sound beautiful in choral the range down, a young tenor can repertoire. [Listen: a tenor singing press his tone, bearing heavily on a continuously adaptive Bb3-Bb4 the vocal instrument to ‘squeeze out’ TTessituraessitura major scale: http://acda.org/fi les/ another half-step or so in his lower The notes a singer can reach are choral_journals/Soundfi le_2_Bfl at_ range, but the tone change will be diff erent than the notes a singer can Octave_(focus_on_mix).mp3] And, evident to the director and should be comfortably maintain in the choral set- given this richer perspective on the discouraged. Even then, where this ting. I have worked with many fi ne vocal instrument, we can more accu- happens (around B-fl at or A2) will young tenors who can “hit” a high A rately select true tenors for our tenor be notably diff erent than the same (when did notes so mistreat us that section based on where these register eff ort in a young baritone (around they deserve to be hit?) but cannot changes occur in the voice. This leads F-sharp2 / E2). Many young tenors comfortably sing in the D-G4 range us to a discussion of the audition and will move imperceptibly through the that tenors frequently stay in for an placement process. fi rst registration event at E-fl at4, and hour’s rehearsal. What matters here the only distinction the director might is tessitura, an Italian term for where hear is a shallower, wider vowel, as in the vocal range lies in a song. To help How to Identify Tenors in an Audition RRangeange We determine vocal range assign- ment fi rst by listening for the natural events of the voice. Where a singer reaches his lowest comfortable notes in the low range, where his modal register transitions to upper register, where his upper register switches over—these are crucial data points. CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 56 Number 7 53 make this distinction in auditions, I Country” sounds pained. We place in his twenties. ask every singer to sing “My Country them in the baritone section. By ‘Tis of Thee” in a variety of keys, putting the right singers on the right noting the eff ort or tension they bus, we accomplish two goals: 1) our Trebles, Basses, and bring to diff erent ranges and asking tenor section no longer strains and Unnecessary Gender for their feedback as well. If a young fl attens in an eff ort to maintain too Stereotypes man sings a great high A but cannot high a part, because now it is only In the quest to get the right voices manage “My Country” in B-fl at (in populated with tenors, not tenors in the right section, it is vital that which the “Land where…” phrase is and baritones, and 2) the baritone we remember that the designation all F4s), he is not going to sing tenor section sounds brighter and warmer “tenor” is for a changed male voice.