Countertenor

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As a counter tenor , Counterteno or counter-thrust ( latin , counter-Tenor '), sometimes Altus (from latin Altus , high'), a male is singer Denoted by means of a through chest resonance reinforced head voices - or Falsett technique in Old - or sings soprano more rarely . The counter tenor is not to be equated with a castrato voice , neither physiologically nor in sound, volume or vocal range.

description

There have been attempts to differentiate between counter tenor and alto, e.g. B. according to the proportions of chest and head resonance used, but the existing singers show such a high degree of individuality that such a differentiation seems questionable. The term altus refers more to the position of the notated voice, the term countertenor to the vocal subject or the singer in this vocal subject. There are countertenors in alto, mezzo-soprano or soprano registers, so the term is not the same as a pitch.

The exact explanation and an exhaustive theory for the countertenor's vocal technique is still pending. There are different terms used to denote the high register, some of which are associated with different types of tone generation, but which are not always clearly delineated. A distinction is made between voices that falsetto completely in high registers , so-called falsettists and high tenors with falset extension.

The male vocal registers lead from the straw bass register through the modal voice to the passaggio , the modal voice corresponds to the “normal” middle male voice or the chest voice. Passaggio is the area where the voice makes a change in tone generation. It varies from person to person, but for most voices it is reached at the latest in the range e 1 or f 1 . The bass is not reached under normal circumstances the passaggio. The baritone barely goes beyond the passaggio in terms of vocal range and then often continues his voice for the few top notes as far as possible in the modal register or changes to falsetto. For the tenor, the passaggio is more in the center of the vocal range and it is a question of disposition and practice up to which range the modal voice is or can be continued before the change to voix mixed (mixed voice from head voice with parts of chest voice ) takes place. The art for the tenor is to make the transition as fluid and inaudible as possible and to give the head voice parts of the chest voice (modal voice) in order to achieve full sound and volume and to achieve the so-called register compensation. The use of falsetto for the tenor register in classical singing is in most cases undesirable and is avoided.

The falsettist makes little use of the modal voice and changes to falsetto quite early in the passagio without a major transition, and that already at a pitch that tenors or high tenors with falset extension can easily cope with with a chest voice or voix mixed. As a result, these voices sound quite different at the same pitch. There is another difference to the "naive" and thin sounding falsetto of the untrained voice. In the case of untrained falsetto, the vocal folds only temporarily close, and in some cases a permanent gap remains open. This makes the voice sound breathy. The trained falsetto voice, also known as stage falsetto, has vibrato, significantly higher amplitude vibrations and in most cases a complete closure of the vocal folds. Thus, these voices sound much louder and more sonorous and have more overtones. The archetype for this type of voice is Alfred Deller . High tenors with falset extension sing individually differently over the tenor register (a 1 ) further up with mixed voix or head voice and only switch to falsetto late. The archetype for this type of voice is Russell Oberlin . However, there are other individual forms that differ greatly in terms of voice technique, sound and abilities in high or low registers and which are not fully explained with these two types.

history

The term contratenor appears for the first time towards the end of the 14th century and goes hand in hand with a new way of composing, the ars nova . Before that, the tenor with the cantus firmus was at the lowest point, the other voices were layered on top. The other voices were given the names motetus or duplum, triplum, in rare cases quadruplum. The more recent compositional style of the 14th century is based on a two-part basic structure of tenor and discantus , which is a fifth above the tenor. This framework already creates a complete counterpoint . This can be extended by one more voice to form a three-part voice. It was possible to add a second discant part or another tenor part: the contratenor. Both the discant and the tenor were doubled in four-part movements. The function of the contratenor is subordinate to or assigned to the tenor. The contratenor is in the same vocal range and uses the same vocal range ( ambitus ) as the tenor, but must occupy the tone ranges released by the tenor. His voice therefore often lacks a melodic flow, it appears erratic and clumsy, has wide pitch jumps and is interspersed with pauses. It is sometimes above and sometimes below the tenor. At this time, contratenor means a functional designation as an opponent to the tenor and not a pitch or a specific tone color.

Towards the end of the last third of the 15th century, the ambitus of the voices expanded from around 10 to 11 tones to 13 to 14 tones, i.e. to two full octaves. In addition, there is another low part, called contratenor bassus , which is about a fourth or fifth lower than the previous pair of tenor and contratenor. The previous contratenor was given the name contratenor altus . Thus the four-part voice was now the rule. Optionally, a second discant part or a second contratenor-altus part can be added so that five voices result. The basic disposition of the votes, however, did not change.

The division of votes in England

Example O nata lux de lumine by Thomas Tallis

voice Ambitus Coding
Superius (Treble) e 1 -f 2 G2
Discantus (mean) b – c 2 C2
Contra tenor d – g 1 C3
tenor c – d 1 C4
Bassus G-b F4

In England the situation was a little different at that time and five-part music was the norm. A bass part and another high-pitched voice above the discantus, named Treble , are added to the old three-part set of tenor, contratenor and discant , resulting in four voices and five voices. The discantus is renamed Medius or mean (= middle voice ). The use of Treble requires the regular participation of the boy soprano for the first time. Treble is a fourth or a fifth above the discantus. Both on the continent and in England, the pitch of the contratenor was limited to the ambitus of today's tenor. What is now referred to by the term countertenor corresponds to the discant in the 14th to 15th centuries, namely very high male voices up to approximately d 2 , at most e 2, with most of the compositions remaining below that and the peak notes being rare.

The separation of the contratenor from the tenor begins later and hesitantly. First of all, the ambitus of the contratenor was expanded in that individual peak notes protruded beyond the tenor. Around the 1530s to 1540s, a new compositional technique emerged, the Voce Piena movement . In theory, four voices (SATB) are used, which are clearly separated from each other and are set in quarters or fifths apart and coded accordingly. Two pairs of octaves are formed, namely bass / alto and tenor / superius. Imitation is now emerging as a principle, so that the same figures change through the different voices, as is typical of the fugue. In practice, however, the change from the old pair of tenor and countertenor to tenor and alto happened only slowly, so that initially tenor and alto were only about a third apart.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the high male voice in secular solo singing went out of fashion and was limited to choral music, in which the voice disappears in the overall sound. In addition to a small refuge in the British glee clubs , the high-pitched male voice later also disappears from the secular choirs. A consequence of this development also means that the piercing male alto voices in the choir are slightly adjusted and weakened in order to achieve an even choral sound. The need for voice training for male alto voices decreased, so that the singing teachers lost the competence and experience for this vocal subject over time. Romanticization does not only mean the replacement of the high male voices by women, but also a changed situation for the composer and the performance practice. One consequence of this is the continuous increase in the concert pitch , a development that is currently ongoing, but also an upward change in the grade for new compositions for alto, so that in practice these pieces can hardly be mastered by male voices, especially by untrained falsetto voices.

While in the continental choral tradition the high male voices were gradually replaced by boys or female voices, the purely male choral singing consisting of bass, tenor, countertenor and boy soprano was continuously preserved in the traditional English cathedral choirs, for example in Canterbury, London, Oxford and some other cities. Few choirs in this tradition still exist in Wales and Ireland. The typical minimal line-up of these choirs is sixteen boys who only sing treble, plus six men, each consisting of two counter tenors, two tenors and two basses. The Briton Alfred Deller came from exactly this English choral tradition and was the first to use it again as a soloist. With Deller, the male alto voice again received worldwide attention as a soloist from the 1940s. Such voices became popular with the ensemble singing of the King's Singers , which included two countertenors . The Comedian Harmonists performing in Germany also had a countertenor in their ranks. Klaus Nomi left the field of classical music and has appeared as a countertenor in various shows since the late 1970s and made the vocal subject known in light music.

Today's use

In early music, countertenors are mainly used in the context of historical performance practice as interpreters of corresponding roles - including those in which castrati were previously required. There are only a few, technically inadequate sound recordings of the last castrato Alessandro Moreschi , as well as traditional sheet music and written descriptions of the great castrato singers, which suggest that the sound and volume of a countertenor cannot be compared with that of a castrato voice. The use of counter tenors is thus an attempt to approximate the original, but cannot achieve it.

The haute-contre vocal range must not be confused with the countertenor . This is a high-pitched variant of the tenor voice that occurs primarily in French baroque music . It is sung in the normal chest voice and not like the counter tenor in falsetto.

After this vocal subject did not even exist in the 19th century, instead only the occasional fistula voice as a comic effect, countertenors are used again in ensembles or as soloists in New Music in the opera field. Examples from the 20th century are A Midsummer Night's Dream ( Oberon ) by Benjamin Britten , Akhnaten (title role) by Philip Glass , Lear (Edgar) by Aribert Reimann , Total Eclipse by John Tavener, and Bählamms Fest (Jeremy) and Lost Highway (Mystery Man ) by Olga Neuwirth .

The compositions of the Romantic period and contemporary compositions are based in most cases on female voices in the tessitory and timbre of the alto parts. Countertenors or male alto voices are rarely used in choirs except in the English cathedral choirs. Some professional or at least semi-professional ensembles in the field of a cappella music have countertenors in their ranks again.

In rock and pop music, male voices are sometimes used in the appropriate pitch, without this being able to be explicitly referred to as countertenors.

Natural and artificial voice

In the Italian Baroque, all voices that sang in their normal, "natural" register were called voce naturale . That was the alto and soprano registers for women, children and castrato voices, and of course the tenor, baritone and bass registers for men. For technical vocal and physiological reasons, however, the voice of the falsettists was called voce artificiale , an “artificial voice”.

Of course, the castrato voice was not a natural voice in the sense of the natural vocal abilities of an adult man, since it was only possible through castration in childhood. But the voice of the castrati, according to our imperfect level of knowledge, moved up to a certain level in the modal position, and thus resembled a boy's voice in its tone generation; In addition, there was a well-developed head register, similar to the female voice. Thus the castrato voice had a natural tone generation (in contrast to falsetto).

In the male voice, the modal position, the chest voice, is still undisputedly considered natural today. The falsetto voice, on the other hand, has its name from the Italian falso = wrong. The term falsetto is a diminutive and means something like "little wrong voice". The untrained falsetto voice seems to be produced in the wrong place, it is usually breathy and thin, and no crescendo is possible on this voice. The trained head voice, on the other hand, sounds much better and sometimes (!) Also fuller. It is not part of the natural vocal ability of every human being, but it is natural insofar as the ability to develop this voice is present in the natural possibilities, just as a human being cannot calculate by nature, but generally has the ability to do so learn.

The relationship between falsetto and head voices is also very vague in the literature. Sometimes the term is strictly differentiated, sometimes used synonymously. The theories about sound generation in this area are also largely contradictory. However, medical diagnostic imaging and current research suggest that the tone generation of the falsetto and head voices are nearly identical and that the difference is essentially due to the level of training of the voice.

literature

  • Peter Giles : The Counter Tenor . Frederic Muller Limited, London 1982, ISBN 0-584-10474-X (additional material from David Mallinder). Has been replaced by the new edition:
  • Peter Giles: The History and Technique of the Counter-Tenor. A study of the male high voice family . Scolar Press, Ashgate 1994, ISBN 0-85967-931-4 .
  • Peter Giles: A basic countertenor method for teacher and student . Kahn & Averill, London 2009, ISBN 978-1-871082-82-1 .
  • Corinna Herr , Arnold Jacobshagen , Kai Wessel (eds.): The countertenor - the male falsetto voice from the Middle Ages to the present . Schott, Mainz 2012, ISBN 978-3-7957-0793-4 .
  • Corinna Herr: Singing against the ›order of nature‹? Neuters and Falsettists in Music History . Bärenreiter, Kassel 2013, ISBN 978-3-7618-2187-9 .

See also

Web links

Wiktionary: Countertenor  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Matthias Echternach and Bernhard Richter, Falsetto - vocal studies. In: Corinna Herr, Arnold Jacobshage, Kai Wessel (eds.) The countertenor, the male falsetto voice from the Middle Ages to the present, p. 56.
  2. ^ Matthias Echternach and Bernhard Richter, Falsetto - vocal studies. In: Corinna Herr, Arnold Jacobshage, Kai Wessel (eds.) The countertenor, the male falsetto voice from the Middle Ages to the present, p. 59.
  3. ^ Matthias Echternach and Bernhard Richter, Falsetto - vocal studies. In: Corinna Herr, Arnold Jacobshage, Kai Wessel (eds.) The countertenor, the male falsetto voice from the Middle Ages to the present, p. 57 ff.
  4. ↑ Thomas Schmidt-Beste: contratenoriste est illegi qui contratenorem canit- From the title of the voice to the subject. in: Corinna Herr, Arnold Jacobshagen, Kai Wessel (eds.): The countertenor, the male falsetto voice from the Middle Ages to the present. Pp. 16-17.
  5. ↑ Thomas Schmidt-Beste: contratenoriste est illegi qui contratenorem canit- From the title of the voice to the subject. in: Corinna Herr, Arnold Jacobshagen, Kai Wessel (eds.): The countertenor, the male falsetto voice from the Middle Ages to the present, p. 18.
  6. ↑ Table based on Thomas Schmidt-Beste: contratenoriste est illegi qui contratenorem canit- From the vocal designation to the vocal subject, in: Corinna Herr, Arnold Jacobshagen, Kai Wessel (ed.): The countertenor, the male falsetto voice from the Middle Ages to the present, p 31. The work was first published in Cantiones sacrae, London in 1575.
  7. ↑ Thomas Schmidt-Beste: Contertenoriste est illegi qui contratenorem canit - From the vocal designation to the vocal subject in: Corinna Herr, Arnold Jacobshagen, Kai Wessel (eds.): The countertenor, the male falsetto voice from the Middle Ages to the present, p. 27.
  8. ↑ Thomas Schmidt-Beste: contratenoriste est illegi qui contratenorem canit- From the title of the voice to the subject. in: Corinna Herr, Arnold Jacobshagen, Kai Wessel (eds.): The countertenor, the male falsetto voice from the Middle Ages to the present, p. 28f.
  9. ↑ Peter Giles: The Male Alto or Countertenor in the English Cathedral Choir Tradition: A Unique Survival? in: Corinna Herr, Arnold Jacobshagen, Kai Wessel (eds.): The countertenor, the male falsetto voice from the Middle Ages to the present, p. 45 ff.
  10. ↑ Peter Giles: The Male Alto or Countertenor in the English Cathedral Choir Tradition: A Unique Survival? in: Corinna Herr, Arnold Jacobshagen, Kai Wessel (eds.): The countertenor, the male falsetto voice from the Middle Ages to the present, p. 41.
  11. ↑ See interview with the tenor Anders Dahlin ( memento of the original from January 18, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / nachrichten.rp-online.de
  12. ↑ René Jacobs: There are no more neuters, what now? Booklet text for the CD: Arias for Farinelli. Vivicagenaux, Academy for Early Music Berlin, R. Jacobs, published by Harmonia mundi, 2002–2003, pp. 45–51, here pp. 47–48.
  13. ^ Patrick Barbier: Historia dos Castrados. Lisbon 1991, p. 9.
  14. ^ Patrick Barbier: Historia dos Castrados. Lisbon 1991, p. 143.